Baby RB's Life Support Withdrawn

[Davros]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8349954.stm

[Hulababy]

Sad all round

[sadlynoNOTthatPeachy]

God bless them all

[2shoes]

very sad. poor lad and his poor dad

[kreecherlivesupstairs]

I am astonished and horrified by this. Obviously not being in the ward or his life we will never know the 'true' story, but, his life wasn't or shouldn't have been disposable like that. I know that when my time comes I'll be off to Dignitas or similar but that is my choice.
I really hope (although probably futiley) that he can survive without all the accoutrements and machine.

[shallishanti]

I did hear that one of the doctors was crying giving evidence in court.
sounds like the medics really thought he was suffering and no chance of relief or improvement
very very sad

[2shoes]

oh don't riven, the thought of the fact he will know he is dying is to horrid.

[sadlynoNOTthatPeachy]

He is on Riv,whilst I don't holdwith this personally he won't have any concept of death yet.

[sadlynoNOTthatPeachy]

one

[2shoes]

he will know fear though.

[TotalChaos]

awful.

[2shoes]

I know what you mean riven, I know young people who to an "outsider" would seen to be sufferiing......but then you get to know them and they aren't.
strange though that when a non disabled child gets a life threatning ilness, everything is done to save them, not a mention of "oh dear they are suffering, better let them die"

[5inthebed]

So very sad

[MumOfThreeMonkeys]

to sad to comment on god bless him and both his parents

[daisy5678]

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/life-and-death-decisions-with-a-disabl ed-child-1817674.html

I think this is a good article looking at the other side of it. I think you mentioned it, Riven.

I was agreeing with most of you earlier and then she's said this "I can only speak from the experience of my daughter. I do not know what it is like for anyone else. I would never claim to know."

I guess that's the thing. Baby RB is his own case, his parents' own case. It doesn't have to have implications for anyone else's child though I'm sure that it does raise the debate of why are some lives valued above others. This article made me realise that my opinions on it are kind of irrelevant as it's not my child, and each child and situation are different. A heart-breaking article, like this is a heart-breaking case.

[2shoes]

givememoresleep good post(I willr ead the link when in a better mood) I think the trouble is though is that it is so hard not to look at your own child, especially if they were born not breathing.
very sad for the poor family

[glittery]

Glitteryboy cant move his muscles at will, cant play with toys and certainly couldnt communicate how he felt at one year old!

listening to this on the news tonight made me really sad as, most of the things they were describing as the reasons why turning off life support was the best option, are pretty normal for us!

Now at 5 years old i'd say glitteryboy has a great quality of life considering!
ok he cant do a thing for himself, speak, feed etc but he enjoys life every day, communicates well with eye pointing and cognitively is ahead of his peers!

but at a year old we'd never have known that

[daisy5678]

The bit that it seemed to hinge on though was that he had no facial expression and no voice - didn't cry, nothing - so they couldn't even tell if he was in pain

[HeartOfCrystal]

I was so sad to hear that the father had changed his mind about the life support. It does make me wonder how much understanding the child actually has, what if he is aware of certain things. He is so young how can they tell so early on what quality of life he would have, impossible to judge. And the thought of his machine being switched off and him feeling any amount of fear or pain just makes me so

I can't imagine what the parents are going through right now. God bless the poor child.

[2shoes]

they said on the news that he will be sedated, so hopefuly the poor little lad will just slip away(hope his parents get a cuddle)