Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Harrison was declared brain dead as a baby |
An article by Sadiya Chowdhury published last week by Sky News stated that a senior doctor was "shocked" when a baby started breathing on his own two weeks after being declared brain stem dead after two tests. According to the article:
On Thursday, a senior doctor told the High Court she was "shocked" when a baby declared brain stem dead after two tests began breathing by himself two weeks later.
The court heard that ventilation continued on the four-month-old after he was declared dead because there was an ongoing legal dispute.
In July, doctors treating him at a London hospital were forced to rescind "the clinical ascertainment of death" after a nurse noticed the infant had independent rhythmic breathing.
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| Lewis Roberts |
In March 2021, 18-year-old Lewis Roberts was declared brain stem dead after a road accident but began breathing independently hours before his organs were to be extracted for donation. Today he is well enough to play football and basketball.
Last month his sister told Sky News the test is done too soon.
"They rushed it through," she said.
"Eight months ago he was sat in a wheelchair, his eyes were gone, he couldn't speak. From how he was then to how he is now, that just shows that the brain can heal given the time."
The article states that a doctor told the High Court that there is a problem with brain stem testing. Chowdhury reported the doctor as saying:
"Brain injuries need time to assess fully, to understand what is permanent damage and what is temporary"
An article about Harrison Ellmer was published in the Daily Mail in October 2015. Harrison was declared brain dead when he was three weeks old. He is three years old in the above picture.
There are plans to change the Uniform Determination of Death Act to align the law with the current practise. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is concerned that the proposals will lead to more people being declared brain dead for the purposes of organ donation. Lewis Roberts was hours away from having his organs extracted but now he is well enough to play football and basketball.
9 comments:
Donating organs has gotten to be a sketchy scenario. Who knows what these people are doing and when. It's noble in theory, but in reality may be far different. There's money in them there organs, and that makes it even worse. Who trusts medical doctors this much anymore.
Thanks for highlighting this important issue! The recent tragic death of actress Anne Heche is another example of a living person being “declared” dead because her brain lacked certain abilities. She was then kept on life support with a beating heart and breathing lungs until her actual death by organ harvesting two days later. Interestingly, even the Washington Post and the New York Times refused to publish her obituary until after her actual demise following the removal of her organs.
The fact that she was “declared” dead but then kept alive for two days on life support says it all. A dead person cannot be kept alive. We are not dead when we lose certain abilities, but when our spirit departs to return to the God who gave it. Anne Heche was still biologically and spiritually alive at the time of her organ harvesting. Up until that time her recovery was still possible. The Washington Post and the New York Times were correct when they refused to publish her obituary until after her death by organ harvesting.
For more information on the facts of organ donation and procurement, please visit our website respectforhumanlife.com. Don’t sign that donor card!
I find myself distrustful of every medical procedure now. To know the extent to which the pharma industry, so much in control of medical practices, is manipulating the truth... that has been made abundantly clear in the last three years.
These stories of resuscitation after being declared brain dead are horrific. It brings to mind the monstrous possibility of people being carved up while still in a state of awareness. A true horror movie scenario.
Dr. Heidi Klessig
I agree with you 100%.
How do these doctors know if and what could happen after they remove someone from life support.
I once attended an information session on end-of-life at our Church and I could not believe how uninformed and misinformed the people were and how not only willing, but confident in letting doctors tell them what should and should not happen. Not only uninformed, but they still not willing to understand what brain dead means and the role of hydration/food.
People are so incredibly willing to let doctors make their life/death decisions for them. I guess that eliminates any guilt or responsibility. You must do everything possible, because anything is possible. This young boy is living proof of that.
Let's hope this young boy is God's 'wake up' story for the world. Double entendre intended.
What a glorious story and hopefully this will create changes.
I’m a registered nurse and I’ll never forget the brain surgeon who presented at a biomedical ethics symposium describing the evil trifecta of the changed legal terminology for ‘brain dead’, big money, and medicine. The money is so big a temptation, it’s easy for a team to focus on thinking that they are saving lives rather than that they are taking one away. It’s disgusting and I removed myself from that national list immediately. This is only one story; years back, I was collecting one story after another of something like an 18-year-old in a motorcycle accident declared ‘brain dead’ goes on to live a completely normal life because the parents refused the doctors request. Many many instances!
Perhaps in such cases, if next of kin have an international right to revoke any entitlement to organ removal, hospitals looking for extra pay won't bother so much?
Janice, you are absolutely right! We are praying that this baby makes a full recovery and be a living testimony to the falsity of the “brain death” designation. I am so grateful to Mr. Schadenburg for publishing the photos and stories of other boys who recovered before they were taken to the operating room and used for spare parts!
In addition to the website, you can find more information in this video of the talk I gave for HALOvoice on Harvesting Organs and Cherishing Life: https://youtu.be/73zZV_0qzDM
In it I highlight another case that Mr. Schadenburg published: a woman who actually did wake up on the operating table while her kidneys were harvested. The coroner ultimately ruled her death a homicide.
So sorry, I just realized I misspelled Schadenberg in my last comment, feel free to edit it.
I used to agree with organ donation until I experienced it firsthand within my family.
The first incident was my brother-in-law. He received a lung transplant only to die within basically the same amount of time that he had been given to live without a transplant - less than a year. In that time after his transplant, he was on a forever changing cocktail of anti-rejection drugs (which he had reactions to) and was severely depressed because he aged 20 years overnight. So he was sicker than a dog his last remaining months, didn’t live any longer anyways - all that for what? Also, I think that if you receive an organ that you need to be on antirejection drugs for life. To me it seems like a big money making scam.
The second incident involved my nephew who had a heart attack after taking drugs laced with fentanyl. It was over five minutes before he was revived and so the first prognosis was that he would have brain damage. A couple days later they said he was brain dead and asked my sister if she would consider donating his organs. 5 days after his heart attack (death), he was taken off of life support for 5 minutes each for two separate occasions by two different doctors to determine that he in fact was brain dead. The next evening they wheeled him into the operating room to harvest his organs.
I will never forget my sister commenting at how peaceful he looked and how she sure hoped that she was doing the right thing because if she wasn’t, she had just authorized the doctors to murder her son. I am scarred for life and I will never put my family through that emotional turmoil. Which time did he actually die because we have 5 to consider?
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