The IRB at Anupam Hospital in India has approved Bioquark to recruit 20 patients who have been classed as clinically brain dead as the result of a brain injury. The company wants to revive brain function and will use brain and spinal cord stimulation, bioactive molecules and stem cells. Within 15 days it is hoped that the results will be known.
At present, it seems that death comes in a minute, but in reality, in the dying process, there is brain activity after breathing ends. It is when brain activity ends that the body is dead. Even then it may not be entirely the end as there is a gray area – more than deep coma yet not brain death. Recent findings of neuroscience including neurotransmitter measuring change the way brain death is diagnosed. EEG readings cannot determine if a person can come back or not. Records show that people have been revived after being declared brain dead, hence the research.
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Bioquark wants to move stem cell transplantation on and allow the brain to engage in epimorphic regeneration – a process that regrows body parts. The aim of the study is to find basic stem function post treatment. The wish will be for full recovery, but not the real objective of the first study. There is no chance of seeing the brain dead totally come back to life in the near future.
This is an area of study that has not been well developed and any knowledge gathered about the dying brain could eventually help diseases of the central nervous system.