it sounds like you're saying your friend was removed from life support and if so i'm very sorry for your loss. i'm sure the family did not make the decision to remove the ventilator without a lot of input from the doctors caring for your friend. a family cannot unilaterally decide to withdraw life support. ultimately that decision is made mutually between the care team and the loved ones. regarding pain: you may not be able to "feel" pain if you're unconscious but pain causes a physical reaction in the body. this is one way we can tell if an unconscious patient is experiencing pain. as you noted high blood pressure and agitation can be symptoms of pain. i encountered this frequently as a recovery room nurse when my patients were still asleep after surgery but obviously were experiencing a pain response. to set your mind at ease about the withdrawal of life support let me just say some brain injuries cannot be overcome. brain tissue cannot repair itself the way most other body tissues can. for example you get a cut on your finger and eventually skin cells fill in the gap. it doesn't work like that in the brain (or the heart for that matter). when brain cells die they are dead forever. if your friend's doctors felt he was "brain dead " it means he never would have recovered no matter how much time he was given. again i'm sorry for your loss.
friend had swelling on the brain and was on ventilator but breathing over it wondering if family removed to soon. his blood pressure was high and he was adjatated and they were giving him pain medicine so i always thought that if you brain cells was not working at all that you would not be able to feel any pain. he would also get the hiccups. the more i would talk to him the more he would breath over the machine. i guess my questions is if they would have gave him more time could he maybe have come around even if he would have had to learn to do somethings all over again.