Brean Dead, but I don't believe it!!

[missiepooh]

My step-mom has been fighting the severity of diabetes and was placed on dialysis almost a year ago. Just last week, my dad had dropped her off as he usually does and went home to take a nap. As soon as he was about to lay down, the dialysis center called and told him that she had stopped breathing 4 times and that she is now in the hospital. The hospital later declared that she was brain dead because she was unresponsive and I guess fell under the definition of brain dead due to the tests they ran.

Back in 2004, my nephew (9 years old) was playing at school during recess and had collapsed. My sister and brother-in-law rushed to get him, as everyone simply though he fell ill from what was going around and he was complaining of slight head aches for a few days. As they were on the way to the hospital, my nephew told them that he knew he was going and that everything would be okay. He then fell limp. The hospital diagnosed a brain aneurism and was placed on life support. When I saw him, he was definitely gone and we all were only saving the body. Eyes closed, no movement, irresponsive and cold to the touch.

In 2012, my grandfather's girlfriend was in a nursing home due to her obesity and diabetes. During dinner time, she had choked on a piece of food and the nurses found her a little too late. At the hospital, she was obviously brain dead. She would not move, her eyes were rolled back and partially closed, well majority closed. There was nothing, maybe a little warmth on some body parts, but other than that she was cold to the touch. Pale skin may I add.

Later in 2012, my grandfather went in to the hospital to have surgery and during recovery, a nurse had done her daily rounds and found him not breathing, but it was a little too late. He was obviously brain dead. I mean his body would twitch, a few muscle spasms or whatever here and there, it even looked as though he would slightly sit up. His eyes were closed and there was no opening them. Same as his girlfriend, he was cold to the touch except on some parts of him. He also had a pale color to him.

Back to my step-mom, I went to see her last night and I was expecting to see her look just like the others, but she was still flesh toned and staring towards the ceiling. She was blinking as we all do and would turn her head every now and then. She had the feeding tube down her nose so the food would go straight to her stomach, but she would swallow. At first, I thought she was swallowing every time the food would penetrate, but remembered the food went straight to her stomach. I asked my dad if this is what she has been doing the whole week she had been in here, he said yes, but he also told me that the staff took her off the ventilator and put her on some blow something, I don't remember the name of it I just know it has blue tubes and the alarms began to go crazy because it was hard for her to breathe or something so they put her back on the ventilator where everything started to clam back down. When he came in the morning, she looked as though she was sleeping because she had her eyes closed. He said that she will have them closed in the mornings when he gets there, but during the day she has them opened and she is BLINKING. Now I am no DR but I know that blinking has something to do with the brain whether it is controlled or uncontrolled and brain dead patience do not have any activity in the lower part of the brain to have this blinking.

I know that I may be very choppy here, but I have lost sleep last night due to the thought of my dad having talked to the rest of the family and they all agreed to pull the plug Tomorrow. I just don't think she is completely brain dead. There may be a lot of brain damage, but not brain dead.

I have been reading and researching trying to find something that tells me the blinking is something that the body can do even after death and all I have found is how a doctor will test a patient by touching a cotton swab on the eye to see if that patient would blink. Then there was a story about a kate in the UK that had "locked in syndrome" and was only able to blink as we all do without dong it on her own. She stated that she could hear everything and feel most things but could not respond to it. She heard the Dr.s state she was brain dead and there was no activity in her brain. She heard the family talking about pulling the plug and getting their selves ready for her funeral. She also stated that after a couple of weeks she was able to blink her eyes on her own. So one day her husband was watching her as he usually did and noticed that when the tv went to commercial and it was something she didn't like, she would close her eyes. So he went up to her and began asking questions like if you can hear me blink. She blinked. He asked her to do it again, so she did. He called the nurse in the room and that was her road to recovery.

I know this may be wishful thinking, but something is not sitting well with me after I looked at her. Do you have any suggestions?

[missiepooh]

I meant Brain Dead, but I don't believe it! in the title