Twelve-year-old Joe suffered a severe asthma attack on January 14, 2015, and temporarily lost oxygen to his brain. He was rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, Joe’s tests showed he was not brain dead.
The hospital chastised Joe’s mother as she refused to give up on her child’s life. These strangers stated, “Joe would not want to live like this.”
However, Joe’s mother soon discovered that the 10-Day Rule strips parents of their right to make life-or-death medical decisions for their children and the law instead assigns such authority to a hospital committee of strangers.
Thankfully, the facility granted more time to the family to transfer the 12-year-old to a different care setting.
Joe is now breathing on his own, responding to his parents, and biting his feeding tube, and his health is improving! He and his family even moved out of Texas to New Jersey so they wouldn’t have to live in fear of the deadly Texas 10-Day Rule. The decision to keep fighting for Joe belonged to his parents, not the hospital.
The Texas 10-Day Rule allows hospitals to pull the plug on patients against their will – a form of involuntary euthanasia. Senate Bill 2089 by Senator Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) would have protected these Texans from the 10-Day Rule in the Texas Advance Directives Act.
Vulnerable patients need your help to survive the deadly 10-Day Rule. They may have no fighting chance without you. Give today to the Texas Right to Life Family Assistance Fund to protect patients from death panels.
