Archives For Success Stories

Raleane “Rae” Kupferschmidt (Friday Success Story)

May 3, 2013 — Leave a comment

Raleane “Rae” Kupferschmidt

Raelene “Rae”Kupferschmidt, was 65 years old, when she experienced a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Her family had taken her home to die, per her wishes. The doctor’s had pronounced her “brain dead”.

While the family was planning the funeral and had gathered around to say their last good-byes, her daughter ran an ice-cube over her lips, when her mother sucked on the ice-cube. Thinking this was just a reflex she did it again only this time her mother sucked the ice-cube harder.

According to her daughter, Lisa Sturm she then leaned over her mother and asked,”Mom are you in there?”

Her mother shook her head “Yes”.

To help Raleane “Rae” Kupferschmidt get a sense for what happened when she was in a coma, her daughter Lisa Sturm wrote key events on a calendar. Doctors pronounced Kupferschmidt brain dead on Jan. 17; after she regained consciousness, she wrote “dead” on that day’s calendar square.

Rae Kupferschmidt was rushed back to the hospital where the blood clot was drained from her brain. Today Rae Kupferschmidt is alive and walking and enjoying her family.

The Truth Must Be Told

“If parents are not told, frankly and fairly in terms they can be expected to understand in their distraught state of mind, that their “brain stem dead” children will (although paralysed with drugs to facilitate the surgery) react during organ removal as if they might be suffering, then they have been most wickedly deceived (by omission). I could never have allowed one of my children to be used as an organ donor. To me, that would have been the betrayal of the absolute trust which a child has in his parents.”

Dr. David W. Evans, Retired Consultant in Cardiology, Papworth & Addenbrooke’s Hospitals, Minority Report: Two secular positions opposing donation”, a paper contributed to Dignity in Donation Day, UK, 27th April 2012. pg.24

We’re Doing Our Part Are You?

Last night my oldest daughter Christa and I were sitting on our deck, enjoying finally a warm Michigan spring.

She had been talking to a friend whose cousin was shot.

She had recently seen a tweet from him missing his cousin. She asked him what happened.

He told her that his cousin had been shot and taken to a hospital where the doctors told the family that they had no insurance so they could not operate.

“I’ve never heard of a hospital not performing surgery to help a patient live she said, even in OHIO,”she said. (Michigan joke)

“Well… we were all in the waiting room and the doctors came in and that is what they told us, I was there.”

Christa pondering whether to bring it up, said, “Wait was your cousin on the Organ Donor Registry?”

Yes, he said. All my family is.

“Oh no, she said.”

“How old was he?” 23

“Was he in good shape?” Yes, he was an athlete.

Christa began to explain to him all about organ donation, contracts, “brain-death”, and brain death protocols. His eyes grew wider and wider and then filled with tears.

He looked down, picked up his phone, and texted his mother, “Get us ALL off the organ donor register, mom.”

“I thought you were dead when they took your organs, he exclaimed?”

“No, Christa said, “you may be hurt, severely hurt,unconscious, in a coma, but not dead in the way you and I think”.

So proud of my daughter for being able to enlighten this young man. Christa blogs on Have Heart, about her brother, and best friend…Jamie Caulk.

How to Get Off the Organ Donor Registry

The Dead Donor Rule

Flickr photo credits to Andrew Wallmayers photo stream and Stillwater Gazzette

In Success Stories brain death, Christa Caulk, Dr.David Evans, organ donation, Raeleane "Rae" Kupferschmidt

Zach McDaniel (Friday Success Story)

April 19, 2013 — 3 Comments

Zach McDaniel

Zach McDaniel was a 12-year-old boy, when he was shot in the head. Immediately taken to a hospital in Abilene, TX. Later Zach was transferred to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth on a ventilator.

Upon transfer, Cook Children’s staff claimed that Zach’s prognosis was poor, as part of his brain had been removed during surgery.

They pressured Zach’s parents to sign an organ donation consent form.

One week later, the hospital convened an Ethics Committee, an entity under Texas law that has the power to terminate a patient’s care after 10 days. It was the committee’s opinion that any further care for Zach would be futile, and moved to terminate care. Zach’s parents pleaded for the hospital to give him time to recover. But because of procedural mistakes, the committee did not technically convene, and their ruling didn’t stand.

Zach’s mother, Jessica discovered the doctors had placed a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) in Zach’s file. Frantic she called Right to Life of Texas for help. When Zach’s mother confronted the doctor, he said he did not want to treat her son anymore and she needed to find a place for him.

Jessica moved her son to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.

