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 After reviewing films and TV shows featuring a storyline about brain
death, they found that while 19 characters were declared brain dead,
no portrayals showed a proper examination that would allow doctors
to reach that conclusion.
"In most cases it was inaccurate and misleading," said lead author
Dr. Ariane Lewis, a neurologist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New
York.
The inaccurate and unprofessional portrayals could be a problem for
real people faced, for example, with deciding when to donate a loved
one's organs, or in understanding legislation on the topic, write
Lewis and her coauthors - an ethicist and a fellow neurologist - in
the American Journal of Transplantation.
Unlike living people in comas or in a persistent vegetative state,
someone pronounced brain dead is legally dead. Brain death occurs
when brain function ends and the body can only be kept functioning
by machines.
Declaring a person brain dead requires an extensive examination set
by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) that looks for - among
other things - the patient being comatose, lacking brainstem
reflexes and not being able to breathe on their own.
Lewis said the new study builds on another piece of research that
found descriptions of brain death in the press are often also
incorrect.
"Once I did the media approach, I wanted to switch and do the film
and television approach," she said.
For the analysis, the researchers searched archives of the Paley
Center for Media and the Internet Movie Database for film and TV
show titles that mentioned brain death. After excluding irrelevant
titles like those that used "brain dead" to refer to a person's
intelligence, they were left with 34 titles. Of those, 24 were
available for viewing.
Lewis and coauthor Dr. Joshua Weaver of New York Presbyterian-Weill
Cornell Medical Center reviewed each broadcast and evaluated their
portrayals of brain death.
Of 19 characters declared brain dead in the films and TV shows, none
were evaluated using the AAN examination. Six characters were
examined for coma, nine were tested for at least one brain stem
reflex and two were tested for the ability to breathe on their own.
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Both Lewis and Weaver concluded that only 13 percent of the reviewed
films and TV shows gave audiences an accurate description of brain
death.
The researchers also found that 17 films and TV shows addressed the
topic of organ donation, but those discussions were "professional"
only in a minority of cases.
"Everything you see on television isn’t necessarily real," Lewis
said. "I think many people believe what they see in medical shows."
If people's perspectives of brain death are skewed by these
portrayals, they may be misinformed about news stories and also ill
prepared to understand legislation involving the matter, the
researchers argue.
Though few people will experience someone in their lives being
declared brain dead in a hospital, Lewis said, these portrayals may
cause them to misunderstand the situation.
Because movies and television "serve as a key source for public
education," the study team writes, the quality of productions
featuring brain death should be improved.
"For Hollywood in general, I think it’s something to take into
consideration, because the public thinks these productions are
factually based," she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2cIydl8 American Journal of Transplantation,
online September 19, 2016.
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