You are not hearing the entire story.
This sounds like the family has been spoken to several times and they keep holding out for a miracle that isn’t going to happen.
I know of a catholic hospital and they have specially trained sisters/Drs to deal with these kinds of families. It happens all of the time..most families in this situation end up “getting it”. Some do not, and it gets very “icky”—and the families need to hear the truth, harshly, and directly.
I know it sounds cold. But the process needs to conclude. No need to rush it through Christmas—but I guarantee you that you are not hearing the full story. HPPA will not allow you to ever hear the rest of the story.
I am not letting them off the hook for malpractice. But this harshness you are reading is not the full story.
.if you keep this girl on a vent, you'll have to provide round the clock nursing/resp therapist..
.you'll have to treat many pneumonias...she'll have a catheter so her skin doesn't break down from being incontinent.
..then she'll get urinary tract infections and she'll need more antibiotics...antibiotics which will probably have to be given IV which means she'll probably have to have a permanent PICC line or port.
..think of all the labs that will have to be run..
..think of tube feedings and excoriation around the rectal area from that...
think people...
..is this what any of US would want?....I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy...not even bammey boy...
My brother (age 43) passed away from a massive brain aneurysm on August 10th, 2012. Doctors said it was so massive, he was dead before he hit the floor.
However it happened, the paramedics who arrived at his home managed to revive him -- meaning they got his heart beating again and he was breathing.
By the time I got to the hospital approximately 2 hours after his aneurysm, the Chief of Neurology had already examined him, as did the Neurologist on staff and a third person who's title I do not remember.
With my sister, youngest brother and I in the room with him, the three of them described my brother Brent's condition. They explained carefully and clearly what happened to him, the tests they'd be running in the twenty-four hour period to come, and the expected results.
Forty-five minutes after meeting with them, the results of the first test - a CT Scan of the brain came back and confirmed the location of the aneurysm, at the base of his brain stem (the worst possible place) and as blood leaked it would choke off the blood supply to his brain.
My sister, youngest brother and I were then pulled into a room with the same three doctors and advised to have a special type of MRI performed on our own brains as the type of aneurysm my brother Brent had was genetic. If the shock of losing our brother wasn't enough to process, now the three of us faced the possibility that it could happen to us. We were just overwhelmed.
I stayed with my brother that night in the hospital room (the only family member to do so.) I heard the ventilator kick in at 2:42am on Saturday, August 11th. My brother had passed, he was no longer breathing on his own. His brain was keeping his heart beating but his body temperature was dropping. He was surely dying. An attending nurse came in to confirm the ventilator had kicked in. I asked if indeed it was the ventilator that I heard, he replied "yes, your brother is now on full life support."
We flew my mother in from Florida that morning. When she arrived at the hospital that afternoon we were already told that our brother Brent was gone.
She refused to believe it. I wish the things that fell on me as the oldest son to do that day didn't fall on me.
I asked the attending Neurologist if he could brief the family on my brothers condition, the tests they'd run and his state. I'll never forget it. It was 4:10 in the afternoon August 11th, 2012 when the attending Neurologist gave the family with my mother in attendance his report indicating test results and finally pronouncing death by 4:15pm that afternoon.
To your point about sometimes a family holding out for a miracle that isn't going to happen, yes -- sometimes Doctors do need to spell out in very clear and certain terms what the situation is for a family to accept what has happened so they can begin to grieve.
I pray God blesses and keeps these parents near and dear to His heart and comforts them as only He can.