LONDON, DEC 15: Allowing relatives to witness tests to confirm a loved one is brain dead may help them to cope with their loss, doctors and nurses said on Friday.Families often find it difficult to accept that a relative who is still warm with no apparent injuries and breathing with the help of a ventilator can be brain dead, despite explanations from medical staff.A survey of nearly 100 intensive care doctors and nurses who deal with brain dead patients showed that 69 per cent believed witnessing the tests for brain death would be helpful for relatives.``Two-thirds of consultants and nurses who had previous experience of relatives being present during testing felt that the relatives had benefited from this,'' Dr Stephen Bonner said in a report in the British Medical Journal.The intensive care specialist at South Cleveland Hospital in Middlesbrough, northern England, and his colleagues said relatives should be counselled before they witness the tests which confirm that the body can no longer function without medical assistance.``It is possible that allowing relatives to be present may help them to understand the diagnosis and assist the grieving process,'' Bonner said.Patients who suffer brain deaths are usually the victims of road traffic accidents, head injuries, severe strokes or cerebral haemorrhage.``These are not people with brain damage, these are people with total brain death. It is completely different to people in a persistent vegetative state who have the ability to breathe and therefore have the potential to wake up in a year or two,'' he added.
