Canadian Family Fights to Keep Boy's Breathing Tube in Place

[stanmaxkolbe]

Canadian Family Fights to Keep Boy’s Breathing Tube in Place
foxnews.com/world/2011/02/22/canadian-family-fights-babys-beathing-tube-place/

The Canadian family of a 13-month-old boy clinging to life support has defied a court order to remove the boy’s breathing tube and now is looking to an American hospital for what experts say would be a miracle recovery.

The boy, Joseph Maraachli, has been in a vegetative state at a hospital in London, Ontario, since last fall. He’s been treated for a neurodegenerative disease that doctors ruled leaves no hope for the boy.

A Superior Court judge, in turn, ordered that Maraachli’s breathing tube be removed on Monday. But his family refused, insisting that the boy be released to his family’s care, according to CBC News.

“I belive in my son,” Moe Maraachli, the boy’s father, told Fox News on Monday. “I will never let my son die in the doctors’ way.”

The family says removing the ventilator would promise an agonizing death for the boy. They asked that doctors at least perform a tracheotomy that would allow Joseph to die at home, but the Canadian hospital has refused.

The parents now are trying to move their son to a Detroit hospital. The Children’s Hospital of Michigan agreed to look at Joseph’s lengthy medical record and determine whether he’s a candidate for transfer.

Moe Maraachli, appearing Tuesday on “America Live with Megyn Kelly,” criticized his son’s treatment at the Canadian hospital, comparing it to a jail. He went on to say that he would not consent to taking Joseph off the ventilator under the court’s recent ruling.

“He’s a human,” he said. “He has a right to fight.”

Laurie Gould, a spokesperson for London Health Sciences Centre, told CBC News that no official request has been received from Michigan for a transfer and that that the hospital would await further direction from the Public Guardian, a Canadian office that defends those who cannot defend themselves.

That office could rule as soon as Tuesday whether Joseph must be taken off the ventilator immediately.

Joseph’s case has drawn the attention of activists like the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and has been compared to the case of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a similar vegetative state who gained international attention after her husband was granted the right to remove her from her feeding tube over the objections of her parents.

Comments on the “Save baby Joseph” Facebook page read like prayers – many challenge doctors’ opinions and evoke biblical passages for support.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

This is a preview of Obamacare.

 

[momor]

I’ve commented about this case on other threads. This is a very confusing case and most of the articles contradict each other in important ways that make it impossible to determine what is right.

Sometimes the parents are reported to agree the baby is dying but want him to die at home with a tracheostomy (but without sound medical explanation of why one is needed) and no ventilator.

Other reports seem to indicate they don’t want the ventilator removed and believe their child is not in a vegetative state.

There is a tremendous amount of emotionalism but not a lot of medical facts being reported. One reason is that the parents are free to speak but the medical community is constrained by privacy issues. Only one side is getting the publicity here. Given some of the contradictory and medically irrational statements coming from the parents and their supporters I have to wonder if the baby would receive proper care in their hands. I suspect not, and that is what the hospital is fighting.

The most glaring inaccuracy in this article is to compare this boy with Terri Sciavo. This boy is not able to breathe on his own and is being kept alive by artificial and extraordinary means (a respirator). Catholic teaching allows the removal of extraordinary life support when that is the only thing keeping a dying person alive.

Terri was breathing on her own but was not able to swallow food. Her feeding tube was not considered extraordinary means of keeping her alive.

Please try to discover the facts of the case before reacting emotionally.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I’ve commented about this case on other threads. This is a very confusing case and most of the articles contradict each other in important ways that make it impossible to determine what is right.

Sometimes the parents are reported to agree the baby is dying but want him to die at home with a tracheostomy (but without sound medical explanation of why one is needed) and no ventilator.

Other reports seem to indicate they don’t want the ventilator removed and believe their child is not in a vegetative state.

There is a tremendous amount of emotionalism but not a lot of medical facts being reported. One reason is that the parents are free to speak but the medical community is constrained by privacy issues. Only one side is getting the publicity here. Given some of the contradictory and medically irrational statements coming from the parents and their supporters I have to wonder if the baby would receive proper care in their hands. I suspect not, and that is what the hospital is fighting.

The most glaring inaccuracy in this article is to compare this boy with Terri Sciavo. This boy is not able to breathe on his own and is being kept alive by artificial and extraordinary means (a respirator). Catholic teaching allows the removal of extraordinary life support when that is the only thing keeping a dying person alive.

