Neurology Guidelines Push Back Against “Rush to Judgment” in Brain Injury Cases

Studying Brain

(Not Dead Yet) – On September 16, ABC News in Oakland, California reported on a hospital’s threat to remove breathing support from six-month-old Kingston Holmes. The infant needed a ventilator due to a brain injury following a cardiac arrest at home.

The first thing I ask when I read a story like that is when did the cardiac arrest occur? According to the news report:

Kingston Holmes, just 6 months old, has been at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, on a breathing machine since last month.

The infant suffered a severe brain injury from cardiac arrest while at home on Aug. 5.

His parents said the child was perfectly healthy right before the incident. (Emphasis added.)

So, slightly less than six weeks after the brain injury, the hospital gave a letter to Kingston Holmes’ parents, “stating ‘his breathing machines will be turned off on Monday, September 17 at 1pm’ due to irreversible brain injury.” CONTINUE