Stories like this really tear me apart.
If I could see the data from an EEG or an FMRI I could tell you if there is any hope or not; from my training I am guessing that the hindbrain is still alive, but all 'higher' areas of the brain are dead; therefore she is dead, but the pons, medulla, and other parts of the hindbrain are still keeping the body alive. The gruesome part if I'm right 'unplugging' her will result in the body starving to death. Until they do an EEG or something similar and release it; this is going to just make it harder on her loved ones.
I know in the Terry Schivo (sp) case it became a huge media storm, if they would've just released the EEG info, (which they did after the fact), it would've made the case clear-cut and saved a lot of emotional trauma.
I feel for her family and pray for them, but unless we see synaptic activity at the very basic level she's already gone; it's the sad, honest truth; at least they are getting the chance to say goodbye. I hope the quacks that botched her surgery lose their licenses and get some jail time out of this; there is no excuse for this level of incompetence.
I'd like more info on this, but I will work with what I have.
"For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this corruptible is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory." 1 Corinthians 15:53-54.
"It is appointed for people to die once--and after this, judgment--" - Hebrews 9:27
Red is right is about us having to die, and that only an emotionally ignorant and cold person would just cut the knot before these people pass into acceptance. Do I think that they do need to pull the plug? If there is absolutely no chance of her being alive: In time...in time... But wait until they are psychologically stable enough and until multiple medical professionals are indeed truthfully certain (if not already).
I also fear for how others will be effected via the sensational media that will turn this into an oversimplified, overgenralized, and propagandized Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life debate. I can see the Bill Mears and Bill O'Riellys of the world ripe and ready to exploit to their own idealoguery and agendas.
If she is truly brain dead, she is gone. She isn't there any more, she is with the Lord. They have done the right thing, the Pro-Life thing, by fighting for her life, but if there is no life to fight for, if she is truly gone...Give them the time necessary to make that decision. But if l'il Jahi is not truly brain dead, then we're still achieving the same mistake in the end. We're playing God, and playing fast and loose with life, which will come back to bite his about the throat.
I don't see how they could be profiting from this Ben. You lost two people you care for recently...Tell me, if someone gave you 50K would you feel it to be a profit in lieu of such a loss? If they were given billions it would be still be a deficit, they can't buy her back. All they can do with that money is bide time for them to go from denial to acceptance, make funeral arrangements, and to make sure those malpracticing neophytes get a big legal backhand about the face (if it is their fualt and not some fluke like a strange allergy perhaps).
Tell me Ben, are these people Continuationalists/Charismatics (think TBN)? If so, this will worsen the problem. Charismatics would blithely ignore the biblical view on this and seek a miracle that is out of God's will. As the verses say above, it's our lot to die just much as the acorn must perish if from it's present form for the oak to come into being and grow. All true prayers end in "thy will be done," not "my will be done." To ask God to do something against his own ends is a blasphmey. You might say "not today" but when God says it...you can't stop him.