Terri was breathing on her own but was not able to swallow food. Her feeding tube was not considered extraordinary means of keeping her alive.

Please try to discover the facts of the case before reacting emotionally.

I came away with pretty much the same as you have posted here. Lot’s of contradictory statements by the media.

It seems that the baby can’t leave the hospital on the current respirator he’s on, and the parents want the doctors to install the tracheotomy, but they refused saying it will cause more harm than good.

Jim

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

Canadian Family in Life Support Battle Denied Request for Hospital Transfer
foxnews.com/world/2011/02/24/canadian-family-life-support-battle-denied-request-hospital-transfer/?test=latestnews

The parents of a Canadian boy ordered off life support by government health officials have been denied a request to transfer the 13-month-old to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada, was advised Thursday by the Michigan hospital that the boy would not be transferred.

Moe Maraachli and his wife, Sana Nader, of Windsor, Ontario, wanted the Michigan hospital to perform a tracheotomy on their son Joseph, who is currently kept alive by a respirator. The boy suffers from a rare, progressive neurological disease which, Canadian doctors say, has left him in a vegetative state beyond recovery.

A spokesman for Maraachli told FoxNews.com the family is “working on an appeal” to the Michigan hospital’s decision. The hospital declined to comment on “any matters surrounding the case.”

Joseph’s parents believed that if the Detroit hospital had accepted the child and conducted the operation, in which doctors would place a breathing tube in his windpipe, he could be cared for at home.

Canadian health care allocation officials already ruled that Joseph had to be taken off life support and allowed to die in the hospital. A Canadian judge then ruled that Maraachli had to give his consent to having the breathing tube removed by Monday. He refused.

Health care economist Dr. Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, said the structure of the Canadian health care system allows public officials to make patient care decisions.

“Hospitals have global budgets as opposed to charging patients or their insurance companies, so the officials would have far more power over what their individual hospitals do,” Herrick said. “If it were in the U.S., you wouldn’t have public officials who would have the power to tell a hospital to do this or do that.”
Maraachli says turning off life support could cause his son to choke and suffocate. He told Fox News on Wednesday that the doctors at London Health Sciences Centre have said the “best treatment” is to “let him die… I don’t know what kind of treatment that [is].”
The family believes this procedure will allow Joseph to breathe on his own, and thereby be able to go home and likely die there.

Doctors are now asking the Canadian government to allow them to remove the breathing tube without the family’s consent. The Ontario hospital contends that a tracheotomy would be painful for the boy, despite their argument that Joseph is in a vegetative state.

Officials at the Ontario hospital appeared to be cooperating with the transfer request and sent Joseph’s full medical record to Children’s Hospital of Michigan on Monday.

“Our focus at this time is supporting the family by providing compassionate and dignified care, and comfort to both the patient and his parents,” the hospital said on its website.

Moe Maraachli scheduled a press conference to discuss the matter on Thursday afternoon, but did not show up because the hospital will be negotiating with the family’s lawyer on Friday, the London Free Press reports.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

**Death panel ruled! **

You don’t think this can happen here under Obamacare?

 

[momor]

**Death panel ruled! **

You don’t think this can happen here under Obamacare?

You don’t think there might be something very significant in the fact that the Michigan hospital did not accept the transfer? Like maybe they think the care he is getting is appropriate and the parents are mistaken in their demands?

There is no medical logic being put forth in these articles. A tracheostomy will not keep a child alive who cannot breathe on his own.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

You don’t think there might be something very significant in the fact that the Michigan hospital did not accept the transfer? Like maybe they think the care he is getting is appropriate and the parents are mistaken in their demands?

There is no medical logic being put forth in these articles. A tracheostomy will not keep a child alive who cannot breathe on his own.

That’s not my point-FROM THE ARTICLE:
Canadian health care allocation officials already ruled that Joseph had to be taken off life support and allowed to die in the hospital. Health care economist Dr. Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, said the structure of the **Canadian health care system allows public officials to make patient care decisions. **
“Hospitals have global budgets as opposed to charging patients or their insurance, companies so the officials would have far more power over what their individual hospitals do,” Herrick said. "If it were in the U.S., you wouldn’t have public officials who would have the power to tell a hospital to do this or do that."

It’s still a bunch of government bureaucrats taking the decision out of the parents’ hands and ruling on life and death.

The family disagrees with those doctors and wants a second opinion they want to transfer their son to another hospital but this death panel is denying their freedom to do that and that’s a crock!

