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A new international study, led by Dr. Sonny Dhanani of the CHEO Research Institute, and published in the January 28 issue of the
New England Journal of Medicine, documents the physiology of the dying process. Working closely with the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, the research team asked over 600 families to allow their loved ones in the ICU to have their vital signs monitored during the dying process. This is the largest international study of its kind.
Why is a study like this important?
For families to choose organ donation when a loved one has died, they must be able to trust that death has really happened and that it is irreversible. Trust allows people to decide to donate at a time of grief and allows the medical community to feel comfortable opening a dialogue about donation. For donation after circulatory-determined death to be medically possible, death must be declared within a window of time after life sustaining measures are withdrawn. Yet, stories persist about people "coming back to life" following a declaration of death, and there was little evidence to inform the medical understanding of dying.