Mother battles to keep her son on life support

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The mother of a 14-year-old gunshot victim now in the middle of a legal fight over whether he’s medically dead said she’s not backing down in her battle to keep a hospital from taking her son off life support.

But Cecelia Cole also said the University of Kansas Hospital just wants to harvest her son’s organs.

“You can’t twist my arm and make me pull the plug on my son,” Cole said Tuesday outside the Wyandotte County Courthouse after appearing for a court hearing that was postponed. “There’s always hope.”

Attorneys for the hospital are expected to appear before a judge today to ask that she declare Michael Todd medically dead and remove a restraining order preventing the hospital from disconnecting the boy from life support systems.

A bullet struck Michael in the neck during what witnesses say was an accidental shooting May 9 in a Blue Springs apartment.

In court documents, the hospital said a pediatric neurologist, an intensive-care specialist and a neurosurgeon confirmed the diagnosis of Michael’s attending physician that the boy is brain dead. Brain death is defined as the complete and irreversible ceasing of brain activity, even in the brain stem.

Cole, however, got a judge to keep the machines running, claiming that her son has shown signs of independent brain activity, including crying, attempting to open one of his eyes and trying to grasp the hands of people who hold his hands. She also said hospital staff didn’t wait for sedatives to wear off before testing her son’s brain function.

Additionally, Michael’s family argues that the hospital wants to remove the boy from life support because it wants to use his organs for a donor program. Cole said doctors approached her about harvesting the organs even before declaring her son brain dead.

Hospital officials said they can’t comment directly about the case because the family hasn’t waived medical privacy regulations.

But the hospital insists it follows state-mandated regulations for determining brain death and that it wouldn’t necessarily benefit from Michael’s organs.

“You do not sell organs. They’re donated,” said spokesman Dennis McCulloch. “The organ bank allocates them. They may not go to this hospital. There may be someone more needy.”

Cole is acting as her own attorney, but Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said she has discussed the case with attorneys who she said are willing to help the family.

Culp said without detailed medical information her group hasn’t taken a formal stance on the case. But she said there were enough parallels to other life support cases in Kansas and elsewhere that it might be best to bring in a third party who could give the family an opinion it could trust.

“What is the overriding principle?” Culp said. “It’s always patients’ and family rights when the answer is death. But when (the choice) involves treatment, the family is considered too attached or too religious.”

Asked if she was considering malpractice or other legal action against the medical center, Cole said no.

“My son is still above ground so that’s what I’m focusing on,” she said