HOW IS BRAIN DEATH DETERMINED?
A physician will conduct required medical tests to make a diagnosis of brain death. These tests are based on sound and accepted medical guidelines. These tests confirm that there are no brain reflexes and there is no blood flow or brain activity. These tests also confirm that you are unable to breathe on your own. In most cases, these tests are performed twice, several hours apart to ensure accurate results.
The criteria for declaring brain death have evolved over the last 4 decades and are now uniformly accepted throughout the world. Brain death is declared by the brain death committee which involves a team of four doctors who are not involved in the transplant team. This declaration is legal. This team has to perform the tests twice at a minimum gap of 6 hours so as to confirm the findings. This can only be done in institutions recognized for transplantations by the government.
