Canadian Hospital Receives Threats Over Care of Terminally Ill Infant
LONDON, Ontario — The London Health Sciences Centre has been the recipient of numerous threatening E-mails and phone calls concerning its refusal to perform a tracheotomy on an infant with a terminal illness so that he can be sent home with his parents. The medical center has increased security and is urging staff to report any safety concerns.
According to the hospital, no individuals have received direct threats, Fox News reports. Most of the complaints have come from people in the United States, where the Maraachli family hopes to have Joseph, aged 13-months, transferred to undergo surgery. However, a hospital in Detroit, Michigan, declined to accept Joseph as a patient.
Joseph is a vegetative state and will not recover, hospital officials say. Ontario’s Consent and Capacity board already ruled that the family must provide consent for the baby to be taken off his breathing tube. The family declined, and the hospital has now approached Ontario’s Public Guardian to receive consent.
The family recently hired a new lawyer and is preparing to appeal the court order to remove the breathing tube, CBC News reports. London Health Sciences Centre will continue to care for the infant until there is a new ruling.
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