QuestionMy brother's wife had a baby last june and he was born 6 months before the due date weighing 1 lb 3 oz's. The baby has been through many surgeries has been on oxygen since birth and they have had him on morphine. when they put the feeding tube in they damaged and put a hole in his throat, they did surgery for his intestines , but what they were fixing something in his stomach they scraped his intestines again and his belly started swelling again. After surgery he was knocked out for about 12 days. Now they are stating that his brain is short of growing 2/3 rds of what it should be. Do u think that this hospital has abandoned their duty after all this time to give him routine head checks to make sure everythign is growing proplerly? My brother signed a form for my parents to go in and see Avery anytime they wanted, now the doctors will not let my parents go in and see him unless my brother is present. Is that normal for a hospital to do that even with my brothers written consent and signed papers? I understand that there is a slim chance for babies that are born that small to have a success rate, however he has never came home yet, and it's one thing after another, do u think because my brother is only 18 and my parents are wiser then to be fooled that is why they don't let them in without him being there? I am really not understanding the whole situation here, the poor guy has laid there on morphine for his whole little life surgery after surgery, and I understand doctors are supposed to give hope, but I don't think false hope or not doing things they should be to ensure thing sare ok is right. What should we do at this point? My parents think that since the brain has not grown and this hasn't been caught until 10 months later. My mom said that if they would have known all of that, that instead of letting him suffer and go through all of this that maybe it would be best to let him go. It's hard to give up hope for the little guy, not as hard for my brother and his wife, but at this point what type of option do we have? I know I have alot of questions and concerns and u only able to answer at a non legal stand point but as a professional, where exactly does this leave him and since this I mean it seems as if there is nothing left but a helpless little guy laying on a table medicated up. thanks for listening and I hope u respond quickly. By the way my family lives in east tennessee. thanks for your time
AnswerHi Heather,
This is a very complicated case. I am unable to offer very much as I don't have a good handle on everything that was done and why. It's hard to assess the medical staff's responsibilities and whether or not they are carrying them out as they ought to be. As for the visitation, I really don't understand what they are doing and why.
I agree completely that false hope is wrong. We, in medicine, all want to believe that there is still hope because that is how we are trained, but when there is really no hope for any sort of life quality, the right thing to do is face facts and make the hard decision not to continue futile treatment. Everyone suffers when that happens. I would suggest a family meeting with the doctors and the medical ethicist to discuss the absolute realities as it pertains to Avery.
One thing though, don't let religious belief get in the way of pragmatic decision making. Religion often clouds what needs to be decided. From what little I know about this case, preserving life for it's own sake, without any quality at all, is not the correct thing to do.
