Detroit, Mich., Oct 29, 2019 / 06:36 pm (CNA).- For the second time in a month, a family in Michigan is fighting to keep their teenage son on life support after a hospital has declared the boy brain dead and made plans to remove his life support systems.
Titus Jermaine Cromer Jr., 16, was rushed to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak after suffering cardiac arrest, according to local news reports. When he arrived, he could not breathe independently or regulate his own blood pressure. However, after receiving hydration, nutrition, and body temperature regulation, his family’s lawyer says he is showing signs of improvement and can now breathe independently and regulate his own blood pressure.
However, hospital officials have diagnosed the teen as brain dead, after two doctors determined that he had suffered “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem.”
The hospital made plans to remove his life support systems on Oct. 28, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The family challenged the decision and has asked for additional medical opinions on whether Cromer is actually brain dead.
“As a parent, if there’s a million-to-one chance that he’s going to get better, I’m going to take it,” the family’s lawyer said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “And I’m not going to get two opinions. I’m going to get 20. I’m going to fight for my boy until there’s absolutely no hope at all. And then I’m going to fight some more.”
Oakland County Circuit Judge Hala Jarbou ordered the hospital to continue life support until a Nov. 7 court hearing on the teen’s health status.
The Detroit Free Press said the family’s lawyer described them as “very much guided by their faith, and as Catholics, they believe that removing life support would be murder.”
The case is similar to that of 14-year-old Bobby Reyes, who was rushed to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Michigan last month following a severe asthma attack. Repeat tests in the following days indicated that there was no blood flow or electrical activity in the boy’s brain.
The hospital declared Reyes brain dead and made plans to remove him from life support. Reyes’ family fought the decision but ultimately failed to receive relief from a court, due to a jurisdiction dispute. Reyes was removed from life support on Oct. 15.
The hospital said in a statement, “Continuing medical interventions was inappropriate after Bobby had suffered brain death and violates the professional integrity of Michigan Medicine’s clinicians.” Michigan law recognizes an individual as dead if they have undergone “irreversible cessation of all function of the entire brain, including the brain stem.”
The two Michigan cases have drawn renewed attention to the diagnosis of brain death and sparked concerns over parental rights in cases where family members question a diagnosis.
The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) maintains that cases of improvement over the course of months or years generally indicate an incorrect diagnosis of brain death in the first place.
“Stories of people continuing on a ventilator for months or years after being declared brain dead typically indicate a failure to apply the tests and criteria for determination of brain death with proper attentiveness and rigor,” said Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, director of education for the center, in a 2005 information sheet.
“In other words, somebody is likely to have cut some corners in carrying out the testing and diagnosis.”
In Cromer’s case, the family believes their teenage son has been misdiagnosed. Their lawyer cited his improvements in independent breathing and blood pressure regulation as “very strong indicia that he has not suffered brain death,” according to the Detroit Free Press.
Medical criteria for diagnosing brain death, while controversial in some circles, have been accepted by most Catholic bioethicists, provided that diagnostic tests are carried out thoroughly and carefully.
In an Aug. 29, 2000 address to the international congress of the transplantation society, St. John Paul II stated that using as a criterion for death “the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity (in the cerebrum, cerebellum and brain stem) … if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of a sound anthropology.”
The NCBC has also stated repeatedly that “Health care workers can use these neurological criteria as the basis for arriving at ‘moral certainty’ that an individual has died.”
The NCBC noted that determining death by these neurological criteria typically involves bedside testing to assess absence of response or reflexes, apnea testing to assess the absence of the ability to breath, and “possible confirmatory tests to further assess the absence of brain activity (for example, an EEG) or the absence of blood flow to the brain.”
Similarly, the U.S. bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services indicate that “the determination of death should be made by the physician or competent medical authority in accordance with responsible and commonly accepted scientific criteria.”
And in 2008, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences stated that “brain death … ‘is’ death,” and that “something essential distinguishes brain death from all other types of severe brain dysfunction that encompass alterations of consciousness (for example, coma, vegetative state, and minimally conscious state).”
“If the criteria for brain death are not met, the barrier between life and death is not crossed, no matter how severe and irreversible a brain injury may be,” the academy added.
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences said that after brain death, “the ventilator and not the individual, artificially maintains the appearance of vitality of the body. Thus, in a condition of brain death, the so-called life of the parts of the body is ‘artificial life’ and not natural life. In essence, an artificial instrument has become the principal cause of such a non-natural ‘life’. In this way, death is camouflaged or masked by the use of the artificial instrument.”
