Schools ponder role as child nears death

Chicago Tribune ^ | December 9, 2007 | Jeff Long

[Sopater]

As the school bus rolled to a stop outside her Lake County home, Beth Jones adjusted the bright yellow document protruding from the pouch of her daughter's wheelchair, making sure it was clearly visible.

In bold letters it warned, "Do Not Resuscitate."

The DNR order goes everywhere with Katie, including her 2nd-grade classroom at Laremont School in Gages Lake. The school is part of the Special Education District of Lake County, where an emotional two-year discussion ended this summer when officials agreed to honor such directives.

Now, district officials find themselves in the unusual position of having planned the steps its staff will, or won't, take to permit a child to die on school grounds. Although DNR orders are common in hospitals and nursing homes, such life-and-death drama rarely plays out in schools, where officials realize how sensitive and traumatic the situation could be for nurses, teachers and students.

Katie's brain was deprived of oxygen before birth. She can't walk, talk or do anything for herself. She is fed through a tube in her stomach and has an increased susceptibility to infection. Violent choking and coughing spasms have signaled a turn for the worse in her condition.

A Do Not Resuscitate order is a doctor's directive, issued with the consent of the family, that cardiopulmonary resuscitation will not be used if the patient suffers from heart or breathing problems. It can also prohibit using such devices as a defibrillator or an intubation tube. The new DNR policy puts Katie's school district at the forefront of a growing national debate about severely disabled and chronically ill children whose lives have been extended by medical advances -- and whose parents must face heart-wrenching decisions about the future.

[dragonblustar]

I can’t imagine having a sign on my daughter saying do not resuscitate.

[Anonymous Rex]

There’s no way a school should be forced to honor that DNR order. If the mother is so hell bent on the child not being resuscitated then she needs to keep her at home until she passes away.

[frogjerk]

We forget that often we are going against the will of God by keeping people alive when they are dying.

Is it morally right for the parents of this girl to force their situation upon the school teachers, nurses, and students? Absolutely not.

[Publius6961]

If the rest of society is "freaked out" by seeing a disabled person, society needs to become more civilized.

I am unable to confuse "seeing" a disabled person and having one thrust at me.

Would having this family ring your doorbell so you can be "more civilized" clarify it for you?

The effect on children being forced to ask what is DNR seems to be lost on you. I would rather not have you or any school decide for me when is the proper time to discuss mortality and death with my own children.

[SoftballMominVA]

care facility of their choosing

As a tax payer would you be concerned if your taxes rose all of a sudden because of the institutionalizing of all severe and profound students? Care facilities for this type of disabilities would break small districts even if they had fewer than 5 kids.

Besides, the kid is happy, she likes being around the other kids, she is taken care of so that the parents can work. Maybe the other kids learn a little compassion for the disabled and don't grow up to think they should be warehoused with the other defectives.

Now, let me think..... what country recently killed those that were not up to standards or insane? Or kept large groups of sub-humans in large camps hmmm......

[VirginiaConstitutionalist]

They’re not “killing” their child. She’s dying, painfully, and they and their doctors have chosen not to use artifical means should she begin to die.

But I guess that conflicts with your Hillarylike view that all children become property of the “village” when something offends you.

[wideawake]

When it involves your kid, yes it does.

Incorrect.

There is no right to compel other people to listen to a lecture, whether they are children or adults. But there is a right to try to save the lives of others.

[wideawake]

They’re not “killing” their child.

Sure they are.

[Teacher317]

How much education is she getting while she cannot talk and cannot walk and is awaiting her own death? Do you think that listening to a song about prepositions is going to be a meaningful thing for her?

[frogjerk]

I posted a DNR order when it became clear my father's condition could not improve if he was revived. I saw no point to prolonging his suffering if extending his life would not improve the quality of his existence. I was prepared to authorize all measures to keep him alive in every other circumstance but I also realized that life and death are ultimately in God's hands and if He wanted to heal my father He would have but He decided it was time for him to come home.

But did you force other people who you did not know to possibly participate in his passing? Probably not. This is why this situation is very frightening in the way that these parents are acting.

[Marie]

if my child was this close to death I would not let her/him out of my sight, I’d want to spend every waking moment with my child.

As the parent of a child who was critically ill for years, I can't begin to tell you the toll it takes on a person in every way. The care-taker seriously does need a break to recharge every once in awhile or they crash hard.

BUT, there are ways to get that respite other than taxpayer-funded public-freaking-school!

[VirginiaConstitutionalist]

It’s not about a “lecture.” It’s about parents and their doctors making a decision about the future of their dying child.

Just because they made a questionable decision that offends you doesn’t give you the right to act as that child’s parent.

[CMS]

My school had a few classrooms just for students with special needs, they never were with the rest of the general student body

[najida]

Force their situation?

Explain please.....
Do you mean sending a sick kid to school?
or
Do you mean having people take care of a child that may die at school?

Call me hard, but I think we need a few more people seeing real sick people, sick kids and real death in this world (but that’s just me.)

We live in such a cotton fluff world already.

[ahayes]

I am unable to confuse "seeing" a disabled person and having one thrust at me.

You are offended by the presence of a disabled person in a public space. Enough said.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

The school needs document that they cannot care for her needs and have her removed.

She should be in a special school with medical supervision.

If someone violates their DNR they can be sued on top of it all.

I feel for this child, but i would not want her in my school if I was a principal or teacher. This is one big $$$$ lawsuit waiting to happen....IMO

[Teacher317]

But there is a right to try to save the lives of others

Really? So I can sue the government if they prevent me from trying to save the life of an inmate about to be executed? No? Maybe I can sue if they try to prevent me from leaping into a polar bear enclosure while the animal is rending another zoo patron? No? Then maybe I can find that right in the text of the Constitution? No? Then maybe I can find some case law that supports your assertion? No? Hmmm... funny thing, that.

Or maybe it just feels nice to type it, whether it reflects reality or not.

[frogjerk]

There is no right to compel other people to listen to a lecture, whether they are children or adults. But there is a right to try to save the lives of others.

Absolutely. And for the parents to actually force people in the school, by a DNR order, to possibly participate in the death of their daughter is a very serious matter.

[Froufrou]

“How does the mother know...”

Mothers often don’t know but I’m pretty sure they have a better chance of knowing than anyone else what their children like and what they don’t.

It’s okay for schools to teach “gay’s okay” but Heaven forbid we let a child in a wheelchair ‘belong’ there?

[wideawake]

doesn’t give you the right to act as that child’s parent

Helping a helpless person when they are in extreme danger is not "acting like a parent."

It's called acting like a human being.

The Jones' do not get to be dictators over everyone's conscience.