Archie Battersbee thread 5

[henryhihat]

New thread...

I wasn’t talking about pain. I made the point that the child in the study was kept on life support for 20 years, during the course of which he was moved several times from the hospital to the basement of the apartment building where he lived, which had been set up as a medical facility, and back to the hospital whenever he developed an infection.

His case was more or less identical to this one. So if he could be moved, why can’t this child?

Can't believe this is all still going on. Barbaric.

It’s been very quiet today. I wonder why we haven’t heard anything yet.

Thank you @Eeksteek for posting this so clearly. I work with patients who have sustained a brain injury and having read the court documents for the first two judgements there really is no scope at all for Archie to recover in any capacity. It's physiologically impossible.

It is absolutely the same.

The child in the study was brain dead. When they finally carried out an autopsy, his brain had completely calcified - it was a shell with large holes in it.

Clearly his case isn't identical. Unless you have the relevant medical qualifications and experience and have access to the scans and medical notes for both children, you can't possibly say it is.

@EYProvider ive just read the study you are talking about. It is not the same at all. The two situations and the kind of damage is completely different. Archie’s brain is literally rotting inside his skull.

Here is the study BTW

We do. That is literally what it means.

How on earth can you say it's exactly the same?

What are your medical qualifications?

In TK’s case, his brain didn’t collapse into his spinal column.

Maybe mummabubs. But I was referring more to the interview on times radio where she said they haven't cared for Archie yet there's always 3 nurses in his room at all times and they have no privacy.

It's like she just cannot connect that anyone listening will realise they can't both be true.

Dignity for all will update when the rest of the public are aware. Aware of what? I have a feeling the court ordered a press blackout because the process has already begun.

If you're talking about TK, EYProvider, then no that case wasn't like this at all, he suffered brain damage as a result of menigitus, the intracranial pressure so high it separated the bony plates of his skull.

That is not the same mode of injury as Archie suffered and there was no spinal injury which you typically get from hanging where the patient has dropped and caused damage to the spinal cord as well as depriving the brain of blood flow entirely, for a significant period of time.

I know this is a bit of a derail but since there is a hiatus in news, and much discussion revolves around keeping people on life support long term, imagine being the family of a surrogate mother needing life support in the USA.

This from an article about surrogacy contracts:

"As a nurse, I have to confess that when I read this clause on end-of-life decision-making, my blood ran cold:

If the surrogate is in her second or third trimester of pregnancy and in the event that medical life support equipment is required to preserve and maintain the life of the Surrogate and if requested by the Intended Parents, the Surrogate and her husband agree that the Surrogate’s life will be sustained with life support equipment for a period to achieve viability of the fetus taking into account the best interests and well-being of the fetus . . . The Intended Parents will make the decision with regard to how long the life support should be continued prior to the birth of the Child taking into account the obstetrician or perinatologist’s recommendation and the desires of the family of the Surrogate. The Surrogate’s husband, or her next of kin, is solely responsible for determining the time at which life support treatment will be discontinued following the birth of the Child."

We are very lucky in the UK with the NHS and courts that ensure the patient's best interests are the only interests that matter.

www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/11/20390/

Yes that study is completely different. TK had no issues maintaining his bp, temp or fluid balance until later on when he developed diabetes insipidus.

What I found alarming, was that at autopsy TK was only 3 & a half feet tall, weighed 155 lbs & had a shrunken head as his brain had obviously never grown. Why? Why did his parents put him through that for 20 years. This world is a fucked up place at times.

It wasn’t identical at all. He didn’t have the catastrophic fluid losses that Archie has so wasn’t anywhere near as unstable.

IIRC (from that New Yorker article) he also went thorough puberty while at ventilated, so must have had some residual brain (well, anterior pituitary) function.

Actually, this is the study:

hods.org/pdf/Long%20Survival%20Following%20Baterial%20Meningits-Associated%20Brain%20Destruction1.pdf

It’s very similar.

So do I in a non medical capacity.

I've always found it fascinating how the level of brain damage doesn't always equate to the physical symptoms you see.

I've learnt over the years it's about where and the type rather than amount iyswim?

I would think the media black out is increasingly likely. That seems like the best possible solution all round.

no it’s not, he had normal thyroid function so some residual anterior pituitary hormone function.

Archie doesn’t.

The parents did it for their own selfish wants, not thinking about what was best for their child.
I wouldn't keep an animal in that state, let alone my child. It's cruel.

That puts him at a BMI of 61. Shocking.

I know @Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious & in their basement too, for 2 decades. What would they have got out of that, it’s macabre & ghoulish.

TK was on steroids. He was described as having a “Cushingoid” appearance.