Brain death: Kerala government Okays new guidelines

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government recently approved new set of guidelines for declaring brain death of a patient.
As per the new guidelines, the ventilator support of the patient can be removed by the medical team once the brain death is confirmed after tests without waiting for the consent from relatives.

To declare a patient brain dead, a panel of doctors must perform prescribed tests twice with minimum interval of six hours.As per the new guidelines, medical practitioners should have a conversation with close relatives regarding the medical status and prognosis of the patient in whom brain stem death testing, including apnoea test, is being considered for confirmation of brain stem death diagnosis.
The apnoea test should be the last brain stem reflex test to be performed and that too only if all other tests confirm the absence of other brain stem reflexes.
All the prescribed tests are required to be performed twice to ensure that there has been no observer error and persistence of the clinical state can be documented with absolute degree of certainty. It is to be noted that the diagnosis is based on the clinical examination. After the completion of two consistent examinations by the medical experts panel, if criteria of brain stem death are met, the panel must declare the patient dead. “All treatments including cardiorespiratory support must be discontinued once brain stem death is pronounced,” says the new guidelines.
Health minister pledges to donate organs
To promote organ donation, health minister K K Shailaja on Wednesday gave the consent for donating her organs after death. The minister was taking part in the international workshop on transplant administration organised by KNOS and government medical college, Thiruvananthapuram.