Archives For apnea test

Jamie and Lillian gravesite

8 Years and Still Holding On

October 20, 2019 — Leave a comment

8 years

Jamie Caulk grave

Today makes 8 years since my son, Jamie went to heaven. No matter how you are moving along in life, as the calendar creeps toward October, a sadness overwhelms my heart.

If you haven’t listened to my son’s song, it is on the right hand column on this blog. Jamie wrote and recorded all his songs and this one is so prophetic.

8 in the bible means new beginnings. Jesus created the world in 7 days and rested on the 7th. On the 8th day it was a new beginning. I’ve been thinking about the number 8 a lot this week, pondering if it has meaning for my family since Jamies journey to heaven

Bobby Reyes

Bobby Reyes is the 14 year old boy who was disconnected from life-support on Tuesday, October 15th. at Mott’s Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.

October 15th is the day we received our first brain dead diagnosis at Vanderbilt. Of course it was overturned and more tests were done. Tests like the Apnea which we did not know were harmful for my son and yet the “gold standard” for pronouncing “brain death.”

The blood flow that they “said” would show NO blood flow but with thousands praying for a positive blood flow test, there was blood flow. It was so obvious and the technician administrating the test looked at me and smiled and said there was blood flow. But, Vanderbilt back-tracked and said “well, we expected some blood flow…it’s just not in the right place.”

OK, so why didn’t you say that?

Yesterday, I drove to Flat Rock to pay my respects to Bobby Reyes and his family. The first person I walked in to was Sarah, Bobby’s mom.

After expressing my condolences, I told her that 8 years ago tomorrow was when my son, Jamie went to heaven.

She said, “well you know exactly what I am going through”.

Yes, grieving mom’s KNOW.

Child loss is like no other grief. Here we are at 8 years and I’m still holding on.

Bobby and Jamie have seen it ALL. Jesus and heaven in all it’s glory. A hope that we all long for while living on earth.

Randy Alcorn, who’s book Heaven changed my life says it this way.

I think of our lives in terms of a dot and a line, signifying two phases. Our present life on earth is the dot. It begins. It ends. It’s brief. However, from the dot, a line extends that goes on forever. That line is eternity, which Christians will spend in heaven. Right now we’re living in the dot. But what are we living for? The shortsighted person lives for the dot. The person with perspective lives for the line.

I have no idea what God has in store for me or Sarah, but I know God’s plan will not be thwarted.

I think of Tammi Carr who lost her son, Chad Carr and started a ChadTough Foundation and is now raising money for pediatric research into DIPG, (Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma).

To date, The ChadTough Foundation has raised more than $9 million to support pediatric brain cancer research, with an emphasis on DIPG. 

The amazing work of a grieving mother, working to help save other children and parents from the loss she and her family endure without Chad.

Sarah, told me yesterday she wants to work on a Bobby’s Law to prevent hospitals from unplugging their children or loved ones from a ventilator until enough time is allowed to see if they will recover. She mentioned 30 days, which is interesting because I have told my own kids IF I am ever on a ventilator to allow 30 days to see if I will recover and then let me go.

This sounds reasonable to me. See not forever but time.

I told Sarah, I wanted to include in Bobby’s Law that parents be told what the Apnea test is and does. Why should hospitals be allowed to say, “we’re going to do one more test” without explaining exactly WHAT the test is?

You believe sitting there with a loved one hooked up to multiple machines every test is for benefit of your loved one, to help them get better. NOT TRUE.

I know some parents just go along with whatever the doctors say, never question and that is their choice. But…there are some parents who do question and want to delay pulling the plug to give more time for the brain to heal. That number is growing and this MUST be addressed and changed.

Of course THIS will be a huge undertaking but we do serve a big God who is well able to do above all we could ask or think.

Jamie

Jamie, my sweet boy who was smart, talented, athletic with a tender heart towards animals and everyone. NOT one day goes by that I don’t think about you and miss you terribly.

But, I know I will see you soon.

Life on earth is a continuity, it begins in heaven when it ends on earth.

We will experience continuity between our current lives and our resurrected lives, with the same memories and relational histories.

I have included the video of Jamie’s Memorial, Celebration of Life Service.

