DY great question!
I haven’t read up on that case in about a year now. As I recall the circumstance regarding what testing was done were never clear in the press( I don’t recall even seeing mention of it in mainstream press, let alone medical journals.) Ditto for case with boy in houston.
I will do search later and give you a more concrete answer.
If the doctors tested brain stem reflexes and did apnic test then he was brain dead, if not then he was “merely” in a coma despite any reporter confusing the terms as Popa did in his OP and which I am trying to correct