After reviewing the 78 brain deaths documented at the hospital in 1999, J. Peter Gruen, MD, and colleagues at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, discovered that the diagnosis was highly variable and concluded that standards for practice and documentation were sorely needed. . .Dr. Gruen believes each of the brain-dead patients was correctly diagnosed, but he said it's important that the patients' family members have the same level of confidence. . . A checklist of tests to be used in making a brain-death declaration was established, as was a brain-death credentialing committee. . . (Full text of article)