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Family fights to keep boy declared 'brain dead' on life support

Hospital says tests found 'no blood flow to Bobby’s brain'
Posted at 6:22 PM, Oct 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-11 18:22:04-04

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — The legal battle aimed keeping a 14-year-old boy from Monroe County on life support continues. The family of Bobby Reyes says they don’t agree with doctors at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital who say he is brain dead.

Fourteen-year-old Bobby Reyes’ mom says if she didn’t do everything in her power to try to save him, she couldn’t live with herself.

“I want to fight for my son and people are rooting for him,” she said .

Her life changed before her eyes on September 21st. She and Bobby were at their home in Monroe County’s Ash Township. Then he had an asthma attack.

He had wheezing from asthma in the past, but never a truly scary attack. She told him to use his inhaler. It didn’t help.

By the time he was airlifted to the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, doctors said he was brain dead.

“My son is not brain dead. He is showing signs of improvement. I keep repeating it. They know it. They are scared my son is going to wake up and prove them liars,” said Sarah Jones.

Then, on Wednesday, it seemed she found a doctor who agreed with her. She says a doctor at a hospital in Arizona told her family and their attorney they would take Bobby, but an administrator at that hospital overruled the decision.

“We’re asking them why? What changed? They are not giving us an answer,” she said.

With a court order expiring that would force C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital to keep Bobby on life support until noon on Friday.

On Thursday Sarah made a desperate plea on social media. Soon protesters gathered outside the hospital.

On Friday morning her attorney, William Amadeo, went to the court and asked for more time. A judge gave the family until Tuesday.

Michigan Medicine says if another facility can help it will work to facilitate a transfer, but quote,”If extensive testing shows there is irreversible cessation of all brain functions, including the brain stem, continuing medical interventions is inappropriate and violates the professional standards of Michigan Medicine.”

Late Friday the hospital filed a response to the petition for more time.

“Tests performed on Bobby tragically show that he has no detectable brain activity. The initial brain death examination performed by the head of Pediatric Neurology at Mott on September 24,2019 found that Bobby had no detectable brain or brain stem function. An electrical encephalogram detected no electrical activity on Bobby’s brain. And a cerebral blood flow study detected no blood flow to Bobby’s brain. All of these tests have concluded that Bobby is brain dead,” the response reads.

To confirm Bobby’s brain death diagnosis Michigan law requires a second test be done.

“Bobby’s parents understandably do not want their worst fears confirmed, and on September 30, 2019, obtained a temporary restraining order from this Court preventing Mott from performing the second examination,” it continues.

The response asks the court to deny a petition delaying a second brain death examination saying, “Medically appropriate care for Bobby depends on an accurate diagnosis of his condition, and that accurate diagnosis hinges on the results of a second brain death examination.”

The court is expected to make a decision on Tuesday.

2019-10-11 Response to Petition for Stay of Proceedings by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd