link

It's actually been a fairly big news item in CA, not sure about out of state.

Anyway, in this case, it's the family trying to stop the hospital from taking her off life support which I don't agree with. They're expecting a miracle that simply won't happen, ones does not go from brain dead to living...

The girl is brain dead and while she does have a heart beat, that's only because the machines she's attached to are providing her with one.

Once you take off those machines, her heart would not beat on its own because she is legally dead.

That said, as stated, a court recently granted a stay on her being removed from life support at least temporarily.

I feel bad for the family. But since I have no idea how that kind of thing works I can't have an opinion one way or another.

Since when is it up to the hospital to decide when to take someone off life support? Is that decision not up to the family?

I'm also really interested in what exactly went wrong. She made it through the surgery, then started bleeding profusely and then had a heart attack? At 13? While it's not totally impossible, I feel like maybe the hospital/doctor made a mistake, and they're trying to cover it up. That's why they're refusing a transfer to another hospital.

Really odd and heartbreaking. Losing a chile has got the be the worst feeling in the world.

Speaking as someone who had a loved one on life support and in a medically induced coma, it's hell. It is sheer, unadulterated hell to sit day in and day out and watch something external breathe for them, you can't talk to them, you can't move on, you and they are stuck in limbo.

It is hell.

Certainly, removing someone from life support should only ever happen in a miracle but... the poor girl's brain dead, the automatic functions haven't gotten the message. The family had their Christmas probably in her hospital room, watching her no doubt twitch and shift like a puppet bereft of her strings.

As heartbreaking as it is, the poor girl needs a break. She's not there. Her family needs a break and a chance to move on.

This is horrible, it really really is. If the girl is brain dead, I think they really need to let her go.

On the other hand though, I'm very curious as to what's going on here. She goes to get a (what seems to be) rather minor surgery, starts severely bleeding, and ends up brain dead on life support?? What the hell happened?

A big ass mistake that someone doesn't want to fess up to

It's usually not, but in this case, there's just no possible way the girl is coming back. It's the family refusing to let go, because several doctors have stated that no blood is being sent to her brain so basically, her brain cells are just dying off because there's nothing to feed them. The rest of of her body however is still functioning because it's being supported by the life support machines she's on, but they can't support her indefinitely, and if she was off the machines all her functions would simply cease.

I sympathize for the family, as no one should ever have to watch their own child die over something that should be a relatively routine surgery, but at the same time they need to let her go as she just won't come back to life.

As a sidenote, as I understand it, post-op bleeding while rare, does happen, as there are several major arteries near the tonsils. Also, she had both her tonsils and adenoids removed so two operations, as I understand it. There's also the other major risk factors in that she was both overweight, and had sleep apnea as well which adds another layer of complications too.

That said, if there was any instances of malpractice or negligence I honestly don't know as I'm not familiar with that particular hospital nor am I familiar with the area the hospital is located so I honestly can't comment on that particular aspect either way.

this was taken from a san diego news article on it: link

That is really sad. :(

I feel for her family, but she is already dead and is currently blocking resources that could be used to try to keep someone else alive.

Ive read about this

And also the one about the mom who is pregnant (18 weeks) who is being kept alive even though her husband/family do not want her to be, until she is 26-28 weeks to have the baby

@ Medici

I work at a hospital, and i see this stuff, though not with somebody so young. I feel terrible for the family, this was a routine operation and unfortunately she had complications and went into cardiac arrest. They werent expecting that, and its a shock. And being brain dead is a grey area. If your heart stops. Your dead, nobody is going to question if you really are dead or not. However, when you have somebody who is so young, her heart is healthy, which is why they got her back, its going to pump as long as her body is receiving oxygen, which is what the ventilator is providing. Remove that, and her heart would eventually stop.

Now, ive had people, who where "brain dead" and then you start to notice them reacting to pain, etc, however they (to my knowledge) never where the people same people before whatever happened to them. And some of them still died.

But i work at a much smaller hospital then where this child is, and i would think that they have done ever test imaginable to prove that she truly is brain dead. But i feel like they didnt even give her a chance. It hasnt even been a month. Im really not sure how i feel. I understand both sides, but this isnt an 80 year old person who has lived their life. This is a child who at least deserves a chance, even if there isnt one. Let the family move her somewhere else, give them time to take it all in, let them make the decision, not a court. They will never have peace if they are ordered to take her off and are unwilling

EDIT

forgot to say, that i hope whatever the decision is, that they at least choose to donate her organs, I think its up to 13 lifes (somewhere around there) that somebody can save by being an organ donor. Thats 13 others lives she can save even though she lost hers

This sounds very much like the Terry Schiavo right-to-die case.

I believe that the medical resources and human intervention would be better used helping others who actually have a chance if the damage is in fact irreversible.

Basically all this; it's all probably worded better than I could do.

Moral issues aside about stuff relating to being in a catatonic state, I really do feel this is the family's call. I think this is super fishy since they aren't letting the girl be transferred over to another hospital - I hate suspecting the worse in people, but I really do feel that behavior is because someone is hiding something to avoid a even bigger case because they messed up, and that makes me sick.

[edit] (Sorry for the ping !)

That actually reminds me, this case is being backed by the Schiavo family, and while the cases are similar they're not quite the same. Schiavo still had brain function, limited though it was, the girl, in this case doesn't. Schiavo could also breathe on her own, maintain her own blood pressure, etc... the tests done on the girl in this particular case stated that she could not, and that brain imaging scans showed that there was both no blood flowing to her brain and no electrical impulses going to her brain either.

That shows the testing that was done by an independent Stanford doctor, that, as far as I know isn't related to the particular hospital in which the case took place.

link

Also, as much as I hate to state it and as much as my opinion may be considered cruel the girl, in this case, is still taking up resources that could be used to help others so I actually agree with the hospital's decision to take her off the ventilator if she is indeed brain dead and there's no way of bringing her back up to some form of life that is on par to what she had before.

That's really interesting! I remember how huge that case was nationally when I was in high school.

It definitely sounds suspicious as to how all of this arose, but now that she's too far gone to be saved she should be allowed to go in peace instead of being kept alive as a semblance of what she once was.

That's pretty much my view on it; the chances of her coming back to any form of life are very slim, and I'd say, pretty much impossible, especially since legally she is dead. In the meantime, how long will this girl be on life support, months, years, all with the reality that she won't wake up.

As for other news involving the situation: a court has approved for her to be moved, though, if there are any complications, that's on the family's shoulders. It still has to be done within the week limit that the court imposed though.

I'm never quite sure how to feel in these circumstances. I believe the girl is essentially dead, that no matter how long you keep her on life support, as soon as you remove it, her body will cease to function within a short time. I also believe the family needs time to come to grips with this, to accept she's dead. But what do you do if the family simply refuses to ever believe? They could leave the body on life support for years. Uselessly using resources for a few weeks, even months, to ease the family is one thing, but years?