Major Causes of Brain Death

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Brain death and brain stem death circumstances where individuals receive artificial life support from a machine but the brain no longer functions. Many causes can lead to the status, including lack of oxygen to the brain or heart attack.

The status implies that patients will not regain consciousness or breathe without support. Medical professionals diagnose the patient as legally dead with no chance of recovery. Brain death can occur when the oxygen or blood supply to the brain stops.

Cardiac arrest can cause brain death. The heart stops beating, starving the brain of oxygen. Another cause of brain death is a heart attack.

Heart attacks block the blood supply to the heart. In addition, strokes can do the same. Strokes interrupt the blood supply to their brain.

Other causes of brain death are a severe head injury, a blockage in a blood vessel, a brain hemorrhage, infections like encephalitis, or a brain tumor.

American Health Council’s Best in Medicine Award, Dr. Hartmuth Bittner, Sugeon

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