There are tests done prior to a family being told that their family member is brain dead. This is not a light or easily given diagnosis. An MRI does not show if a patient is 'brain dead'. It can show an injury and extent of that injury within the brain. It can show bleeding to the brain. It can show any damage done to the skull and if there are objects that have embeded themselves into the brain.
It can not show brain waves or brain patterns and whether or not they exist. An MRI would have been done immediately, to assess what/if/any damage, swelling etc had occured. It would have been done to diagnose WHY Max needed to be put on a ventilator. What the underlying problems and diagnoses were. It would also be the information LE needed to determine whether this was an accident or something more sinister. Or, does the injury match the explanation of the description of the event and the scene of the accident.
To assess brain function, there would have to be an EEG. This is the machine that monitors the brain and makes the squiggly lines, when the brain responds to stimulation. Noise, light, touch, both outside and with probes, inside rhe brain. For a brain to be 'dead', there is no response to stimulation.
When the brain no longer is 'alive' that means that the brain does not do even the most basic functions of life, such as breathing or regulating temperature well, or having purposeful movement. Here is a dictionary explanation:
Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. It should not be confused with a persistent vegetative state.
Brain death, either of the whole brain or the brain stem, is used as a legal indicator of death in many jurisdictions.
This is what differentiates between brain death and a vegetative state. IE: a patient in a long coma type state. Think Karen Anne Quinlan (sp?), although her case is controversial and I am not making a statement as to my beliefs in her case.
JS and DS would not have KNOWN that their son was brain dead and still be awaiting MRI results. I knew something about this had been niggling at my brain and THIS is it. Makes NO sense, as if the MD knew this child was brain dead, there would be no further need for MRI's. Maybe for other areas of the body, for organ donations (?), but that is usually handled by blood work and xrays, or individual tests on the specific organ, but usually blood work. Not a brain MRI.
But we aren't just talking about the end of a relationship & the cushy lifestyle, we are talking about a child dying from an accident that occurred on her watch. It's the totality of the events that leads me to believe that RN may have been crushed by the weight of it all.
An accident on a caregivers watch is MUCH different than an 'accident' or injury caused BY the caregiver. Rebecca was thought to be capable and able bodied to watch Max and the family has said that she was VERY good with him and to him. I do not think that anyone would think that Rebecca would hurt Max purposely. I have not seen any reports that it was an issue or a concern.
If a report or statement surfaced that indicated that was a strong possibility, I would re think my homicide stance and maybe feel that Rebeccas state of mind, guilt, fear of reprisal could lead her to consider suicide. What I see is a woman who loved and cared, maybe beyond her 'place'. for her boyfriends children. GS was also there willingly and old enough to state if she didn't want to be.
I would want to see PROOF that she was responsible for Max being in the state he was in.
I have even considered that Rebeccas dog may somehow be responsible, but the most a dog may have been able to do, would be to accidentally push a child down the staircase. A carpeted staircase, that had a landing. Not enough to cause brain death imho.
I said at first something stinks and I stand by that still today.
