2. What kinds of injuries may lead to brain death?

Injuries that lead to brain death include head traumas, strokes and aneurysms, anoxia, and brain tumors. Head trauma is the a common condition that leads to brain death. Automobile accidents, falls, and direct blows to the head (including gunshot wounds) may result in severe brain injury and subsequent brain death.

A stroke is a condition where a group of nerve cells in the brain are damaged, often due to interrupted blood flow from a blood clot or because of a burst blood vessel.

An aneurysm is a ballooning out of a blood vessel. In the brain, the weakened wall of the aneurysm can rupture, especially in a person with high blood pressure.

Anoxia is a lack of oxygen (to the brain) and can be caused by asphyxiation, drowning, poisoning (such as with carbon monoxide) or hanging. Anoxia can also occur because of cardiac arrest because when the heart stops beating, oxygenated blood is no longer being carried to the brain.

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