Family to appeal ruling allowing Quebec hospital to remove child’s breathing tube
By The Canadian Press on November 8, 2022.
MONTREAL – The family of a five-year-old child who has been in a coma since June will appeal a court decision allowing a Montreal hospital to permanently remove the boy’s breathing tube. Patrick Martin-Ménard, a lawyer for the child’s parents, says his clients plan to appeal the ruling because they want the hospital to intubate the child if he cannot breathe on his own. The Sainte-Justine hospital has said the breathing tube is causing more harm than good and the child should receive end-of-life care if the extubation is not successful. Martin-Ménard said last week that the hospital has not properly collaborated with the parents and that the consequences of removing the breathing tube remain unclear. The child has been in a coma since June 12 after he was found at the bottom of the family pool, and evidence presented in court showed that the boy has suffered serious and irreversible brain damage. Justice Bernard Jolin wrote in his Nov. 1 ruling that the parents’ objections are not in the child’s best interest and are based on the hope that God will miraculously return the boy to the way he was before he fell into the pool. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2022. 8-7