I don’t know about you but I don’t what some government bureaucrats ordering me to pull the plug on one of my family members.

They should be allowed the freedom do transfer their child anywhere they want.

 

[centurionguard]

That’s not my point-FROM THE ARTICLE:
Canadian health care allocation officials already ruled that Joseph had to be taken off life support and allowed to die in the hospital. Health care economist Dr. Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, said the structure of the **Canadian health care system allows public officials to make patient care decisions. **
“Hospitals have global budgets as opposed to charging patients or their insurance, companies so the officials would have far more power over what their individual hospitals do,” Herrick said. "If it were in the U.S., you wouldn’t have public officials who would have the power to tell a hospital to do this or do that."

It’s still a bunch of government bureaucrats taking the decision out of the parents’ hands and ruling on life and death.

The family disagrees with those doctors and wants a second opinion they want to transfer their son to another hospital but this death panel is denying their freedom to do that and that’s a crock!

I don’t know about you but I don’t what some government bureaucrats ordering me to pull the plug on one of my family members.

They should be allowed the freedom do transfer their child anywhere they want.

…

**I don’t know about you but I don’t what some government bureaucrats ordering me to pull the plug on one of my family members.

They should be allowed the freedom do transfer their child anywhere they want.**

Totally Agree! I made comment on this story that I’ve been watching for sometime now in my country. This is outright legalized Euthanasia

Most regrettably; this just might become reality. No damned moral backbone with Canadian Supreme Court Judges, politicians and too many passive citizens who don’t have the B***s to make a loud enough voice or at the very least no damned less than when legalized Abortion was passed in my country in 1973.

In between all this we have Blood sucking Lawyers. I’m extremely appalled the Doctors have the gutless power to enforce their will on this family and their precious innocent child.

I can only imagine what it’s going to be for the increasing onslaught of baby-boomers dying on their death beds and possibly on life support.

And then you have some Self-Righteous Doctor coming to YOU or Your Loved ones bedside and saying…Can’t afford you anymore…time to pull the plug Sir I’m afraid!.

Good Nite Irene!

Sound sensationalistic? Don’t bet your life on it.

 

[momor]

That’s not my point-FROM THE ARTICLE:
Canadian health care allocation officials already ruled that Joseph had to be taken off life support and allowed to die in the hospital. Health care economist Dr. Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, said the structure of the **Canadian health care system allows public officials to make patient care decisions. **
“Hospitals have global budgets as opposed to charging patients or their insurance, companies so the officials would have far more power over what their individual hospitals do,” Herrick said. "If it were in the U.S., you wouldn’t have public officials who would have the power to tell a hospital to do this or do that."

It’s still a bunch of government bureaucrats taking the decision out of the parents’ hands and ruling on life and death.

The family disagrees with those doctors and wants a second opinion they want to transfer their son to another hospital but this death panel is denying their freedom to do that and that’s a crock!

I don’t know about you but I don’t what some government bureaucrats ordering me to pull the plug on one of my family members.

They should be allowed the freedom do transfer their child anywhere they want.

Well, by all means you and others can make this an emotional political issue and jump on the opportunity to find a reason here to support your fears of government and “death panels” without all the facts and while ignoring the child at the center of it all. The parents were given the freedom to transfer and the receiving hospital, outside of the Canadian system, said “No”. You can ignore that and continue to say their freedom is being denied but you’d be wrong.

I am choosing to see it as it relates to this child’s care and not to make him into a political football. A parent’s right to demand certain care for their child stops at the child’s right to receive proper medical care. No parent has the right to force a doctor to do an unnecessary and inappropriate surgery. The parents are not the experts in what is medically appropriate and may in fact be arguing for care that could be harmful and inhumane.

I have been in healthcare for almost 40 years both at the bedside and in quality management and Medicare. I have dealt extensively with end-of-life issues as a gerontologist and I hold to the teachings of the Church on what constitutes appropriate care. I have never seen the kind of callous disregard for life over money that you seem to believe exists. I have however seen plenty of family members who are the patient’s worst enemy when it comes to trying to direct care inappropriately. Sometimes others have to step in to protect the patient from unintended harm.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

. A parent’s right to demand certain care for their child stops at the child’s right to receive proper medical care.

What care they want to kill the child!

. I have never seen the kind of callous disregard for life over money that you seem to believe exists. I have however seen plenty of family members who are the patient’s worst enemy when it comes to trying to direct care inappropriately. Sometimes others have to step in to protect the patient from unintended harm.

