Family Is ‘Devastated’ After a Hospital Removes Their 2-Year-Old Son from Life Support Against Their

[Ilsa]

101. Hey, I get that.

But there is always more to the story, including a family in denial. They see an involuntary movement, a foot twitch, the toes curl, decorticate or decerebrate posturing, etc and they think he's getting better. I've observed this in patients and the families' hopeful reactions. Sometimes the problem is staff not explaining the process of how the brain and body dies well enough for them to really grasp it and come to terms with the brain dying and the body dying. Maybe their concept of death isn't as clearly understood as ours is. Maybe they are just too grieved to take it in. That's why I said time was important -- so they can see the body slipping away and see the impact of brain death and come to terms with it on a medical basis, not just as a parent or from a cultural point of view. This is one of the most difficult and emotional positions for doctors, specialists, and nurses to be in.

It's a news report about a family not accepting the loss of their child after numerous things going on that unfairly and falsely gave them hope. It's rarely as simple as a reporter makes it out to be in a newspaper column.