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| Nancy Valko |
During the last few months, I have been writing about efforts by some legislators in Missouri and now Kansas to block the passage of Simon’s Law, a bill that exposed and sought to change the secret futility polices in hospitals that led to the death of Simon Crosier, a baby with Trisomy 18. I even wrote my own testimony in support of the bill.
But now in a stunning development, Dr. John Lantos wrote an opinion editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) admitting that withholding life-sustaining treatment from babies with Trisomy 13 and 18 was really a value judgment rather than a medical judgment:
But now in a stunning development, Dr. John Lantos wrote an opinion editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) admitting that withholding life-sustaining treatment from babies with Trisomy 13 and 18 was really a value judgment rather than a medical judgment:
Thirty years ago, pediatric residents were taught that trisomy 13 and 18 were lethal congenital anomalies. Parents were told that these conditions were incompatible with life. There was a tacit consensus that life-sustaining treatment was not medically indicated. Clinical experience usually was consistent with this self-fulfilling prophecy.(Previous article on this topic: Children with Trisomy 13/18 are not incompatible with life.)
But with social media, this changed. Parents share stories and videos, showing their happy 4 and 5 year old children with these conditions. Survival, it turns out, is not a rare as once thought.”
This survival is even more impressive in light of a related JAMA article titled "Outcomes of Surgical Interventions in Children with Trisomies 13 and 18" which stated that although "The median age of survival was 13 and 9 days, respectively, in children with trisomies 13 and 18":Among children with trisomies 13 and 18 who lived to 6 months, survival at age 10 years was 51% and 60%, respectively.Note that what is changing the former medical perception of "incompatible with life" is not any new medical advance but rather loving parents who refused to accept the predicted death sentences for their babies, insisted on treatment and then used Facebook and other social and regular media to show off their children’s real lives. I call this Parent Power and it is based on love.
That power may help bills like Simon's Law to finally pass.
DOWN SYNDROME (Trisomy 21) AND PARENT POWER
I personally learned about parent power when my daughter Karen was born in 1982 with Down Syndrome and a severe heart defect. 20+ years before Karen’s birth, children with Down Syndrome were routinely institutionalized as accepted medical practice. But by the time Karen was born, almost all newborns with Down Syndrome went home with their parents and eligible early childhood programs.
What caused this dramatic change?
Again, it was primarily parent power.
Parents like Kay and Marty McGee not only ignored the standard medical advice to institutionalize their daughter but also fought for support and help for their daughter and others like her. They eventually founded the National Association for Down Syndrome in 1960 (Link)
By working with other parents and reaching out to willing educational, legal and medical professionals, they helped change medical attitudes, the educational system and public acceptance of people with Down Syndrome who are now achieving goals once thought impossible.
Although it continues to be a long-term effort to ensure non-discriminatory medical treatment for people with Down Syndrome or other disabilities, people with Down Syndrome who were once predicted to die at an early age now have a life expectancy of 60 years and are achieving goals once thought impossible.
The Fight is Still From Over
Unfortunately and on the heels of the welcome editorial comment on babies with Trisomy 13 and 18, comes the news about the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of little Israel Stinson.
Two-year old Israel died after a judge suddenly and unexpectedly rescinded a court order that prevented a California hospital from removing the ventilator from little Israel before his parents could get an opinion from another neurologist after conflicting medical opinions about whether or not Israel was brain dead.
In this case, parent power was overturned by a single judge after the family thought that Israel was protected by a court order.
Not only is this personally tragic for Israel and his parents but this development also serves to devastate the crucial trust needed in our medical and legal systems.
1 comment:
On August 29th 2000, Pope John -Paul !!(now St John-Paul the Great),when he addressed the transplant surgeons,on the issue of "Brain Death"said among other things,
5. It is a wellknown fact that for some time certain scientific approaches to ascertaining death have shifted the emphasis from the traditional cardiorespiratory signs to the socalled "neuro- logical" criterion. Specifically, this consists in establishing, according to clearly determined parameters commonly held by the international scientific community, the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity (in the cerebrum, cerebellum and brain stem).
Reality is that 'parameters commonly held by the international scientific community,"has to this day,NEVER been achieved. The diagnosis of "brain death" varies from country to country,even from state to state, and even from city to city.His request is totally ignored and people diagnosed 'brain dead'are being killed for their organsUNDER ANAESTHETIC. Whoever heard of a truly dead person needing that? But many time the so-called "brain dead" react in pain to the first incision! When will people realize that "brain dead"people are not really dead and demand surgeons go back to the original cardio-pulmonary diagnosis of true clinical death?
The demand for organs is the primary reason for this "brain death"IS A DECEPTION.
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