You haven’t seen it yet but wait until Obamacare kicks in.

Protect this patient from what?—Living?

The decision had been made to kill the child because of money that’s root of all this plain and simple.

 

[momor]

What care they want to kill the child!

**The child is dying, without reasonable hope of recovery, and is only being kept alive by artificial means. Even the parents seem to acknowledge those facts. I have seen nothing (even with the articles so woefully short on medical facts) to indicate that withdrawing life support would be against any of the Catholic guidelines for doing so and therefore it is not “killing”.
**

You haven’t seen it yet but wait until Obamacare kicks in.

**“They” said the same thing when Medicare implemented DRG hospital payments, but the reality is that hospital care and surgical care improved. I won’t go into the reasons why here.

“They” said the same things when managed care came into popularity. You hear a few extreme complaints about denials of transplants and other experimental treatments but what you don’t hear about are the millions of everyday improvements in care brought about by managed care organizations who follow the research and study trends and educate their doctors about best practices and monitor quality indicators so patients have a report card to look at. Did you know that just one of those best practices was recognizing the overuse and harm from indiscriminate use of antibiotics in children? And yet doctors still have to put up with demanding parents who insist that Johnny gets an antibiotic for his cold or earache. Those are the kinds of things that happen when people are looking at quality care and outcomes and proving the “the way we’ve always done it” isn’t as good as everyone thought it was. That doesn’t happen in a fee for service environment.**

Protect this patient from what?—Living?

The decision had been made to kill the child because of money that’s root of all this plain and simple.

Well, I’ve done what I can to offer some education and reality checks. But I’m sure you will just go on believing what you want to believe and what fits your political agenda (I have none) whether it’s true or not.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

What I can see is you’re an Obama supporter and is not looking at the facts of this case.

 

[Stjudeprayforus]

Protect this patient from what?—Living?

Exactly!

Death Panels.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

Exactly!

Death Panels.

Thank you that’s now two people that’s seeing what I’m seeing.

 

[Stjudeprayforus]

Thank you that’s now two people that’s seeing what I’m seeing.

When the Govt decides who lives, who dies, who gets care… who gets the plug pulled… there is no other word for it.
Death panels.

 

[Stjudeprayforus]

lifesitenews.com/news/exclusive-videos-show-vegetable-baby-joseph-reacting-to-parents

Check out the video… the baby reacts.

 

[curlycool89]

Guys, I hate to be the one who has to bluntly say this, but the kid is already dead. If a respirator is all that’s keeping him alive and there is no reasonable hope that he’ll ever not need one, then he is for all purposes already dead.

There is no euthanasia issue here. The doctors are not threatening to take away ordinary care (such as a feeding tube). To speak frankly (and I’ve already started, so I mine as well continue), the parents wanting to perform another procedure so that they can have him at home when he passes is nothing but selfish. They don’t want to let God to be God; they want to play God and decide when and where he gets to die.

People die. Unfortunately, sometimes they die young. But when it’s time for them to go, you’ve got to let them go. Keeping them alive for yourself is not thinking about them, it’s thinking only about you you you. That’s selfishness.

Yes, we believe that miracles can happen, but most of the time they don’t (that’s why they’re called miracles). Keeping him alive is not only selfish at that point, it’s cruel. Why should we fear for death when we know that this child will be entering the Kingdom of God where there will be no suffering and eternal joy?

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

Guys, I hate to be the one who has to bluntly say this, but the kid is already dead.

Catholics, I hate to be the one who has to bluntly say this—who the hell is some government panel to make this decision on the life of this child—if the parents want to move their child to another hospital—why is the government involved?

What is wrong with some of you people in Canada that you would allow a government panel to make a decision on your life or any of your family members?

 

[curlycool89]

Catholics, I hate to be the one who has to bluntly say this—who the hell is some government panel to make this decision on the life of this child—if the parents want to move their child to another hospital—why is the government involved?

What is wrong with some of you people in Canada that you would allow a government panel to make a decision on your life or any of your family members?

There is nothing a doctor, the parents, or the government can do to make the child live. That is the point here.

And just in case you missed it in your own article, the doctors are the ones who are saying this, not the government. The doctors are the ones making the petition because the parents are refusing to accept reality. Doctors can’t make life when someone’s all but dead. Only God can, and it looks like He’s calling little Joseph home.