It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

NEWS: Texas Infant May Be Taken Off Life Support Against Mothers Wishes

page: 1
0

log in

join
share:

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 02:06 AM
link   
A judge has ruled that Texas Children's Hospital can take 4 month old Sun Hudson off of life support against his mothers wishes. Sun sufferers from a rare skeletal disorder that is usually fatal. Sun mother has been fighting to keep Sun on life support as she believes that he will recover. Under Texas law, a hospital must provide care is there is a reasonable chance that he could be admitted to another hospital. However, the hospital presented evidence that the called over 40 that were unwilling to admit the child. The hospital has no timetable to withdrawal support.
 



story.news.yahoo.com
HOUSTON - An infant with an often-lethal skeletal disorder can be removed from life support against his mother's wishes, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Probate Court Judge William C. McCulloch's decision lifted a restraining order that kept Wanda Hudson's 4-month-old son, Sun, on life support.

Texas Children's Hospital officials have said no treatment can save the infant, and they wanted to remove him from life support. Hudson believes her son will recover and had fought to keep him on the ventilator he has used since birth.


Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


One little bit at the end of the article indicates that she has not seen the child for over a month and believes that she can communicate with him through telepathy. Having been a pediatric intensive care unit nurse for over 10 years now, I can attest to the brutal flogging some of the children get when kept alive above and beyond any chance of meaningful recovery. You really have to ask yourself are you keeping the loved one alive for thier good or your own? I applaud the hospital for trying to put an end to this senseless flogging of this poor baby. The baby suffers from thanatophoric dysplasia which despite a few miracles that had extenuating circumstances is uniformly fatal.

[edit on 2/17/05 by FredT]



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 02:55 AM
link   
As sad as this is, people don't think normally when a loved one is dying. There is a definite need for intervention by someone with the capacity to reason clearly on the subject.
At a certain point IMHO it becomes immoral to keep somebody alive. If they have no chance at all, are not conscious, are not capable of really living- you're not keeping them alive- you're just playing tricks with their corpse to keep it functioning.
No doubt in my mind I'd lose it if somebody else made the decision for me to pull the plug on one of my loved ones, but really if I'm so wrecked that I can't listen to reason, I am not legally compitent to make the decision and I'm bringing it on myself.

One angle of the story to consider though, because I've heard a horror story or two in a family with 3 nurses, any case where a patient is terminated without consent should be in the public eye and should be reviewed. We have to be careful that these decisions have a moral consideration and are not just about the "bottom line".

Edit to add: Speaking of horror stories and things you see when you have nurses in the family- whenever somebody in my family is hospitalized for anything serious, the nurses in our family insist on staying in the room in shifts. They wouldn't leave a family member unattended in the hospitals where they work for all the tea in China.

[edit on 17-2-2005 by The Vagabond]



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 06:57 AM
link   
I hope the mom is receiving a lot of psychotherapy.
She's going to need it for many years to come.
My heart goes out to her, and all the doctors and
nurses working with her family. Very sad situation.



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 07:09 AM
link   
Thank you FredT for your professional input. As I read the article my heart hurts for the mother in this position. Your knowledge helped me to see that there is a point where a mother might not be able to make such a decision as to the life of her child.



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 07:58 AM
link   

Originally posted by FredT
I applaud the hospital for trying to put an end to this senseless flogging of this poor baby.

I really gotta say that it probably shouldn't be up to the hospital to give treatment or not.
On the other hand the mother sounds somewhat incompetent and with no real chance to live you'd think she'd take the kid of life support to stop its suffering.


The baby suffers from thanatophoric dysplasia

Thanatos!? Jezus, when a disease has the primal god of absolute death in its name, well, thats disheartening to say the least.



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 09:11 AM
link   
From what I have heard, the child has no chance of surviving independently and the mother sounds psychotic. I does seem to me that allowing nature to take its course is the most humane thing to do, given the severity of the child's defects.



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 09:15 AM
link   

Originally posted by FredT
I applaud the hospital for trying to put an end to this senseless flogging of this poor baby.


I understand where you are coming from Fred, I wouldn't want it for my own child. But there are some people who need time to accept the fact that their loved one is gone.

We had a similar case here - Primary Children's Hospital petitioned the courts to terminate life support for a child who was actually decomposing internally. The parents just weren't ready to let go. The judge compromised and allowed the parents to hire a nurse and keep him at home. The child died within a week of leaving the hospital and the parents had the closure they needed. While you and I may see this as cruel and selfish - the parents saw it as doing everything possible to save their child.

I noticed the woman in the story has quit visiting her baby - she knows on some level that her child is gone and in not seeing the baby everyday she is able to suppress that. I would like to see the courts require her to visit her child - it may help her quit deluding herself and accept that he's gone.

My 2 cents.

B.



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 09:56 AM
link   
I am a mother and I can imagine if one of my children become ill and life support becomes the only means of keeping him or her alive, I probably with all my knowledge and friskiness will become blind and deaf and will fight also for keeping my child alive, is call desperation.

Yes she is just hart broken and can not see beyond her pain of losing her child.



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 08:58 PM
link   
I can really see all of that. My wife and I are both nurses, she works with preemies, and we had a list before hand of diseases and conditions that we simply were not going to treat.: Biliary atresia, hypoplast left heart syndrome,



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 09:11 PM
link   
Sometimes our modern medical technology is a double-edged sword. Years ago, the baby may not have survived much past birth.
The hospital and insurance company, if any, should not have to continue to care for the infant.

After reading this woman's quote, I wonder why she cares if the plug is pulled. She seems to think her child will live forever anyway. Poor thing.

"Sun is going to live forever," she said. "As long as the Sun is in the sky he will live. I don't believe in death."



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 09:23 PM
link   

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
Sometimes our modern medical technology is a double-edged sword. Years ago, the baby may not have survived much past birth.
The hospital and insurance company, if any, should not have to continue to care for the infant.


I agree with you the miracle of science it has become also many times just a way to keep bodies alive and give false hope.



posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 09:49 PM
link   


HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A mother fighting to keep a hospital from removing her infant son from the ventilator that has kept him alive since birth has won another temporary restraining order.

Appeals court keeps infant on life support







 
0

log in

join