Can a person breathe if they are brain dead?

The person cannot ever recover because the brain, once dead, can never be repaired. A person who has died as a result of brain death will look very different to a person who has died from cardiac death. Because they are attached to the ventilator and receiving oxygen, the heart will continue to beat and the skin will be pink and warm. read more

(Previously, a person was considered dead only when their heartbeat and breathing stopped.) Today, with ventilators, blood-pressure augmentation and hormones, the body of a brain-dead person could, in theory, be kept functioning for a long time, perhaps indefinitely, Greene-Chandos said. read more