Posted on 04/29/2005 10:10:26 AM PDT by Calpernia
A 13-year-old boy declared brain dead after the spread of an infection following a dental procedure was taken off a ventilator on Thursday, and his heart and other organs stopped soon after, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The mechanical ventilator for Teron Francis was turned off at the request of his family shortly before 5 p.m., Montefiore Children's Hospital spokeswoman Pamela Adkins said. The boy's heart and other organs stopped by 5:05 p.m.
``Our hearts go out to the family, and we hope they will be allowed to find peace,'' the hospital said in a statement.
Teron was declared brain dead _ a diagnosis the hospital said means ``the patient is dead'' _ and a death certificate was issued last week.
Earlier Thursday, his family asked state Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon in the Bronx to vacate his Monday injunction preventing the hospital from taking the teen off the respirator.
The court hearing was attended by two doctors and the boy's mother, Marcelyn Francis.
She testified that she had hoped Teron might recover, that she hoped for a miracle ``but that she now accepted the fact that he was brain dead and there was no chance for his recovery,'' McKeon said in a telephone interview.
``I issued an order that vacated my injunction which prevented the hospital from taking him off life support,'' the judge said.
McKeon said he had issued the restraining order to give the boy's family time to ascertain through a second opinion whether he was indeed brain dead. But the mother had instructed doctors not to revive her son if his heart stopped.
The hospital has said there was no need for the family to go to court because the hospital's long-standing policy is to support and accommodate the family in its decision.
``It is our policy to give the family enough time to come to grips with the realization,'' hospital spokesman Steven Osborne said earlier this week.
McKeon, who took a keen interest in the case and visited Teron in the hospital, said he felt he couldn't make decisions regarding the boy without going to his bedside.
``I said in open court,'' he recalled, ``that I felt that a judge could not be asked to make a decision whether someone lives or dies and not go to the bedside of that person.''
After signing the order Monday, McKeon said he felt that Teron ``became my own child.''
It's possible that he had an undetected disorder that was triggered by the infection.
This whole controversy would been prevented if the medical staff had acted with the slight bit of sensitivity. Losing a child would be a tremendous shock to any parent, particularly given the way he died.
No orthodondist in my history. Just a "fill his teeth whether he needs it or not" type of dentist back in the 50's when I was a mere child. Plus he gave me novacain once and pushed the needle through my brain. It took me 20+ years to take novacain after that.
FMCDH(BITS)
To fix my crooked teeth?
All you had to do instead, was wait until you were 18 (or old enough when your mouth stops growing) and go to a real dentist and have any crooked teeth capped. When they cap your teeth they can make any crooked tooth straight. If you only have a few teeth that are crooked (or teeth that nobody sees anyhow so you can ignore them) caps are actually way cheaper than braces.
Caps/veneers are beautiful pearly white while braces are ugly when you have them on and even after you take them off they will often leave your teeth permanently stained or discolored. Caps/veneers are permanent and will pretty much outlast you, millions of years from now archeologist of the future will find human fossils from today and their caps will still be pearly white. While gluing food accumulating, bacteria friendly metal bars to your fragile teeth and leaving it there for years can and does often lead to problems. Even if you get through the orthodontic treatment unscathed your teeth may still have unrelated problems later, A cap/veneer on a tooth pretty much means that tooth is safe forever.
The big thing to keep in mind is, in order to straighten your teeth, Orthodontist will have 1 set (4 teeth) of your (8 total) pre-molars (The small teeth behind your canines) yanked out. Now common sense should tell you that when somebody wants to pull 4 perfectly healthy teeth out, SOMETHING A'INT RIGHT!!! You evolved and/or God created you (which ever you prefer) with 2 sets of premolars for a reason, Pre-Molars are show teeth so they are pretty and make your smile better, removing ½ of them will guarantee your smile will never be at it's best because with the pre-molars gone your molars move up and you see them instead. Molars are chewing teeth and are ugly which is why they are in the back where you wouldn’t see them if you left them alone like evolution and/or God intended.
Also despite what the lowlife Orthodontist tells you, your teeth never fully fills in the space left by your missing pre-molars, so space develops between your other teeth, space which food can now get into, which leads to more and more cavities throughout your life.
I do speak with experience on this, I got braces against my wishes (I knew they were a scam even then, but my mother wanted them for some reason and forced me and my father was way bigger than I was) put on when I was 16. Before I had them put on I maybe had one or two cavities in my whole life, after they were taken off for years after every time I went to the dentist I had 2 or 3 cavities. I ended up having 2 root canals and my front teeth were starting to degrade on the bottom and I had more other dental work that I can’t even remember. But luckily when I was 27 years old I grew in a second set of wisdom teeth (I had my 1st set taken out @21) which pushed my teeth back to where they were before I got the braces. These were a godsend because I immediately stopped getting cavities (8 years later I’ve only had one since, and that was on a previous filling).
As for my teeth (4 of them) that ended up being crooked again, well I did the right thing this time and put caps/veneers on 2 of them and the dentist straightened them out when he did this. (The other 2 you can’t see when I smile so who cares, I left them and will leave them alone).
NOTE: One of the selling points of getting braces my orthodondist used was that if I didn't get my teeth "fixed" by him, I would never be able to get caps. Pure BS, If an orthodondist ever says this he is lying to you.
You are right, I am sorry for even linking chiropractors with lowlife orthodontist.
In a perfect world, Orthodontist would end up at the bottom of the ocean, under the lawyers!!!
Impacted wisdom tooth removal, infection, abcess, burst, lymphatic infection, systemic infection, high fever, major organ damage...et cetera, et cetera.
""A 13-year-old boy declared brain dead after the spread of an infection following a dental procedure was taken off a ventilator on Thursday, and his heart and other organs stopped soon after, a hospital spokeswoman said.""
He was not disabled he was brain dead. He was on a respirator. Terri was disabled.
"Are you saying that a company would be violating the ADA if it refused to hire Terri? Would you advocate taking that company to court and suing them?"
Is the NBA violating the ADA if they refuse to hire me?
Mentally disabled is different from physically disabled.
You really, REALLY don't know what you are talking about and I'd urge everyone to ignore this bilge.
Thankyou TheSpottedOwl.
If you've ever heard the phrase pull the plug- it applies to this. You pull the plug-----and flatline. A breathing machine is not the same as mashed up food and water fed to you through a feeding tube.
I'd like to thank Mom and Dad for getting me braces. I have beautiful teeth now.
Seems like he has issues.
As a rule, I don't rely on medical, legal or dental advice I might find on FR. :)
Words of wisdom.
I will not argue with you about Terri for you feel it is perfectly legimate for a man to file a medical lawsuit over his wife and after receiving the funds, suddenly remember she stated she did not want to live this way.
Then he spends the money on lawyers to kill her.
You think it is perfectly right for a judge to refuse one last look with new eyes at all aspects of the case before killing a woman.
You think it is fine for the government to tell a mother - you can't take care of your daughter because her "husband" wants her dead and we want her dead.
And you are willing to accept questionable PVS state as justification to kill.
I don't to all of the above.
They murdered a woman who was not dying, with a questionable PVS state. They withdrew food and hydration and did not offer her water and food by mouth - therefore, an actual act of murder.
I do not believe in state murder on American citizens that happen to be bedridden and can't communicate their wishes.
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