The parents of a boy who was found unresponsive in a bathtub are suing a hospital to keep their son on a ventilator.
Ana Patricia and Mario Torres from Houston, Texas found their 10-month-old son laying and unconscious in a bathtub. They have filed a lawsuit against Texas Children’s Hospital after doctors urged them to pull the plug as their child was declared brain dead.
The young boy, who has been in the intensive care unit since September 24, was pronounced legally dead due to a lack of brain activity. Doctors urged his parents to disconnect him from his ventilator but the parents are fighting to keep their child on life support.
The parents believe that baby Nick still has a chance as his heart is still beating. They filed for an injunction against the hospital and sought over $1 million, claiming medics were ‘rushing to make a decision’ without giving their child the chance to fight.
Ana wrote in a post: “He is on life support, but the doctors already lost hope and want to remove the life support that is keeping him alive. I have faith that GOD is the main doctor.”
A Harris County district judge denied the injunction but granted the couple more time to file an appeal.
The couple’s attorney, Kevin Acevedo, told CNN: “Do the parents choose, or do the doctors choose? And when the doctors don’t agree with the parents, who gets to decide? And those are the issues that are at the heart of this case.”
The hospital said that the child has had no blood flow to his brain and is legally dead according to Texas law, and had ‘developed progressive signs of organ failure.’
The doctor who pronounced Nick dead also said that he has started to show ‘postmortem deterioration.’
“(Nick’s) current condition and physiological changes have nothing to do with the presence of oxygen provided by the ventilator. In addition, these changes cannot be stopped or slowed by the ventilator or any other service,” doctors said.
The parents have refused to give up on their son as they document their experience on social media.
“We want to take our baby home and provide home care since no hospital is willing to take him,” the mother wrote on Facebook. “HE IS ALIVE. His heart is beating on its own. Blood is running through his veins, we’ve been changing his diapers, a dead person does not pee or poo. His eyes have tears, he is crying for justice.
“I don’t want a Hospital to decide if my baby dies or lives. Only God can give and take life away [it’s] not for a human to decide.”
The Texas Children’s Hospital issued a statement to CNN and said it has complied with all ‘applicable legal standards in providing services.’
They said: “We know losing a child is incredibly difficult for any family. Texas Children’s seeks to provide the most compassionate and appropriate care possible to every patient we serve.”
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