Back from the (Brain) Dead

My uncle Al's brother remembers hearing the doctor tell his wife that he was "brain dead" and should be removed from life support.  It was enough to give him the strength to open his eyes and blink them.

Many people who doubt that "brain dead is dead" will point to the case of Zack Dunlap, who also remembers hearing doctors declare him brain dead.

Are these simply two isolated miracles, or could it be that doctors routinely declare people "brain dead" for the sake of harvesting organs when there's a chance that a recovery could occur?

I posed the question to the professors at Google University and came up with many more such "miracles":

Officer David Salgado
http://www.jrn.com/ktnv/news/better-lv/225530482.html

Rae Kupferschmidt, 65
http://archive.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=498009

Ross Smith, age 37,
http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/9997345.print/

Alexis Salaz, age 2
http://hollywoodlife.com/2012/03/19/two-year-old-brain-dead-abuse-recovery/

Kate Allatt
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1387810/Doctors-said-stroke-victim-brain-dead-saved-love-courage.html 

Steven Thorpe
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2134346/Steven-Thorpe-Teenager-declared-brain-dead-FOUR-doctors-makes-miracle-recovery.html

Cole Hicks
http://sarasgarden.org/support-cole-hicks/

Isla Traquair's mum
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/isla-traquair/mri-scan_b_1415849.html?just_reloaded=1

Kitt52's Cousin
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=5136687

Frank England
http://www.cadillacnews.com/news_story/?story_id=791816&year=2009&issue=20090414#prettyPhoto

Ann's Dad
http://expectamiracle.com/component/stories/?view=story&sid=2794

Colleen S. Burns
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/07/st_joes_fined_over_dead_patien.html

Ruby Lambert
http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2011/apr/laughing-again-ruby-lambert-girl-whose-heart-attack-was-started-alarm

Sam Scmid, 21
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/arizona-accident-victim-emerges-coma-poised-donate-organs/story?id=15208351

Scott Maloney
http://www.telegram.com/article/20130329/NEWS/103299761/1020

36-year old woman in Kuwait
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/kuwait/clinically-dead-mother-returns-to-life-after-baby-is-born-1.1182178

Jeff Markin
http://www.examiner.com/article/a-reason-to-believe

Carina Melchier, 19
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10278

Katlielou80's dad
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1260592

Perhaps you can see what I'm getting at.  I'm not saying we should end organ transplants and force people to live on machines that otherwise wouldn't want that.  What I am saying is that patients and parents deserve the choice of when life support is discontinued.  In the United States, we are only given the option of discontinuing treatment.  A family that wants to hold out hope is given enough time to gather the family for one last goodbye once "brain death" has been determined (unless they get the courts involved).  The government has decided what "dead" means, and a lot of times it doesn't really mean dead.

You can find many more stories such as these and learn some scary things about the Organ Harvesting industry at Organ Facts

http://www.organfacts.net/