Brain Dead In Thailand

[libya 115]

I am just watching another heart-breaking ITV documentary of Juling (The School Teacher beaten almost to death by extremists in the south of Thailand.)

It seems to me that she is brain-dead yet; doctors continue to respirate her and feed her with tubes etc. Footage is graphic, her body is clearly wasting and her eyelids are taped shut.

Am I sceptical, but I know that her parents have received large donations from well-wishers, who were shocked at her mob beating a few months ago. Is this money; prolonging treatment, where perhaps a poorer, less well publicised victim of brain damage might be allowed to die?

I know hospitals here are businesses, but surely, brain-dead should be allowed to die after a certain length of time?

Almost identical is the previous case of 'Big' from D2B the rich rock star, who got a fungal brain infection, who (as far as I know) is still in a PVG. (Persistant Vegetative State).

Anyway; I am maybe harsh, but I know how Thai hospital administration works; T.V. publicity, medical bills are massive, parents are showered with financial support......

[Nordlys]

She's probably in deep coma or in vegetated state but not brain dead, as most adults don't prolong longer than a week after being pronounced brain dead. I have seen a brain dead person on respirator (who was a friend of mine) and he died the evening I paid him a visit at the hospital. He lasted less than 48 hours after pronounced brain dead. Brain dead person never recovers from the vegetated state and heart failure is usually imminent when brain stem dies and spontaneous breathing is lost.

[Sheryl]

Actually I have known brain dead people to lasdt a lot longer than that, but it is a moot point as most comatose patients do not fulfill the criteria of brain death.

In any case none of us have enough information to know what this particular patient's degree of brain function and prognosis is.

I think Thai hospitals give heavy weight to the family's desires with respect to "pulling the plug".

[bina]

being a buddhist country i didnt know they were allowed to pull the plug?

[soic]

I can't quote the medical journal or study or anything, but I do remember reading recently that they think that comatose people have a better chance of waking than previously thought. It seems that the brain shuts itself down and slowly starts rebuilding itself. There was recently a guy in the states that came back after about 15 years in a coma. He just woke up... they found that his brain had totally rerouted all of it's electrical connections. I don't think that we can give up on them as easily as we used to, as inhumane or humane as you might want to think it would be. I know that I'd want to give my loved one every chance to come back, in their own time, provided that they weren't suffering.

[kat]

I have a niece that was in a coma for 2 months after a hit-and-run accident. It took her about a month to fully come out of it, and she has never been the same.

[Sheryl]

Each case is different and comas that look to an untrained person to be the same, aren't.

Medical tests can give morei nformation and an idea of the prognosis; also, the odds of waking up -- whatever the type of coma -- do decrease with time.

Ultimately it is the family who will have to decide based on the information available when or whether to give up if there is no change for the better.

Bina -- there is nothing in Buddhism that requires the use of extraordinary measures to artifically prolong life. "Pulling the plug" is entirely different from euthanasia. It just allows nature to take its course. And it is not uncommon that the person does not die as expected when taken off the respirator but lives on for some time, even years in some cases. Of course more commonly death does come sooner as a result -- but it still comes naturally, as a result of the inability to breath normally on one's own.