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Judge rules OK to stop ventilator for 10 minutes

June 15, 2016 — 1 Comment

Mirranda Grace Lawson

Mirranda Grace Lawson I spoke to the parents, (Patrick and Allison Lawson) of Mirranda Grace by phone several weeks ago, right after Mirranda had been on life support due to choking on a piece of popcorn. A friend of mine from W. Virginia contacted me.

I was able to connect them to Dr. Paul Byne to help them in their fight to save Mirranda.

Dr. Paul A. Byrne is a Board Certified Neonatologist and Pediatrician. He is the Founder of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis, MO. He is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at University of Toledo, College of Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.

Dr. Byrne is past-President of the Catholic Medical Association (USA), formerly Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at St. Louis University in St. Louis, MO and Creighton University in Omaha, NE. He was Professor of Pediatrics and Chairman of the Pediatric Department at Oral Roberts University School of Medicine and Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Tulsa, OK.

Mirranda choked on popcorn on May 11th.  Miranda had a lack of oxygen resulting in her being in an unconscious comatose state but still alive. When a person, especially a young person, is unconscious and on a ventilator, the desire is to get their vital organs for transplantation into others who have a greater lobby.

Within a few days the doctors and hospital were presenting to the parents that Mirranda was “brain dead.” However, they could not confirm “brain death” without doing the crucial and lethal apnea test.

On Thursday, June 9. After the judge heard the testimonies, the judge said he would rule on Friday, June 10. His ruling was that the doctors and the hospital could carry out the testing and evaluation at their discretion.

The judge heard testimony that the removal of the ventilator from Miranda could only harm her and possibly kill her. Yet he ruled that the doctors and the hospital could remove Miranda’s life support.

Parents you must be fully informed and armed with the truth before such a decision is forced upon you at the time of greatest distress.

Part of every declaration “brain death” is the apnea test which is not for the benefit of the patient.  It is the last so-called “clinical” test to achieve the declaration of “brain death.”     

I know you have heard me loud and clear many times on this blog, and it is the first thing I tell people when they call, DO NOT DO THE APNEA TEST.

The need for a ventilator doesn’t mean the brain is permanently incapacitated or ones’ health cannot be restored!  This “life support” device is a supplement to the patient’s compromised, weakened physical condition and is necessary for providing the patient with oxygen while removing carbon dioxide during the most crucial period. Time and continued medical care are necessary for the ongoing treatment to protect and preserve the patient’s life. The ventilator provides the patient and physician this valuable time as it eases the patient’s distressed respiratory system allowing time for therapy and healing.     

Knowing full well how critical the ventilator is, to withdraw it when it is needed most is absurd! Yet, it is planned for the patient to be taken off for up to 10 minutes – the patient can only get worse! This test is sometimes lethal. Make sure to instruct all medical staff:  “DO NOT DO AN APNEA TEST!”

Associate Professor Cicero Galli Coimbra, Head of the Neurology and Neurosurgery Department at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil has completed the study, “Implications of ischemic penumbra for the diagnosis of brain death. Apnoea testing may induce rather than diagnose brain death”.[20]

The study discovers that where there is brain damage there may be an area of the brain that is destroyed plus an uninjured section (even if there is no apparent function) and between the two a penumbra where brain cells are not functioning but recoverable. In severe cases a person may be wrongly declared “brain stem dead” or “brain dead”.

Coimbra’s research shows that the testing for “brain death” both delays treatment for the patient and that the actual apnoea test may bring on that state.

Coimbra CG (1999) Implications of ischaemic penumbra for the diagnosis of brain death. Brazilian J Med Biol Res; 32:1538-1545 Study available athttp://www.unifesp.br/dneuro/brdeath.html… Accessed 8 May 2007

 Professor Coimbra echoes this wisdom with a knell of mourning:

“… a review of the literature shows that some of even the most severely head-injured patients (GCS of 3 or 4, with pupils fixed to light) who are not subjected to apnoea may recover to normal life. Early labelling of these patients as dead (for transplant purposes) during the past 3 decades has diverted medical researchers away from developing novel therapeutic resources that could already have saved many thousands of human lives throughout the world.”[30]

The family has set up a GoFundMe page for Mirranda. If you can’t donate please pray for the Lawson family and Mirranda Grace.

Success stories of people declared brain dead waking up.