Still, some pro-life advocates question the medical criteria used for diagnosing brain death and argue that taking organs from individuals diagnosed as brain dead amounts to homicide. The NCBC rejects that stance as “irresponsible” and “in tension with Catholic teaching,” countering that while a body may appear to be alive due to oxygenated blood being mechanically pumped through the body, thorough and rigorous testing can confirm that an individual is truly dead.
Dr. Alan Shwemon, former chief of the neurology department at Olive View-U.C.L.A. Medical Center, is an outspoken critic of the criteria used to diagnose brain death.
Shewmon had diagnosed some 200 patients as being brain dead throughout this career, according to the New Yorker. But he began to have doubts about the condition, which were intensified when he saw the case of a 13-year-old girl in Oakland who had been declared brain dead but began to show signs of improvement after being given tube feeding and hormone replacement.
Over the next four years, the girl was able to respond to simple motor commands and underwent puberty-related physical developments before dying of unrelated conditions, Shewmon said. His analysis of the situation led him to believe that the girl had not been brain dead, but was instead in a “minimally conscious state,” with brain flow in the brain too low to be detected by imaging technology, yet sufficient to prevent the death of brain cells – a condition known as global ischemic penumbra.
“Her case challenges the claimed infallibility of diagnostic criteria for brain death and supports the hypothesis that global ischemic penumbra can mimic both clinical brain death as well as absent blood flow on radionuclide scans,” Shewmon asserted in a December 2018 article.
Cromer’s family is now seeking additional medical opinions and a long-term care facility that will accept their son.
[…]
What stuns me is how deeply and swiftly into a loss of a common sense the world is falling. Shouldn’t it be self-evident that, if a child’s normal puberty (hormonal production) is being blocked his fertility (and not only fertility) will suffer long term?
It appears to me that many modern people see their bodies as some plastic dolls – inject into that plastic shape some meds, shake it well and later, if it does not work, we can just pour out, rinse and be fine and try something else. The same attitude pervades those who happily go for plastic surgeries, I think. There is no normal apprehension “what if it will go wrong” before doing something drastic with one’s own body or the body of one’s own child. This, by the way, is sharply at odds with “a nature = Gaya worshiping”.
Puberty blockers and hormonal meds affect not only physical but psychological health as well. They can cause a wide spectrum of reactions, from severe depression and anxiety to psychotic elation. However, those “doctors” who usher them on the trans-road somehow do make a connection between the meds they already prescribed and the worsened mental symptoms, up to suicidal ideation. “Look how depressed you are” they say to a child/teen, “do not worry, take those meds and you will feel far better after we get your breasts/penis cut off”.
Anyone who thinks you can ply a human being with all kinds of hormones (even those that are contraceptives) – especially during the developmental years – and not cause damage to the organism are either certifiably insane, irreversibly stupid or evil (some win the trifecta). I also place in the same category those lemmings who take experimental and untested vaccines because the government tells them they should (and also shields the pharmaceutical companies that makes them from product liability lawsuits.)
Were you vaccinated? Do you also deny the validity of all other vaccines against diseases? If bit by a rabid animal would you refuse treatment? Do you really believe that the multiple attempts to find a way of preventing COVID around the entire globe was an evil conspiracy concocted by a much corrupted medical profession. Perhaps COVID was created and intentionally released by evil people for unknown reasons; but to believe that the attempt to treat the disease and prevent multiple deaths is evil makes no sense at all. Yes, it’s highly likely that some people took advantage of this situation for selfish and or evil purposes ( this is to be expected of our fallen human state ); but that does not negate the good intentions or motivations of those who produced the vaccines. It may be true that the vaccines were ineffective or even harmful, but we do not really know that and surely did not know it at the time . The epidemic was so sudden and unexpected and the nature of the virus so unknown, that there was not time to subject create and test possible treatments the way we usually do. Time was of essence and risks had to be taken. It’s easy for an armchair Monday morning quarterback to make judgements on a play; but it’s much a different situation for the quarterback himself in pocket in the heat of the game with sore muscles and dirty sweat in his eyes. He throws his best ball in spite of it all. No one can really judge him, because they were not him in his shoes. The same can be said for the whole COVID scenario. Let’s give thanks for the many good people who tried their best to save lives. Let’s at least give them the benefit of doubt. My dear Deacon, we may disagree and still be brothers in Christ. May God bless your ministry , you are in my prayers.
Mr. Connor, I don’t see anything in Deacon Edward’s comments that suggest a rejection of all vaccines. Many people are concerned about the side effects of pharmaceuticals & especially those created in a hurry.
