removal from life support question

I have not the vaguest about normal but it's possible.

Doesn't always happen but it can happen.

One cannot have seizures if they are truely brain dead

One cannot have seizures if they are truely brain dead

I knew you were going to go there. Yes in FACT the body can seize up and not have it come from the brain at all. Keep educating yourself.

I knew you were going to go there. Yes in FACT the body can seize up and not have it come from the brain at all. Keep educating yourself.

Can you provide a link ?? I would love to read more about it.. I work in the Trauma ICU, and that is one thing I have not seen yet, even tho brain death happens frequently.

I knew you were going to go there. Yes in FACT the body can seize up and not have it come from the brain at all. Keep educating yourself.

A seizure is the result of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. If one is brain dead, there is no electrical activity, therefore no seizure.

I knew you were going to go there. Yes in FACT the body can seize up and not have it come from the brain at all. Keep educating yourself.

Really? Please provide some evidence based rationale for your response. Maybe you should "keep educating yourself" regarding seizures and brain death.....

Can you provide a link ?? I would love to read more about it.. I work in the Trauma ICU, and that is one thing I have not seen yet, even tho brain death happens frequently.

Ok, well that started me looking. At the moment I can find others that know it's possible for a brain dead person to have seizures not originating from the brain but there just .coms as credible a source as me. I'll keep looking and, yea, I'll keep educating.

I've seen what the intensivists have called myoclonus (not technically seizures, but seizure like in appearane) in people declared brain dead from brain flow scans.

They usually only involve one muscle or muscle group at a time and just looks likes twitching.

Is that what you're talking about?

Really? Please provide some evidence based rationale for your response. Maybe you should "keep educating yourself" regarding seizures and brain death.....

ha ha.

ha ha.

In the brain dead patient, myoclonus originates in the spinal cord. It is not a seizure because, by definition, a seizure originates in the brain.

I found this in an article from Critical Care Nursing:

"The patient should be deeply comatose, with no response to painful or verbal stimuli, including decorticate or decerebrate posturing. He or she should also have no spontaneous movement, including shivering, seizures, or respiratory movement. The single exception is movement resulting from spinal reflexes."

Determing Brain Death in Adults: A Guideline for use in Critical Care http://ccn.aacnjournals.org/content/24/5/50.full

That says to me that there can still be spinal reflexes, maybe that is what the OP saw???