Life support is sometimes used temporarily while a patient recovers basic function (like breathing and an autonomous heart beat) while in some sort of unconscious state, but the phrase "taken off life support" usually refers to a person who needs life support permanently to continue breathing and pumping blood. ... He’s still a mystery man. A grieving husband who switched off his wife's life support machine found out three days later she was still alive when he called the hospital to make funeral arrangements. Her mom then decided to take her off life support on Nov 29th since she was never going to get better. A time may come when the only outcome from the therapies that prolong life is the prolonging of suffering, with no chance of meaningful recovery. Ventilators are machines that support breathing. Fully ventilator dependent and not on any medical support for a low blood pressure, once the breathing tube and the ventilator have been removed, your loved one can die within a few minutes or sometimes it can take a few days. The timing depends on what treatment is stopped. When it's a case where there's no brain function whatsoever, the medical team will tell the family/spouse that the life support should be turned off, but then the next of kin gets to decide when that will happen, so though this is certainly a shock, they won't be pressured or rushed into turning off the machines immediately. Then a catscan on Nov 26th revealed that she was brain dead. When someone you love is terminally ill and on life support, the decision to remove them from a ventilator is a difficult one.Most patients are on a ventilator because they have difficulty breathing, and families are very fearful that removing life support will cause their loved one to experience discomfort—or worse, to gasp for air. My two year old nephew drowned about two weeks ago. Then he walked through the door. Moments after a Michigan man made the heart-wrenching decision to take his wife off life support, she started breathing on her own. They removed him from life support at 10:30 this morning. Two young females, both brain dead without warning, remain on ventilators while their devastated families challenge the judgments of their hospitals. Choosing to remove life support usually means you'll die within hours or days. People tend to stop breathing and die soon after a ventilator shuts off, though some do start breathing again on their own. Learn more about who would need a ventilator, how they work, what to expect when on a ventilator… Well, here it is 6:00, and he's still alive. He died after the family took him off life support. how can a brain dead person still breath after taken off ventilators? Eloise Barnette, 75, from Ohio was unresponsive one morning in October As his legal representatives, his parents went to court to get permission to authorize discontinuance of his life support. how could that be possible if you are brain dead? I'm so sorry you've lost a friend. They get oxygen into the lungs, remove carbon dioxide from the body, help people breathe easier, and breathe for people who cannot breathe on their own. Mr Diamond argued that there had been a 'significant change of circumstances' because the life-support treatment had stopped, but Alfie was still breathing. They expected him to die within an hour. i have a family member that had a heart attack and doctors have said he is brain dead, so they took him off the ventilators, and he is still breathing on his own. We had decided to take him off of life support today. They took her off everything on Nov 29th at 7 PM and she was breathing by herself... She wasn't brain dead. He is breathing on his own , but won't wake up.