Who is authorised to pull the plug?

Nov 17, 2010 News

– Hospital officials seek legal advice

By Leonard Gildarie

The country’s medical authorities may be finding themselves in a dilemma and entering new territory in the case of PNCR Parliamentarian, Winston Murray, who is currently hooked up on respiratory life support.
As a matter of fact, officials confirmed yesterday, the case may be unprecedented with the Georgetown Public Hospital not approached before to unplug machines that are hooked up on patients.
Hospital officials last evening confirmed that lawyers are examining the issue with no immediate, apparent provisions in law to address the issue.
Murray, who collapsed last Thursday, shortly after making his usual vigorous presentations during a sitting of the National Assembly, was declared ‘brain dead’ by Neurosurgeon, Dr. Ivor Crandon, who was flown in on a special charter.
According to one senior hospital official who asked not to be named, the facility has not been approached officially by relatives of Murray on the matter.
Media reports over the last days have indicated that the family was awaiting the arrival of Murray’s eldest son from England and at that time a decision would be made as to whether the life support apparatus would be disconnected. However, with no clear grounds on the way forward, this may easier be said than done.
Hospital sources said that nowhere in the law are there provisions that either prevent or allow loved ones from making such decisions.
Reference was drawn to a possible scenario where there are multiple patients requiring the use of the machines. While Guyana has not faced such a choice before, any such decision will likely hinge on the patient(s) with the best chances of survival, Kaieteur News was told.
Over the weekend, government paid US$30,000 to fly in the surgeon on a special charter.
Dr. Crandon, Head of Surgery of the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, following his examinations of the Parliamentarian, concluded that there was no evidence of brain function. Based on this and other issues, the doctor advised that surgical intervention should not be attempted.
Leader of the PNCR, Robert Corbin, had said that Murray’s wife and family had been fully briefed by the doctors on his condition and future action would depend on their decisions.
Murray was rushed to Balwant Singh Hospital in Georgetown after he collapsed on his way to his Continental Park, East Bank Demerara home following Thursday’s Parliamentary debate in which he participated.
He was in an unconscious condition when he arrived at the hospital, and a scan showed that there was cranial bleeding.
Murray recently announced that he would be vying for the position of Presidential Candidate for the PNCR and had already commenced several community outreaches.
In January of last year, following differences with the party on their position on the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, Murray resigned as party Chairman and subsequently challenged Corbin for the leadership of the party. The bid was unsuccessful
Murray’s case has already drawn comparison to that of Ariel Sharon, Israel’s comatose former Prime Minister, who was moved from hospital to his family’s ranch in southern Israel earlier this month.
Medical teams took Sharon, who is attached to a respirator, from his room in the long-term care unit of a hospital outside Tel Aviv.
The 82-year-old has been in a coma since 2006, when he suffered a series of strokes.
There has been no change reported in Sharon’s condition, and the move is the result of modern medical thinking that prefers to see long-term patients treated “in the community” rather than in hospitals.

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