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.
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.
