The LA Times is reporting that the death of a disabled 8-year-old boy in 2013 is currently under investigation by Los Angeles police and the DA office.
Back in 2013, Cole Hartman’s father found his son with his head submerged in their washing machine. Cole went into cardiac arrest, but paramedics were able to resuscitate him.
From the story:
Physicians at UCLA’s pediatric intensive care unit told Cole’s family that the child was not brain-dead but “would never recover normal neuro function and … could never awaken,” according to an entry in his medical chart.
The Hartmans decided to take Cole off life support and donate his organs. He was removed from the ventilator and, 23 minutes later with his family at his bedside, pronounced dead by an anesthesiologist.
Before getting into why there’s an investigation into Cole’s death – and why it’s happening four years after his death – here’s some info on Donation after Cardiac Death (DCD), and what we call “rush to judgment.”
I recently attended a medical ethics seminar held at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago that reaffirmed medical practice guidelines about brain injury. Doctors continue to agree that it is necessary to wait before they can predict brain injury outcomes with reasonable, though they also admit not total, certainty. For traumatic brain injury (e.g. car accidents), the waiting period is one year. For anoxic brain injury (e.g. stroke or heart attack), it’s three months.
And, experts say that children are more likely to recover from brain injury than adults, as discussed by doctors regarding the “end of life” case of Haleigh Poutre. Here are excerpts from a story by Joe Shapiro after 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre’s brush with an “end of life” judgment:
Dr. JANE O’BRIEN (Chief Medical Director, Franciscan Hospital for Children): Children’s brains are amazing. They are very plastic. There is often a lot of potential to reach levels that nobody expects.
SHAPIRO: There are 39 children living on the inpatient unit. They’re kids but with a difference. Most depend upon some piece of technology.