Clinically, a person is brain dead when all of the following conditions are met:
There are no spontaneous respirations (the person cannot take a single breath on his/her own).
The pupils are dilated and fixed (the black of the eyes is wide and does not react to light).
There is no response to noxious stimulation (painful stimulation provokes no eyeblink, no grimacing, no movements of any part of the body).
All extremities are flaccid (there is no movement, no muscle tone and no reflex activity in any of the limbs - arms or legs).
There are no signs of brain stem activity:
The eyeballs are fixed in the orbits.
There are no corneal reflexes (stroking the clear part of the eye with a fine wisp of cotton fails to produce any movement of the eyelids).
There is no response to caloric testing (exposing the tympanic membrane of the ear to ice cold water fails to produce movement of the eyes).
There is no gag reflex or cough reflex.
6 posted on 06/17/2005 6:56:28 AM PDT by NautiNurse
("I'd rather see someone go to work for a Republican campaign than sit on their butt."--Howard Dean)