Yesterday baby Isaiah died in the arms of his parents, Isaac and Rebecka May, at 12:11pm at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital. He was also surrounded by uncles, and and grandparents.
You may remember that baby Isaiah was born October 24th 2009 in a small central Alberta town after a difficult 40 hour labour. His brain was oxygen deprived because his umbillical cord was wrapped around his throat. Baby Isaiah was air-lifted to the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton. He was ventilator dependent throughout his short life and never emerged from a coma. You can read details about the case in previous blog entries.
The hospital said Isaiah was brain-dead and notified his 23 year old parents by official letter, on hospital letterhead, that the baby's respirator would be turned off on 20 January 2010 (nothing like delivering such terrible news in a impersonal way!). They may have thought Isaac and Rebecka May were just a young couple who would meekingly accept the decision of the hospital but they were in for a shock. The Mays asked for 90 more days to give baby Isaiah an opportunity to improve. The hospital would not budge: Baby Isaiah was occupying a bed, ventilator and organs that could be used elsewhere. The Mays had the gall (God bless them) to take the matter to court to stop the hospital and get the 90 days they thought their baby needed.
It was the classic David and Goliath story and gained international attention. Isaac and Rebecka needed time to accept the fate that befell their baby and they weren't going to be pushed around by an arbitrary deadline decided by the head honcho of the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.
The Mays sought a second, third and fourth independent medical opinion about Isaiah's prognosis. If their baby was going to die it wouldn't be without overturning every stone of possibility to give their baby a chance. Of course the refusal to meekly accept the decision of his presiding neonatology offended his god-complex and poisoned further communications regarding baby Isaiah's care.
It was only when baby Isaiah's dire situation became evident by independent medical input was kindly presented to the Mays on their terms and in their time, did they finally agree to let their baby's respirator be turned off and let baby Isaiah go.
What this case did for me was show the illustrate the lie of brain death. The term brain death is an invention to allow the removal of beating hearts from the chests of living but allegedly comatose patients.
More about this in future blogs.
Mark Pickup
You may remember that baby Isaiah was born October 24th 2009 in a small central Alberta town after a difficult 40 hour labour. His brain was oxygen deprived because his umbillical cord was wrapped around his throat. Baby Isaiah was air-lifted to the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton. He was ventilator dependent throughout his short life and never emerged from a coma. You can read details about the case in previous blog entries.
The hospital said Isaiah was brain-dead and notified his 23 year old parents by official letter, on hospital letterhead, that the baby's respirator would be turned off on 20 January 2010 (nothing like delivering such terrible news in a impersonal way!). They may have thought Isaac and Rebecka May were just a young couple who would meekingly accept the decision of the hospital but they were in for a shock. The Mays asked for 90 more days to give baby Isaiah an opportunity to improve. The hospital would not budge: Baby Isaiah was occupying a bed, ventilator and organs that could be used elsewhere. The Mays had the gall (God bless them) to take the matter to court to stop the hospital and get the 90 days they thought their baby needed.
It was the classic David and Goliath story and gained international attention. Isaac and Rebecka needed time to accept the fate that befell their baby and they weren't going to be pushed around by an arbitrary deadline decided by the head honcho of the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.
The Mays sought a second, third and fourth independent medical opinion about Isaiah's prognosis. If their baby was going to die it wouldn't be without overturning every stone of possibility to give their baby a chance. Of course the refusal to meekly accept the decision of his presiding neonatology offended his god-complex and poisoned further communications regarding baby Isaiah's care.
It was only when baby Isaiah's dire situation became evident by independent medical input was kindly presented to the Mays on their terms and in their time, did they finally agree to let their baby's respirator be turned off and let baby Isaiah go.
What this case did for me was show the illustrate the lie of brain death. The term brain death is an invention to allow the removal of beating hearts from the chests of living but allegedly comatose patients.
More about this in future blogs.
Mark Pickup
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thanks, nice post.
My son had the same sort of situation as Isaiah...right down to the same hospital. We chose to take him off his life support on Christmas Eve, and against all odds, our Noah James (ironically, a biblical name as well) is still alive. They still don't know the extent of his brain damage, but right now the situation is promising.
When they told us that he was "brain dead", he was on 3 different anti-seizure meds. After being off them for about 3 days, Noah had shown noticeable improvement in his alertness and reflexes....he had been in a comatose state up until that point. And now, almost 2 weeks later, he is a completely different baby.
I spoke on CBC Radio this morning, and Rebecka herself messaged me and told me about her son....I can't believe that they gave her an actual DAY that they were going to take him off his life support.
From going through this experience myself, I have immense respect for Isaac and Rebecka and the choices that they made. It is unfortunate that Isaiah ended up passing away, however, I'm sure that he found peace in the fact that his parents stood up for him.
- Olivia
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