Doctors at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, slowly weaned him off the sedatives and he is now awake, talking and receiving physical therapy.

Futile Care

In Texas, The Advance Directives Act, allowed a physician to place a “potentially” life-ending DNR in Zach’s chart without the parents consent or notice.

This is how the Texas law, seen as a model by many futilitarians, works: Under the Texas Health and Safety Code, if the physician disagrees with a patient’s decision to receive treatment, he or she can take it to the hospital bioethics committee. A hearing is convened at which all interested parties explain why they want or don’t want treatment to continue.

If the committee decides to refuse treatment, it is determinative. Even if the family finds another doctor willing to provide the treatment, it can’t be done in that hospital. At that point, the patient/family has a mere ten days to find another hospital willing to take the patient, after which, according to the statute, “the physician and health care facility are not obligated to provide life-sustaining treatment.”

In practical terms, that’s a death sentence. Medical futility care is a value judgement. Medical futility is based on hospitals and doctors being able to decide who they will treat. Trust me quality of life vs life is a judgement.

In Zach McDaniel’s case, he was sent to another hospital, weaned off sedatives and is alive and well.

Take a few minutes and google or call your local hospital if they have a “futile care policy or protocol”.

Here is the University of Michigan Hospital’s policy on Medical Futility, formed in 2009.

If you can find your state or hospitals futile care policy, please leave it in the comments below.

You have a right to know before entering any hospital.

In Success Stories DNR, Do not Resuscite, medical futility, Zach McDaniel

Suzanne Chin (Friday Success Story)

April 12, 2013 — 4 Comments

Suzanne Chin (Friday Success Story)

I have to admit I was so excited to read the story of Suzanne Chin, the incident happened in 2009 but was not wildly reported until March of this year.

Suzanne is a mother of two and a practicing attorney in Singapore. Her husband is John Alabaster a private investigator.

After getting her children off to school with the usual morning routine she went out for her usual morning hike with her dog. Not feeling well she returned home and told John something was not right.

The last thing she remembered was telling her husband to not call an ambulance.

The head of the intensive care unit, two neurologists and a cardiologist told her husband to prepare for the worst.

Soon, he was advised to take her off life support because, simply put, there was “no hope.”

It was a huge shock for her husband. One day, everything had been normal for the couple, both in their 40s, and their children then aged 12, and seven. The next day, she was in a coma and it looked very bad.

The neurologist told Mr Alabaster she had suffered brain stem death and he had to prepare himself for “letting her go”. In their opinion – and they were very firm – there was absolutely no chance of any sort of recovery,” he recalled.

The next day, a doctor asked him if he had thought about it because his wife was neurologically lifeless, a valve in her heart had been severely damaged and there was no point keeping her alive.

Things looked “worse than bleak” but he refused to say yes to switching off his wife’s life support, even though the doctor had been well-intentioned.

“But his demeanor when I told him of my decision to reject his opinion was one of patronizing incredulity coupled with an un-said “oh, you’ll come around’,” he said.

Mr Alabaster recalled mounting pressure from the medical staff treating his wife to “put Suzanne – and ourselves – out of our misery by switching off machines that were keeping her alive.” Even when she made an occasional twitch, they quashed his hopes by insisting that it was purely a reflex. Their talk always returned to “saying goodbye” and “letting go”.

Dr. Alan Chin

Dr. Alan Chin is the brother of Suzanne Chin and a devote Christian, he flew to Hong Kong and prayed for his sister when she was at her worst. “Suzanne had been pronounced with “brain stem” death and was given no hope. But, my faith in Jesus Christ said there was hope.”

Dr. Alan Chin’s comments on his sister from Citizen’s Watch, “When I saw Suzanne in ICU, she did not look good. She was on a ventilator; her pupils were 4mm fixed and dilated. Her limbs were flaccid. The respiratory physician advised that the prognosis was very poor with evidence of brain stem death and pituitary gland failure. The room temperature in ICU was kept low to slow down the metabolic processes.”

That afternoon, her condition remained unchanged. The temperature in the ICU was now turned up in a not-too-subtle hint that the doctors had given up.

The respiratory physician again advised that there was no improvement and confirmed that Suzanne had brain stem death (BSD).

It is a term equated with death to describe a person on life-support system when faced with a decision whether or not to switch off the ventilator or to harvest organs for organ transplant.

She advised John to consider switching off the ventilator as Suzanne was now dead and there was no hope of recovery.

and on the third day…

she woke up!

The doctor treating Suzanne added that in medical history there were no cases of anybody recovering from BSD. We were told this too about Jamie.

