K_Z, thank you for your posts. I was wondering what information you can offer about the eye opening or movements BK's aunt and spoke about. Are those just reflexes? How is it decided what to make of eye movement?
First of all, brain dead people do not have any movements of the eyeballs or any purposeful movements of the eyelids, such as eye opening. In order for eyeball movements and eye opening to occur, there are cranial nerves that have to be intact to direct the muscle movement that move the eyeballs and eyelids. That said, brain dead people, people heavily medicated or under general anesthesia, and people in comas, can have partially open eyelids that are "passively" open. In these circumstances, eyeballs need to be lubricated to prevent the corneas from drying out, and usually lids can be taped closed, or eye protectors put in place to protect the eyes.
If BK truly has eye opening, especially to voice or touch commands, then she cannot be brain dead. There is no way to evaluate the statements in the articles about eye opening, because we don't know when it happened, if it is still happening, or if the family is misinterpreting passive eyelid opening for intentional opening.
Movement of the arms and legs are not at all unusual in brain dead people, and usually signal that the acute phase of injury that mimics spinal cord shock, has passed.However, in people who are genuinely brain dead, the movements are spinal cord reflexes and muscular twitching-- not mediated by higher brain centers. This can be very disturbing and confusing to family members, especially if the person appears to "move" in response to some stimuli.
To try to illustrate this, here is a video of someone salting freshly killed and skinned frog legs. These frogs have neither a spinal cord, nor a brain anymore-- and yet the muscles are able to move and contract in response to the stimulus-- salt. There is still enough "energy" molecules in the muscles to react to the salt chemically, and produce movement. (My kids LOVE this video and the science behind it! We're an odd family that way.....)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YZJt_Bw3eo
It's entirely possible BK has had, or is having seizure activity. It's possible she is not brain dead. I just have my serious doubts about this, as it is not a consistent story from all of the family members, so it is suspect for medical accuracy, IMO.
