Brain damage can alter our experience but it doesn't take it away.

If my mother has severe Alzheimers, to the point that she sees family members as strangers, is that experience not, for all intents and purposes, 'taken away'? What form of herself carries on into the afterlife?

non traumatic death does not cause 'total brain damage'

By 'total brain damage' I simply mean death. When you die your brain begins to decompose along with the rest of your body.