I am honestly not sure where the diagnosis of Max being brain dead came from? I have read it so much, I thought it was documented in one of the videos or newspaper articles.
If Max was truly 'brain dead' an MRI could not show that. You have a fantastic point about him having a severe spinal cord injury. It would have to be up high in the c-spine. (cervical area). It is a logical conclusion that makes much more sense.
From this article, which I have printed for my patients before:
http://www.spinalinjury.net/html/_spinal_cord_101.html
Very high injuries (C-1, C-2) can result in a loss of many involuntary functions including the ability to breathe, necessitating breathing aids such as mechanical ventilators or diaphragmatic pacemakers. Other effects of SCI may include low blood pressure, inability to regulate blood pressure effectively, reduced control of body temperature, inability to sweat below the level of injury, and chronic pain
How many people have SCI? Who are they? Approximately 450,000 people live with SCI in the US. There are about 10,000 new SCI's every year; the majority of them (82%) involve males between the ages of 16-30. These injuries result from motor vehicle accidents (36%), violence (28.9%), or falls (21.2%).Quadriplegia is slightly more common than paraplegia.
Also:
Overall, 85% of SCI patients who survive the first 24 hours are still alive 10 years later. The most common cause of death is due to diseases of the respiratory system, with most of these being due to pneumonia. In fact, pneumonia is the single leading cause of death throughout the entire 15 year period immediately following SCI for all age groups, both males and females, whites and non-whites, and persons with quadriplegia.
Now it gets sticky. If Max did have a high C-spine injury, vs being 'brain dead', the MRI makes sense, but the quickness that JS and DS used to make the decision to terminate life support for a 6 year old, DS's only child, shocks me. People with SCI, often show improvement up to 18 months after the injury. If there was enough of a reason to do an additional MRI, how did the parents move so quickly from diagnosing and treating, to termination of life support? This is truly something I have not seen before. Not with a child.
It often takes weeks to years for parents to agree to let their childs life end. I am not making judgements here folks, it is just that in 19 years, I have seen a lot of anger, grief and despair in situations such as this. Even with DS being a psychologist, she is not a medical doctor (psychiatrist). Her medical knowledge would be different than a physician. She could maybe look at the situation more in a clinical way, but she was still Max's MOM. Again, no judgements here, just surprise.
Remember the 'rest in peace Maxie' message on GS facebook? That was before his 'death' or impending death, had been announced. Remember on an early thread, we were asking if he had passed and it hadn't yet been announced?
Does this have anything to do with anything? I'm truly not sure, but there is a lot in this case that makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Many parents feel that stopping life support is 'killing' their child. JS and DS worked through the denial stage VERY quickly imho. It is surprising that they both were in agreement on the course to take.
My gosh, I thought our alarm system was 'over reactive'. We got a key fob due to it being too quick to alarm. We arm the alarm after closing the door with the key fob. Upon our return we turn off the alarm with the key fob, prior to opening the door. Much less stress!!:floorlaugh: