They should have left well enough alone!

I agree 100%.

You are right, absolutely.

Bless you all for being so open-minded. So many people want life at all costs for their loved one, never mind the quality of that living. Sometimes true love is letting go, and there's no escaping death in the end, not for any of us (at least, as some of us here believe, until Jesus comes again). We will all surely die just as we were born

Exactly

Bless that poor baby girl

I know this is an IMO thread but my thoughts are with her family

I completely agree with you on this.

This is not unlike what my family recently went through with my (late) great nephew Logan.
Logan was born with a missing pancreas, an incomplete heart and incomplete lungs.
He was a fighter though, so surgery was done.
He spent most of his short life in ICU or in surgery.
It was a teaching hospital.

His mother (my niece) wanted to continue doing everything possible for him, despite being told that he would have no quality of life (assuming he even lived).
After 9 months and no weight gain whatsoever, the doctors told my niece that it was time to stop fighting for him, there was nothing else that could be done, he was brain dead.

She concluded that the doctors were ganging up on her.

She thankfully decided a few days later to remove life support.
She held her boy for 4 hours until he passed quietly on his own.
We all (the family) breathed a collective sigh of relief, happy that this child was no longer struggling to stay in this world that he was unequipped for.
Logan was buried today.

IMO Logan should not have been put through all that, after all reasonable attempts had been made (in the first three months), he should have been let go.
Unfortunately, a parent cannot think that clearly, they are far too close to the situation.

I agree that doing something just because you can in these circumstances is not the right thing, but try telling a distraught parent to give up, it's not so easy.

I agree as well. How sad

Oh Arlyn, that is so very, very sad.

Arlyn, It is difficult for me to even think of the pain that your family went through with that. I don't think anybody really knows what they would do in a situation until they are actually in it.

Thank you for sharing.

Medical science puts the emphasis on saving life. The technology is so good now that it's not just about saving life, but about saving life at any cost. I think that medical science should remember Hippocrates' oath says "first do no harm." Saving a life only to have that life suffer like that just to demonstrate the miracles technology can do is doing harm, in my opinion. The problem is, there are no guidelines on where to stop. This is where the family needs to step in and say "no more." But unfortunately those wishes are often not honored unless they're in writing in the form of a "living will" drawn up in proper legal manner. It's a difficult situation for medical professionals: damned if you do and sued if you don't.

If you don't have a living will, get one. And here's a thought: have one done for each of your children as well.

My uncle was born dead and resuscitated after about 5 minutes. He had brain damage which affected him physically and mentally. The odd thing is that he couldn't add 2 plus 2, but he could recite baseball statistics from the last 70 years. He walks with a stagger and has difficulty climbing stairs. He did hold a job for a while bussing tables at a restaurant and mom set him up in an apartment (under supervision). He's able to take a bus by himself and always finds someone to help him do things like read menus. There's a part of his brain that wasn't damaged that enables him to get around. But his handicap makes him angry and he does extremely childish things when he tries to do things and can't do them. You can't blame him. He just turned 81.

So this also makes me ponder the question on where you draw the line. My uncle has been a part of my life since I was born and honestly it's not an easy thing to deal with, even as self sufficient as he is. My mom agonized over him when she got terminal cancer because she didn't want to burden her children with the care of her brother. Her mother demanded that mom take care of him when she died young.

I can't image what the family of this baby is going through. A person with this type of handicap is a lifelong responsibility, regardless of how much control they do have over themselves. The longer they are "dead", the harder its going to be on the family. They did go to far when they resuscitated her after 14 minutes. I feel so bad for the family in this instance. If that child lives a full life, who takes care of her when the parents are gone?

I know I'm rambling. This is a bit of an emotional issue for my family.

Very sad. They should have let her go