Nursing home says it won't take 'brain-dead' girl

[w8liftinglady]

87. I'm a nurse. I've been there.

I worked in an intensive care unit and supported many families who received the news that their family member was brain-dead.
No decent physician will pronounce brain-death lightly... especially on a child. Our physicians and nurses would approach the family with the statement-the child you knew has passed. We are keeping her artificially alive using machines.She is watching from a beautiful place now (if they are religious).She will not come back. This would generally be the point where we would offer organ donation to keep her spirit alive in the bodies of others. We would reinforce the fact that there is no organ transplantation that would heal her, and even with life support, her body would continue to die slowly. We would ask what their daughter would want.
It is never an easy decision. The time of death has already been signed by the physicians.The child looks fairly "normal".We wouldn't always disconnect immediately, but after the patient is legally "dead", terminal wean does proceed.Most otherwise healthy brain dead bodies usually die 5 minutes after disconnection.There almost always was a required autopsy.I can only recall 2 patients who we did not remove. They ultimately died after a prolonged stay in our ICU.