I really don’t think we’ll have all the answers about Covid for years. And considering it’s possible source, perhaps never.
I was a child myself once (I’m pretty certain all of us were). So was my brother. I remember that by the time we reached school age, both of us were very self-conscious about allowing even our parents to “see us” unclothed! I remember not using the school bathroom all day because there were no doors on the stall (what insanity prompted that policy?!). Both my brother and I were terrified of doctors and nurses who poked and prodded us during examinations–I remember screaming while a doctor examined me. What horrors must these children be experiencing while they are being “examined” and questioned? How does a child feel when a “professional” who has just poked and prodded their bodies announces, with a gentle smile, that the child “feels bad” because they are in the wrong body? Does that make them feel “better?!” Really?! Do they really think, “Thank goodness, this kind doctor has figured out how to help me feel happy again!” Do they even understand the differences between boys and girls at these young ages? How horrible for a child to wake up with sore/painful incision wounds on their private parts–these wounds will require daily wound care!–surely it is an awful experience for these children to have a parent or health care professional touching their body parts that they were always told by parents and teachers are “private!” The mental and psychological trauma caused by these surgeries surely causes any depression and/or anxiety to worsen! And in the meantime, is anyone trying to figure out alternative reasons why a child might feel “sad” all the time? Perhaps it’s because a pet died, or a cherished relative or friend, or perhaps they are anxious because they are watching a scary TV show that their parents are laughing at but that the child is afraid of? Or maybe they are being bullied, not because of their sex, but because bullies are MEAN and often, no teacher is allowed (or has the courage) to confront a bully and put a firm STOP to their violent taunts, threats, and physical attacks. Maybe the child has stomachaches or headaches because of a physical issue–e.g., food intolerance or over/under eating, or maybe the child needs glasses.
What medical professionals are violating their “do no harm” oath when it comes to treating supposedly “trans” children? They should be stripped of their licenses and forbidden to ever be around minor children or teenagers again.
The medical and legal establishment is now monetizing surgical experiments on human beings.
Eighty years ago we fought against fanatics who committed such human experiments, and we put them on trial for crimes against humanity, and hung them for committing these crimes.
I don’t foresee hanging but I do expect to see litigation.
Yes, it is the gist. But in the Nazi concentration camps the victims were unwilling. Now they are willing and it means that humanity hugely advance on its path to a total and “soft” mind control. Imagine some Gypsy woman willing coming to Ravensbrück (women concentration camp) and requesting that she and her daughter will be sterilized. This is exactly what is happening.
There are some cancers that are hormone based. To keep another tumor from happening the patient is given hormone blockers.
Catch 22. Depending on the hormone the patient must have a procedure to rebuild the bone; or else the patient will have osteoporosis.
The big difference is most people who develop a hormone cancer are adults. They are past childbearing years.
Teenagers are to become parents. What are these blockers and replacement procedures doing to all of the organs? When a 30 year old wants to marry and have children but discovers they are sterile. Will they figure out this is a delayed side effect from the trans drugs.
The advent of the contraceptive pill and its acceptance in medical practice represented a fundamental abandonment by the medical profession of the Hippocratic Oath. It was the first time that the profession allowed the deliberate prescription of a substance designed to interfere with normal physiology and function. Early varieties of oral contraceptives caused unexpected complications, most notably venous thrombosis complicated by pulmonary embolism and death. Rather than banning such prescribing, modifications to dosage were tried and tested for no reason other than to allow big pharma the ability to continue making obscene profits – not to care for the needs of women. The outrageous use of gender altering medication and risky surgery to alter the external appearances of normal gender development is in the same category, contrary to the ideals of Hippocratic medicine which sadly continue to be eroded. Worse, of course, is the cooperation of the law, once the great protector of human life in all its forms, in aiding and abetting these abominations through legislation. And where was this abandonment of the ideals of medicine born? In the USA!! God love America – with hands on heart, of course. The Mayo clinic data screams out “Abandon this abomination and affirm its criminality through laws that punish it rather than, as happened with the contraceptive pill, approve, aid and abet it.
Amen! Let’s not forget, however, that one of the biggest cheerleaders for this trans-mania is our devoutly Catholic president, Joe Biden, according to whose word — and how could anyone doubt that? — the pope himself called “a good Catholic” who should continue receiving Communion.
Thank you in advance min.
For friends who are looking for a gacor slot site that is trustworthy and has the biggest bonuses, here are several sites that might be your reference for playing.
https://abkhaziya.net/