A two-year-old California boy declared brain-dead in April has died after being removed from life support following a long legal battle.
Vacaville toddler Israel Stinson was taken off of life support Thursday afternoon at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles and died shortly thereafter, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Stinson reportedly sustained a brain injury in April following an asthma-related cardiac arrest. The Bee reports that the boy was declared brain-dead by doctors at two California hospitals in April and was being kept on a ventilation machine.
A Los Angeles judge had last week reportedly granted a request by the boy’s mother for a temporary restraining order barring the hospital from removing him from life support until September 8, so that the family could seek another evaluation. But the hospital appealed the order Thursday morning, and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge reportedly dismissed the restraining order because the case had already been adjudicated in both state and federal courts.
An attorney for the boy’s mother, Kevin Snider, told local Fox affiliate Fox40 that electroenchelaogram (EEG) testing conducted at a hospital in Guatemala showed that the boy was not brain-dead.
“This is a sad, sad state because this is an execution of an innocent 2-year-old in this country,” Snider told the outlet. “This child was alive and this child was not brain-dead.”
“California’s constitution is much like the rest of the country’s, and that is that life is an inalienable right,” he added. “And whenever the government decides that it will change when life ends and and put it in other people’s hands outside of the loved ones, that is a threat to all of us.”
The boy’s family is reportedly considering filing a lawsuit against Children’s Hospital.
A spokesman for the hospital declined to comment publicly, citing health privacy obligations.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.