Hospital would let baby die at home

If the parents of Baby Joseph want their son to die at home — as they have professed — all they have to do is ask, officials at London Health Sciences Centre said Monday. That position, made clear in a media release issued by the London hospital Monday afternoon, does come with a twist: Doctors are willing to take Joseph to his Windsor home, but once there, they would remove him from a ventilator, an act observers have said would lead to his death in a matter of minutes.
“London Health Sciences Centre is and always has been willing to organize and pay for a medical transfer home to Windsor for Baby Joseph, accompanied by LHSC physicians and staff,” the media release stated.
But what doctors won’t do is cut a hole Joseph’s trachea to insert a tube, something that his parents have requested becase such a procedure allowed an older daughter to live another six months before subcumbing to the identical neurological condition.
“It is an invasive procedure in which a device is installed in a hole cut in the throat. It is frequently indicated for patients who require a long-term breathing machine. This is not, unfortunately, the case with Baby Joseph, because he has a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is fatal,” hospital officials wrote.
The public statement comes as the London hospital steps up security to protect staff from what had been an avalanche of criticism on social media and threats that has led to a police investigation.
The hospital has removed the names and contact numbers for members of its media relations team in the wake of threats against staff over the treatment of Baby Joseph.
The names, about a dozen in all, along with phone extensions for each, had been listed as recently as last week on the website for London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
But as of Monday the names and extensions had been removed, replaced with just a general phone number for the media relations department.
The removal came as hospital officials reported over the weekend that staff had been the target of threats serious enough to warrant contacting authorities. London police are investigating.
Hospital officials wouldn’t disclose Monday specific security measures. Security measures began soon after a London judge decided Feb. 17 a medical panel had been reasonable in siding with doctors who concluded to seek consent to remove 13-month-old Joseph Maraachli from life support because he has a degenerative neurological disease that has left him in a vegetative state.
Threatening posts have been made on social media.
The threats have been condemned by the lawyer representing Joesph’s parents, Mark Handelman, who has said threats interfere with the care of Joseph and others in pediatric critical care at the Children’s Hospital in London.
Baby Joseph has been in the care of LHSC since October.
LHSC doctors sought his parents’ consent to remove the breathing tube that keeps him alive.
The baby’s parents want doctors to give Joseph a tracheotomy in the belief that they can take him home, as they did eight years ago with their baby daughter, Zina, who spent time at home before returning to hospital to be treated for complications. She died six months after getting the< tracheotomy.
Joseph’s parents refused to give consent to remove his breathing tube, so doctors went to Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board.