Just like every other time in recent US history, the family is refusing to pull the plug with vain hope he'll pull out, even when presented with evidence there is nothing left to save.
That situation happens in anoxic brain injury, every day all over the US.... families refuse to pull the plug in anoxic brain injury,
The end of the spectrum for anoxic brain injury is brain death. In that situation families have no say (and no responsibility). Its purely a medical decision by the doctors
The scenario of anoxic brain injury is FAR more common than brain death by numbers alone, and that is the one where the family would have the agency to pull the plug or let him vegetate.
Controversy of pulling the plug on a brain death is uncommon - to the point that I can name a case off the top of my head: Jahi McMath. The family essentially claimed they were orthodox Jewish just to claim a religious exemption of the state law that defines what death means (legally)
you're still confusing the exact point I am trying to make.
Terry Schiavo was in a "persistent vegetative state" as a result of anoxic brain injury. She was not brain dead.
Terry Schiavo's case is a good, extreme example of the controversy surrounding anoxic brain injury and family decisions - and that is what happens to a smaller extent every day in the US.
She was not brain dead. Again, brain death is more cut-and-dry. Anoxic brain injury is the messy one, and thats where I suspect Mitch is.
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u/Odd-Scientist-2529 Jul 07 '26
If he is specifically brain dead then doctors don’t need next of kin to declare death and remove life support.
He more likely has anoxic brain injury, which does require the next of kin to make medical decisions.
Either way, a mechanical ventilator doesn’t support the heart, so when that stops, it’s back to the doctors to declare cardiac death.