palliative / hospice care

[grannan]

If a partially brain dead person is taken off life support - feeding/ventilator/fluids - will 4% oxygen prolong life ?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
I agree with Caregiver. If a person is on ventilator, it means his/her heart and lung are not strong enough or responsive enough to hold life. If such a person is removed from the ventilator, then his heart and lung will stop functioning and he will not have life any longer. Also such a person cannot just be maintained on oxygen. IV fluids will also be required for energy for body metabolism.
Please discuss with the treating physician. Take care!

[caregiver222]

If the respiratory response continues after removing life support the only thing that small amount of additional oxygen will do, if anything, is to reduce the respirations by one or two exhalations per minute.  Normally the air contains 21 % oxygen. In a closed room, this can be reduced by 2 %, so supplementing room air by 4%  isn't much better than keeping the windows open.