I was horrified that it the legal system in this country could do this.
*The baby wore a cute blue outfit with a teddy bear covering his bottom. The 17-pound, nearly 6-month-old boy wiggled with eyes open, his mother said, and smacked his lips. *
Then at 2 p.m. Tuesday, a medical staffer at Texas Children’s Hospital gently removed the breathing tube that had kept Sun Hudson alive since his birth Sept. 25. Cradled by his mother, he took a few breaths, and died.
“I talked to him, I told him that I loved him. Inside of me, my son is still alive,” Wanda Hudson told reporters afterward. “This hospital was considered a miracle hospital. When it came to my son, they gave up in six months. … They made a terrible mistake.”
Sun’s death marks the first time a U.S. judge has allowed a hospital to discontinue an infant’s life-sustaining care against a parent’s wishes, according to bioethical experts. A similar case involving a 68-year-old man in a vegetative state at another Houston hospital is before a court now.
This story is very sad. I have worked in a pediatric critical care department in the past & I can assure you that these decisions are not made lightly.
The Holy Father has said that in some cases extraordinary measures may not always be appropriate, if and only if the person has no chance of living without that extraordinary support.
I’m sure I have done a poor job of explaining the Church’s view on these types of cases. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will help.
Here is a quick description of the disease that this baby had. It is called “Thanatophoric Dysplasia”, it’s a form of dwarfism:
“Thanatophoric dysplasia is a sporadic lethal skeletal dysplasia. It occurs in approximately 1:10,000 births and is the most common lethal bone dysplasia. The disorder is uniformly fatal within hours to days after birth from respiratory failure.”-http://brighamrad.harvard.edu/Cases/bwh/hcache/61/full.html
Sun Hudson was an infant with a rare genetic disorder who was kept alive on a respirator for six months before the hospital pulled the plug over the objections of the mother. His chest and lungs were too small to support life. Although the mother, Wanda Hudson, had fought to keep her son alive and believed his condition would improve, doctors had said there was no hope for the 5-month-old. In the case of Sun Hudson, medical ethicists weighed the case of a terminally ill infant in (possible) pain with no hope of recovery, and elected to suspend respiration - that is well within the guidelines of medical ethics set by the Pope, Protestant churches, and, if we can believe these Brits, the Jewish faith.
Here’s an indication why the court may have decided to overrule the mother:
In the Hudson case, the hospital encouraged the mother to go to court and agreed to pay her lawyer after concern arose about her mental state. She said “the sun that shines in the sky,” not a man, fathered her child and would decide its fate. She repeated her belief Tuesday. … Ms. Hudson said she’d made no funeral plans and would not attend if one were held. She said her parents, who did not talk to the news media and disapproved “of my talking about the sun,” might be present.
Gilliam I saw that as well. The mom seems like she needs some help coping with the situation and reality. In spite of technology there are some things that cannot be treated. If a patient is on complete life support with no hope of a positive outcome sometimes you have to let them go.
In Oregon we had a really sad case of a child born with so many birth defects that had he not had massive intervention he would have died minutes after birth. THe parents demanded the ultimate in intervention and got it…all on Medicaid mind you. The child cost the state millions and died in about 18 months. There really was no hope as he had several non functioning vital organs. I think such “advance directive” laws are a sad necessity in some cases.
I think the mother probably would have eventually realized that. What I read about it the child would have eventually died regardless. I just have a very hard time with the fact that the respirator was removed against the mother’s wishes, I didn’t even know that it was legal to do that.
Exactly, Raynee.
Also, this is disturbing as well
Texas law allows hospitals to discontinue life-sustaining care, even if a patient’s family members disagree. A doctor’s recommendation must be approved by a hospital’s ethics committee, and the family must be given 10 days from written notice of the decision to try and locate another facility for the patient.
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