Of course we know this isn’t true based on the may posts I have posted of Friday Success Stories.

Why are stories of people waking up from brain death not reported here in the United States?

Singapore has an opt-out program for harvesting of organs, this is where we are headed in the United States. It basically means “unless” you opt OUT your organs can be taken when pronounced “brain dead”.

Please click on the links in this post and read the entire story of Suzanne Chin, you’ll be glad you did read all the details.

In Success Stories brain death, Friday Success Stories, Suzanne Chin

Sam Schmid (Friday Success Story)

March 22, 2013 — 1 Comment

Sam Schmid Friday Success Story

Sam Schmid, was an Arizona college, business major who was wounded in a five car accident on October 19, 2011.

His brain injuries were so severe that he was air lifted to Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, where he had surgery for a life-threatening aneurysm.

They were almost ready to take him off of life support when he miraculously recovered. They had approached the family about organ donation.

Sam’s mother, Susan Regan, said the hospital staff had began advising them of Sam’s “quality of life”.

“At some point, I knew we had to make a decision and I kept praying, she said.

Dr. Robert Spetzler

He was treated by Dr. Robert Spetzler, who is a world-renowned neurosurgeon who specializes in cerebrovascular disease and skull base tumors. He has been involved in pioneering the technique of hypothermia and cardiac arrest for the treatment of difficult brain lesions.

Dr. Spetzler is the doctor that trained the physician that operated on Congressman Gabrielle Gifford.

Dr Spetzler said Sam’s extraordinary recovery was “like fireworks all going off at the same time.”

“It looked like all the odds were stacked against him.”

“I am dumb-founded with his incredible recovery in such a short time,” Spetzler told ABC News.

“You get incredible highs when you save someone facing neurological devastation or death,’ said Spetzler. ‘That is counter-pointed by the incredible lows when you fail to help someone.”

Dr. Spetzler wasn’t willing to speculate what a comatose patient hears. But he admits, “There are so many things we don’t understand about the brain and what happens at the time someone is near death.”

Video

In Success Stories Dr. Robert Spetzler, Friday Success Stories, Sam Schmid

Adam Denham (Friday Success Story)

March 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

Friday Success Story

Every Friday, I am posting on success stories. These are stories of people who have been given no hope but recovered over the dismay of doctors.

The is the story of Aaron Denham who was hit by a car while riding his bicycle home in Fair Oak, near Southampton, Hants.

Similar to Jamie, Aaron had a broken neck, pelvis,multiple broken ribs and a severe head injury. He also like Jamie had severed two arteries in his neck. They were hours from turning off life support when he had an unexpected movement. He moved his hand with his mom and sister by his bedside.

Unlike Jamie who moved his arm across his chest with no response from the doctor at Vanderbilt who to the nurse to tell us it was a reflex. Aaron is now home and regaining his health and fitness.

His parents said, “Aaron was such a fighter.” The doctors called it ‘miraculous’.

Jamie was a fighter too.

Miracles Do Happen

Doctors described Aaron’s turn-around as “miraculous”.

Dr Andy Eynon, the Director of Major Trauma at Southampton General Hospital, described the fractured vertebra as a ‘Christopher Reeve-type injury’ in reference to the Superman star left quadriplegic after a riding accident.

With Mr Denham, however, the impact was so severe that his C2 vertebra, near his skull, was sliced clean in two, the fragments ending 9mm (0.4in) apart.

Dr Eynon, 47, said: “I have seen only one similar fracture in my life. I have asked one of my team to write-up Aaron’s case because it is so unusual.

“The vast, vast majority with that kind of injury will not survive, and if they do, they will be on a ventilator for life.

“I saw him in the emergency department and thought he was going to die. He is one very lucky boy.”

He added: “Effectively this is a fracture dislocation that has taken the head off the rest of the body.

“Normally I would have expected that fracture to have damaged not only the spinal cord, but also the four major blood vessels supplying the brain.”

With remarkable determination and character he is now back on his feet and able to walk unaided.

Hopeless

As long as there is life, there is hope. The life is in the blood. As long as there is blood flow there is hope.

I’m not sure why doctors are so quick to say a patient is “hopeless”. But they are. Perhaps they want to prepare you, perhaps they look at all the scientific studies and pronounce it, perhaps they don’t want the liability, and perhaps they want to harvest your organs quickly.

Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Mark 5:35-36 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

Don’t give up hope, even if the doctors say you are hopeless. Don’t allow them to do the Apnea test! Give your injured loved one a chance and HOPE.

In Success Stories Aaron Denham, Friday Success Stories, Hope

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