05.04.2024 – 08:30
Word & Image Publishing Group – health reports
Baierbrunn (ots)
In Germany, doctors are only allowed to remove organs if brain death – as it is colloquially called – has been diagnosed. In brain death, the brain has irreversibly failed. But there are many myths surrounding this irreversible loss of brain function, as it is correctly said. “There are fears that you might not be dead and your organs will be removed,” says Dr. Thomas Weig, transplant officer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich since March 2023, in an interview with the health magazine “Apotheken Umschau”.
Federal Medical Association specifies examination
Intensive care physician Weig can understand these fears because, according to laypeople, people still look alive after brain death. But the signs of life only exist because the functions are artificially maintained, says Thomas Weig. The doctor therefore always offers relatives to be present during the brain death diagnosis. “This helps many people to understand that their loved one is dead.”
There are a number of measures that doctors use to diagnose irreversible brain function loss. As a rule, brain waves are also measured to show relatives that they have disappeared. Intensive care physician Thomas Weig emphasizes: The diagnosis of brain death is absolutely certain in this country. In Germany, all brain death examinations always follow the strict protocol set by the German Medical Association, says Weig.
Reliable signs of brain death
Another myth that surrounds the irreversible loss of brain function: therapies could be stopped prematurely in order to bring about brain death more quickly. “Basically, we doctors always act in the interest of the life of the person entrusted to our care,” emphasizes Thomas Weig. “But at some point the time comes when we can assume that this condition is no longer compatible with life.” There are many signs of this. “Only when we can be almost certain that someone is dead do we start investigating brain death,” says Dr. Thomas Weig.
You can find further information on the topic of organ donation in the current episode of the podcast gesundheit-hören – Das Lexikon and in the Pharmacy Umschau YouTube channel in the series Heroes of Organ Donation.
This report is only free for publication if the source is cited. The health magazine “Apotheken Umschau” 4A/2024 is currently available in most pharmacies. There is lots of other interesting health news at and on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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Original content from: Wort & Bild Verlagsgruppe – health reports, transmitted by news aktuell