FWIW..... (Note Bryne is co-author).....
Jahi Mcmath's functioning hypothalamus: some social and scientific considerationsBy S. N. Sansalone, with edits by Paul A. Byrne, M.D
January 18, 2014
Whatever may be our impressions or biases about the Jahi Mcmath "brain-death" matter, we ought to consider certain responsibilities that come with exploring or taking a side in any such controversy of potential importance to society.
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We also need to duly consider whatever truths and good ideas we come upon. Never should any important fact be dismissed or buried, particularly such facts as those offering a "short-cut," overarching interpretation to a matter. Therein is a key and vital component of the Jahi Mcmath debate, a key fact that, strangely, has been almost totally ignored in the broader public dialogue about this young girl in hospital. I am referring to
the restored ability of Jahi's body to self-regulate her core body temperature.
This is deeply significant, because the human body relies upon the hypothalamus portion of the brain to conduct the temperature-regulating function. More to the point, Jahi's brain was still functioning to a notable degree, at least during part of the material time of the famous/infamous "brain death" declaration. And her brain would continue to function for at least as long as she is still able to self-regulate her own body temperature. To wit, Jahi's brain, then, obviously did not fulfill "irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain," the wording of the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA).
While it is true that Jahi was not self-regulating her body temperature for most of December, a sign of lost hypothalamic function, there is also the later, additional fact in that regard... the fact that keeps getting publicly ignored. Direct observers, including at least one doctor, had noted in early January that Jahi had actually regained her ability to self-regulate core body temperature. This empirical "data point" is rendered increasingly significant in its dynamic of sudden reappearance. In other words, that function of the brain had actually restored itself to working order, and did so weeks after that particular brain function had earlier supposedly stopped. That is remarkable. Such a dynamic, or trend, of "restored" brain function extraordinarily, scientifically, is not consistent with "irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain," but rather suggests a degree of recovery from brain injury. And that recovery is in spite of some extremely poor care this young girl was being given at the first hospital facility, where they insisted and persisted in withholding needed interventions before and even after there were such signs of restored brain activity. The "poor care" I am referring to here is the prolonged starvation; the protracted and unnecessarily repeated apnea testing conducted in a potentially deleterious manner; the deprivation of needed thyroid medication; refusing to treat an adrenal gland problem that arose; et cetera.
...more at linkhttp://www.renewamerica.com/columns/byrne/140118