 

 

Source: Judge rules OK to stop ventilator for 10 minutes

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Don’t Do The Apnea Test

March 14, 2013 — 10 Comments

Don’t Do the Apnea Test

The doctors do an Apnea test to confirm brain death. The apnea test is not done to benefit your loved one.

It is done to confirm brain death.

An Apnea test is done to see if the patient without the help of a ventilator can breath or gasp or have abdominal movements as the carbon dioxide builds up in the body.

If there is any respiratory efforts by the patient as carbon dioxide builds up, the person is negative for brain death. The symbol for partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the arterial blood is PC02.

If you don’t breathe or gasp or have abdominal movements you are declared “brain dead.”

Apnea Test is NOT the gold standard

We were told the Apnea test, was the ‘gold standard‘ for determining “brain death.” The only thing we understood from that statement was that the test would show if Jamie could expel the carbon dioxide (CO2) that would build up in his body by gasping for air.

We had no clue the test was not being done to help Jamie.

The best way to understand this is to imagine holding your breath under water. After a few minutes you can not hold your breath anymore, and you will gasp for air. That is what is occurring in the Apnea test. The carbon dioxide is building up in your body.

Dr. Paul Byrne on the Apnea test, “carbon dioxide normally remains below 45 in us and when a patient is on a ventilator, the goal is to keep the carbon dioxide below 45. When doing an apnea test (the test for sleep apnea is not an apnea test), the respiration supporting ventilator is taken from the patient causing the carbon dioxide to increase to at least 60, and sometimes higher. When the carbon dioxide goes to these levels, swelling in the brain occurs or gets worse if it is already present. This is tantamount to suffocation.”

Vanderbilt started Jamie’s Apnea test at >64 and finished it at >115.

I’ll leave you to determine what occurred.

Jamie Apnea Test

Dr. Cicero Coimbra, is head of the Neurology and Neurosurgery Department at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

He also has denounced the Apnea test as a diagnostic tool.

The test, he said, which cuts off oxygen to the brain, will bring about severe, irreversible brain damage in patients who, with proper care, would otherwise have had a good chance of survival.

“Diagnostic protocols for brain death actually induce death in patients who could recover to normal life by receiving timely and scientifically based therapies,” he wrote.

Dr. Coimbra also has stated, in his research paper Apnea Test A Bedside Lethal ‘Disaster in the Operating Room, “while most physician advocates may publicly comment on “the possibility of damage by the apneic insult to transplantable organs,” they are unwilling to publish information on “the ethical implications of worsening the clinical and neurological conditions of the potential donor or even causing his (or her) death.”

He argued: A large number of brain-injured patients, even in deep coma, can recover to lead a normal daily life; their nervous tissue may be only silent, not irreversibly damaged, as a consequence of a partial reduction of the blood supply to the brain. (This phenomenon, called “ischemic penumbra,” was not known when the first neurological criteria for brain death were established 37 years ago.)

However, the apnea test (considered the most important step for the diagnosis of “brain death” or brain-stem death) may induce irreversible intra-cranial circulatory collapse or even cardiac arrest, thereby preventing neurological recovery. Dr. Cicero Galli Coimbra, “The Apnea Test — A Bedside Lethal ‘Disaster’ to Avoid a Legal ‘Disaster’ in the Operating Room,” Finis Vitae, pages. 135,335,313-319 and 355.

In plain, simple, language Dr. Coimbra used this word picture.

If you show up in the emergency room with a possible heart attack, the doctors don’t subject you to a stress test. You are cared for in every way to prevent any further stress to your heart.

When your brain is injured and you agree or are subjected to an Apnea test you are putting further stress on a severely injured organ…your brain.

Dr. Yoshio Watanabe,a cardiologist from Nagoya, Japan concurred saying “that if patients were not subjected to the Apnea test, they could have a 60% chance of recovery to a normal life if treated by hypothermia. (deliberately induced cooling)

 Just say NO to the Apnea Test

  • The Apnea Test is not for the patients benefit. 
  • Don’t let the doctors tell you it needs to done, if you want to give your loved one a fighting chance. 
  • It cuts off oxygen to the brain, at a time when the brain needs it most. 
  • The swelling in the brain gets worse.
  • The only purpose for the Apnea test is to call “brain death” and harvest your organs.

***I’ll post more later on the protocols established for doing the Apnea test but for now you just need to say no if you have a loved one in a coma.***

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