After Brain Injuries, Doctors and Families Should Take More Time With Life Support Decisions, Research Finds. (Smithsonian Magazine.) A small study suggests some severe traumatic brain injury patients can later recover a level of independence or return to their pre-injury lives.
"The team used the model to compare 160 similar patients for whom life support was either withdrawn or continued. Their analysis found that many patients who had life support withdrawn would have likely died anyway.
But 42 percent of those who continued on life support and survived ended up regaining some independence up to 12 months after injury.
The findings suggest a "cyclical, self-fulfilling prophecy" may be at play in trauma centers, according to a statement from Mass General Brigham. Doctors assume that patients with traumatic brain injuries will not recover or will fare poorly, which leads to the withdrawal of life support. This, in turn, results in patients' deaths, which prompts even more decisions to withdraw life support, according to the statement."