Kansas Boy Declared "Brain Dead:" Be Cautious Before Reaching Conclusions

The tragic case of a teenage boy catastrophically injured in a shooting accident is all over the WEB. Apparently the boy was wounded in the neck and later declared dead by “neurological criteria,” with the University of Kansas Hospital insisting on removing life support and taking the “body” out of the ICU. The family believes their son is still alive and has obtained a restraining order to continue treatment.

The common term for death by neurological criteria is “brain dead,” an unfortunate phrase because it implies that every cell in the brain must be dead when it actually means that the entire brain and every constituent part has permanently and irreversibly ceased to function as a brain.

Let us not get into whether such people are really and truly dead for now. If the hospital in this case accurately determined death by neurological criteria, the life support should be removed after giving the family a decent time to say goodbye. However, if the diagnosis was improperly made, we have a completely different issue.

I have some behind the scenes information on this that I won’t publicize. Part of the problem may be the way the family was treated by one particular person on the medical team. If anything, situations like this require sensitivity, compassion, and empathy. Curt conduct, denigration of faith, etc., lead to the very kind of controversy you see here because it destroys trust.

I will be following this case closely. My betting is that the judge will order an independent examination that follows all of the necessary protocols for declaring death by neurological criteria. I hope so. It will bring clarity and if the poor boy is dead, the family has a right to know from what they consider a trustworthy source. Once that necessary first step in resolving this terribly tragic episode is completed, then we can make informed decisions about where things should go from there.