title: Life, death, and the bridges in-between.
abstract: Remarkable advances in the technological capacity of modern medicine now permit the use of mechanical organ failure support deployed primarily to save life. Such technology serves as a bridge to either recovery or, when feasible, organ transplantation. However, when effective treatment options are exhausted, technological advances can be burdensome bridges to death. This paper briefly reviews the principles of management of life-threatening critical illness and the corresponding biological aspects of life, death, and organ donation, which are both informed and complicated by these technological and scientific achievements.
authors.affiliation: Division of Critical Care and Extracorporeal Life Support Program, Montreal Children's Hospital, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; The Bertram Loeb Chair in Organ and Tissue Donation, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Deceased Donation, Canadian Blood Services, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Sam D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Shemie
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D001926:Brain Death; D003422:Critical Care; D006801:Humans; D013727:Terminal Care
keywords: ECMO; death; determination of death; end-of-life care; life-sustaining treatments; organ donation; transplantation; withdrawal of life support