The decision whether or not to turn off life support for a loved one can be among the most difficult situations for families to go through. They raise all sorts of ethical issues among the physicians, nurses, and social workers. In many occasions, when a child is delivered and suffers severe brain injuries from lack of oxygen, is on a ventilator, and the physicians come to the parents and say the child's prognosis is so poor the child will never recover or is brain dead, parents are left with a most difficult choice. Also, situations where an adult goes through some type of elective surgery, there is an anesthesia problem and the patient does not get an adequate supply of oxygen, ending up in a coma, so the family members are encouraged to institute a "do not resuscitate" or actually disconnect the patient from a ventilator.
These are very difficult situations. Unfortunately the times when there is an underlying medical negligence with the delivery process, an anesthesia error, or some other incident in the hospital, the physicians are not going to come to the family and explain that they made a mistake and your family member is in a coma and they want you to turn off life support, because under the law in California and some other jurisdictions, where there is a limitation of non-economic damages recovery, and the patient dies, the case is now set at a maximum recovery of $250,000 for the defendants. The physician is not going to further admit that if the individual lives and requires ongoing care, therapy, attendant care, ongoing medical care, where there is no limitation on the recovery for the family member or the child for their future care needs, this can run into several million dollars. Therefore, it is a very difficult situation because physicians will never admit they may have a motive or reason why they want the family to turn off life support. The family is put into the most awkward position of all because they are trying to make a decision as to what they think is best for the family member in this situation, and they are not aware the doctors or hospital may have an underlying financial motive for this type of request.
We have seen this happen with some frequency and what we try to do with the family is make them aware of the legal and financial implications for these type of decisions so the family can make their own decision in an unbiased manner.
