A young patient of severe head injury (or any patient with any critical illness) comes to the hospital and put on ventilator and other life support measures. After a day or two the efforts remain fruitless and patient passes into the state of clinical brain death ie no spontaneous respiration, no brain stem reflexes and patient on ventilator and vasopressor support. Now the big question arises how and when to withdraw ventilator and vasopressors?
If we continue with the ventilator and keep on telling the patient's relatives that the chances of patient survival and recovery are nil then they become aggrieved and keep on asking then why you are keeping him on ventilator and why don't you declare him dead. The matter becomes more complicated in a private hospital where cost implications are added to the above situation and charges of putting patient on ventilator for monetary gain are…
