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In reply to the discussion: Family Is ‘Devastated’ After a Hospital Removes Their 2-Year-Old Son from Life Support Against Their [View all]Ilsa
(61,694 posts)Going to wake up, get better. Instead, the body begins showing the signs of brain injury with decerebrate posturing, and will begin deteriorating. The parents see movement, and mistake it for brain activity because they don't understand, and cannot accept the tragedy. These parents were living with false hope, a delusion. And already in at least one state, the facility can go to court to remove life support.
I'm all for giving the family plenty of time and lots of counseling about what is happening. And if they can find a place to take the patient, that's great. But at some point, anywhere they go, the facility will be talking to them about the hopelessness of the situation and someone will have to agree to stop treating what essentially is a corpse. If the parents can't do it, I suspect some states require the hospital to take it to a judge. Should the hospital keep the patient on life support for a year? Two years? Several decades? Where is the line going to be drawn on hopeless cases where there is no brain activity? I'd rather accept the opinion of professionals trained in this specialty. And given the limited resources in many places, they don't have the luxury of maintaining a body on life support.
What would you have the hospital do if the ICU is full, and another child needs to be in ICU, but can't be treated? What do you tell those parents when the best hope for their child is usurped by a body on a ventilator? The hospital and professionals have to fight for those kids, too.
Why did they bring the child back to the US where it was known the doctors would likely declare him brain dead again?
Not everyone wants to make that life/death decision about a beloved family member. You have misunderstood part of my post: Some of those people may believe it is a mortal sin to consent to removing life support. I know people who believe this. They don't want to make that decision, even though it's obviously the right one.
My family has had to deal with this, BTW, regarding a mom in her 40's, my SIL.