BRONX 'TERRI' BATTLE

nypost.com ^ | By ED ROBINSON and CLEMENTE LISI

[paltz]

The family of a 13-year-old Bronx boy charged last night that doctors at Montefiore Hospital insisted on taking their brain-dead son off life support, despite their pleas for more time to assess his condition.

Only hours after family members went public — and threatened to get a court order — the hospital backed down and promised not to do "anything precipitously."

[Crazieman]

Slippery slope?

Try cliffdiving

[Slyfox]

Montefiore spokesman Steve Osborne said, "Our doctors have conducted several tests on the child's brain and have determined that he is brain-dead."

The 'Brain-dead' kid has lots of usable body parts.

[AntiGuv]

The 'brain-dead' kid has zero usable body parts without the parents' permission.

[STARWISE]

Culture-of-Death PING! Why do some doctors insist on playing God?

[elli1]

Taran was hooked up to a respirator and moved on Tuesday to Montefiore for surgery.

His mother, Marcerlyn Francis, said the operation involved stopping her son's lung functions...

Huh?

[elli1]

Wouldn't the infection the patient had rule organ donation?

[elli1]

I meant 'rule OUT' organ donation.

[Slyfox]

I don't know about that, but I do know that they have been playing around with the definition of 'brain-dead' precisely to permit more organs available for transplanting.

[PhilDragoo]

Headache on Monday, convulsions on Tuesday, brain-dead on Friday.

An "infection"--gee, isn't modern medical science wonderful.

Second opinion? Yeah, get a second doctor, a second hospital and a second lawyer.

[elli1]

Don't think this is what you're talking about, but I think it's fairly common practice to keep a brain-dead person on life support long enough to arrange transplants & to keep the organs viable for transplanting.

[Fam4Bush]

ping

[Future Useless Eater]

praying for the family to get a different result from an independent doctor.

[MHGinTN]

There is a snag if dopamine is used to keep the kidneys functioning. Too many organs become unusable. This has promted many 'brain death protocols' to be instituted very early in the process. The brain monitoring must be very very precise, to prevent the harvesting too soon, since some have been known to 'come back' after a period of what appears like the 'brain-dead' status. Putting a patient into intentional coma is done to give a traumatized brain a period for recovery. In some cases the coma presents as 'brain-dead' if great care is not taken to measure brain activty precisely. The parents are right to insist on more time for their son, especially at his age.

[pollywog]

Oh my......since Terri, we are just hearing more and more of the culture of death, and their vultures!!!It is a sad day in America when , with all the technology surrounding us, we still insist on KILLING the disabled!!

[MHGinTN]

I am sensitive to this issue, also. But if this poor youngman is actually irreversibly brain dead, I do believe in letting go. [Unlike the Terri Schaivo situation, where there was no 'beyond a reasonable doubt' finding that she was 'gone from her body'.] I had to face these issues with my beloved brother, so this is an issue with direct connection for me.

[elli1]

Thank you for the additional information.

[Ethrane]

"There is a snag if dopamine is used to keep the kidneys functioning. Too many organs become unusable. This has promted many 'brain death protocols' to be instituted very early in the process. The brain monitoring must be very very precise, to prevent the harvesting too soon, since some have been known to 'come back' after a period of what appears like the 'brain-dead' status. Putting a patient into intentional coma is done to give a traumatized brain a period for recovery. In some cases the coma presents as 'brain-dead' if great care is not taken to measure brain activty precisely. The parents are right to insist on more time for their son, especially at his age."

First, Dopamine is not capable of 'keeping the Kidneys functioning'...it can improve renal blood flow at low doses, but that's about it.

Second, where does the article mention 'organ donation'? I did not see it.

Last, I take with a grain of salt any article that states..."His mother, Marcerlyn Francis, said the operation involved stopping her son's lung functions and that a doctor told her yesterday her son was brain-dead. "

This is inherently incorrect, and unless he was placed on a bypass machine, did not happen.

I'm not saying the Doctors are right or wrong, only that the article seems like little more than 'fluff' the way it is written.

[MHGinTN]

"Then Taran's condition took a turn for the worse. He went into convulsions and became unconscious." Sounds like brain swelling and they took him to surgery to insert a drain for accumulating fluid. If he were in his forties, I'd say he's gone now, but at his age, there is a chance that he will recover somewhat, perhaps even completely, but the odds are very slim ... the swelling is a vicious circle of dying cells and accumulating fluid and pressure cutting off blood supply/oxygen and more dying cells, etc.