What Can a Brain Dead Body Do While on a Ventilator?

An internal medicine doctor explains what life-like processes continue occurring while a brain dead body is on a ventilator.

A person is declared brain dead, but the family insists on keeping that person on a ventilator.

They believe that as long as the heart beats (due to the ventilator pumping in oxygen; the heart has a built-in pacemaker), that their family member is “alive” and can’t possibly be dead.

What else besides heartbeat can a brain dead body do while being prevented from decomposing via the ventilator (and feeding device)?

First off, the hair and nails will continue to grow, get longer.

“At this point [brain death], all we are doing is keeping the individual cells and organs of the body alive,” says Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers nationally, and author of “The Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Solution.”

“So hair will grow, nails will grow, and urination will continue.”

Interestingly, in the Jahi McMath case, the day-by-day reports have never mentioned anything about a catheter to collect urine, even though Jahi’s kidneys were allegedly functioning, leading to excrement.

And if the kidneys are working, the liver, pancreas and entire G.I. tract must also be working. Seems that the “body,” then, was alive, right?

Dr. Teitelbaum says, “Meanwhile, the muscles will atrophy and shrink, the body will get severe contractures and bed sores, and the process that occurs after burial occurs instead, in a hospital bed, albeit more slowly.”

So even though some of the body’s systems (excretory, circulatory, even sweat glands if the room were hot enough) are functioning, the PERSON is dead. The person as a whole, is dead.

This may be difficult to grasp, but look at it this way: If they are brain dead, they’re never coming back in a form that would resemble a living person.

“The body can continue to do most of the basic metabolic functioning on life support,” says Dr. Teitelbaum.

“If played it out onto a petri dish, many of our body cells can continue to function indefinitely – perhaps even for centuries.”

The Million Dollar Question

“So the question is, when do we back off on technology?

Do we choose to torture everybody to death, who is unfortunate enough to make it to a hospital within a week after their heart stops?”

Dr. Teitelbaum is a board certified internist and nationally known expert in the fields of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, sleep and pain.

Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.