Abstract
Sometimes it is been said, that the concept of brain death was “invented” in Boston 1968 for the only purpose of organ donation. – The first part (“past”) clarifies, that the concept of brain death has been elaborated in Europe between 1952 and 1960 without any correlation to the development of organ transplantation. The second part (“present”) deals with the acceptance of brain death in common, especially from an actual German point of view. In this regard, there are at least two dialectical postulates: whereas most countries (including Germany) choose a legal regulation, the British are in favour of a genuine responsibility of the individual physicians. Such an opinion goes back to the Pope’s speech in 1957. The third part (“future”) reflects how to mitigate ongoing problems accepting the entity of brain death by soft skills, simple language, empathy and persistence on a personal base of 447 determinations of brain death during the last 25 years.
Highlights
Sometimes it is been said, that the concept of brain death was “invented” in Boston 1968 for the only purpose of organ donation. – The first part (“past”) clarifies, that the concept of brain death has been elaborated in Europe between 1952 and 1960 without any correlation to the development of organ transplantation
The concept of brain death fascinates by the fact that both, the very beginning as well as its completion can be exactly and completely determined for time, place and protagonists: It started on August 27th, 1952 in Copenhagen with Ibsen and was fulfilled on March 11th, 1960 in Lyon by Pierre Wertheimer [6]: On Monday, August 27th, 1952, the anesthesiologist, Ibsen in Copenhagen [6], founded modern intensive care medicine, when rescuing a 12 year old girl: Vivi suffered from poliomyelitis with tetraplegia and was in danger of suffocation
All carotides proved to be patent. This apparent contradiction was understood as a sequence of an increased intracranial pressure during intensive care treatment
Summary
Sometimes it is been said, that the concept of brain death was “invented” in Boston 1968 for the only purpose of organ donation. – The first part (“past”) clarifies, that the concept of brain death has been elaborated in Europe between 1952 and 1960 without any correlation to the development of organ transplantation. In January 1959, the Lyon group around Wertheimer [13] published their concept of brain death in a way that is principally valid until today (prerequisites, clinical syndrome, proof of irreversibility).
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