On September 16, ABC News in Oakland, California reported on a hospital’s threat to remove breathing support from six-month-old Kingston Holmes. The infant needed a ventilator due to a brain injury following a cardiac arrest at home. The first thing I ask when I read a story like that is when did the cardiac arrest … Continue reading Neurology Guidelines Push Back Against “Rush To Judgment” In Brain Injury Cases
The LA Times is reporting that the death of a disabled 8-year-old boy in 2013 is currently under investigation by Los Angeles police and the DA office. Back in 2013, Cole Hartman’s father found his son with his head submerged in their washing machine. Cole went into cardiac arrest, but paramedics were able to resuscitate him. … Continue reading Four Years After His Death, Disabled 8-Year-Old’s Death in Organ Donation is Under Investigation
By now, most readers of this blog are probably familiar with the story of Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old girl who underwent surgery on December 9, 2013 at Oakland Children’s Hospital. During post-op recovery, she started bleeding. Eventually, she went into cardiac arrest. She was then put on a ventilator. Two days later doctors made a … Continue reading Let’s Have a REAL Discussion: Bioethicists Preach, Fail to Teach on Brain Death
Summary: Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization, is calling upon Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to adopt national standards prohibiting organ procurement staff from initiating organ donation discussions with individuals or family members before they have made a decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatment. The … Continue reading Press Release: Not Dead Yet Urges Secretary Sebelius and Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to Prohibit Organ Procurers from Pressuring Sick or Injured to Give Up on Living
There’s a potentially explosive lawsuit that’s gotten limited coverage so far. As near as I can tell, the first story on it was published in the New York Post on September 26 of this year. Here’s an excerpt from the news story in the Post: The New York Organ Donor Network pressured hospital staffers to … Continue reading NY Lawsuit Claims Organ Donor Network Engaged in ‘Shameful Practices,’ Pressuring Staff and Families
