ANN ARBOR, Mich. _ University of Michigan doctors disconnected a teen's life support against the wishes of his parents Tuesday four hours after a Washtenaw County Circuit Court judge dismissed the family's request for an emergency injunction to keep him alive.
Sara Jones and Jose Reyes, the parents of 14-year-old Bobby Reyes of Monroe, were emotional after Judge David Swartz decided he didn't have the power to issue another temporary restraining order against C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. The decision paved the way for the UM hospital to reconfirm their finding that Bobby was brain dead.
The family's attorney Bill Amadeo said he raced to file for an emergency restraining order from the state Court of Claims within an hour of the circuit court ruling at 10:22 a.m. Reyes' parents pleaded with doctors at the UM hospital to allow time for the Court of Claims to consider their legal motion, but their request was denied, family members said.
By "late morning," health system doctors provided a second brain death examination and pronounced Bobby dead, according to a news release issued by Michigan Medicine, the UM health system, shortly before 3 p.m.
"Mechanical ventilation was discontinued after the family gathered in the patient's room," according to the news release.
"I'm shocked and appalled by this whole situation," Bobby's older sister, Erica Reyes, said shortly after Bobby died Tuesday. She said she wasn't speaking on behalf of the parents, who planned to release their own statement.
"I think that they rushed it, and I think that they should have waited for the family to find a hospital to take Bobby," said Reyes, 29, of Austin, Texas, who was distraught that she couldn't be with her brother when he died.
"I asked the hospital please to wait for me, and they said, 'No.'"
The university had planned to disconnect Bobby Reyes on Friday, but Swartz ordered the health system to keep the teen alive until the Tuesday morning hearing.
The teen suffered his first-ever asthma attack while playing video games at home on Sept. 22. The mother immediately sought help from a fire station across the street from their home, but paramedics were unable to revive Bobby, and he was airlifted to the Ann Arbor children's hospital.
"Our healthcare team at Michigan Medicine extends our deepest condolences to the family of Bobby Reyes in this heartbreaking situation," the University of Michigan, which operates the hospital, said in its statement Tuesday.
Medical officials said caregivers at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital attempted to transfer Reyes and contacted more than 20 facilities, all of which declined to accept him.
But Amadeo, the family's attorney, said the family obtained second opinions from three physicians who believed there was hope that Bobby could recover. Negotiations were underway with another health system they felt was likely to admit their son, he said.
By Michigan law, an individual who has sustained an irreversible cessation of the brain is considered dead, officials said. The university hospital said "continuing medical interventions was inappropriate" because they violated "the professional integrity of Michigan Medicine's clinicians."
A second medical opinion by a University of Toledo clinical professor of pediatrics obtained by the Reyes family and reviewed Monday by The Detroit News argued that the boy was not brain dead and could perhaps recover consciousness.
"This is where they try to call his time of death," a tearful Sara Jones said following the hearing. "We don't agree with it because we know he's not brain dead."
The case attracted about a dozen supporters of the Reyes family who held signs Tuesday outside of C.S. Mott hospital saying "Save Bobby." They said they were not part of any organized group, but each decided to come to the hospital after reading the family's posts on Facebook.
"I think we should have a Bobby's Law so that parents have a choice," said Chrissy Curry of Macomb Township, referring to the way Michigan handles end-of-life decisions for children.
"I'm a mom," said Robin Scott of Ann Arbor. "If it were one of my kids, I would want every person I could get ahold of to be here."
Sara Jones of Ash Township stands with her attorney William Amadeo as they answer questions about her son's medical condition from the media after the case was dismissed by Judge David Schwartz.
After the asthma attack and hospitalization, C.S. Mott doctors did a brain death exam on Sept. 24 that showed Bobby had no detectable brain or brain stem function. Further testing detected no electrical activity and no blood flow to Bobby's brain, according to the UM hospital exam.
In an opinion obtained by the Reyes family, Dr. Paul R. Byrne of the University of Toledo College of Medicine said his review of Bobby's medical records found that the teen's temperature was normal, his "lungs, respiration and beating heart are functioning," and he was receiving medications that could suppress brain activity.
The judge's Tuesday decision allowed C.S. Mott Children's Hospital to provide its own second opinion on the boy's condition, a legal requirement to disconnect life support.
In a petition filed Friday in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, the university argued that Schwartz did not have jurisdiction to issue a restraining order Friday that blocked the hospital from issuing the second opinion on Bobby's condition.
Amadeo, representing the family, admitted Tuesday that lawyers previously representing the family should have filed in the Michigan Court of Claims, but said the paperwork was ready to file at that court and asked for a 48-hour injunction to process the appeal.
"This is a matter of life and death," he told Swartz. "I have second opinions that Bobby does have functions. He is not brain dead, according to several physicians.
"I do not think a procedural error should be the reason this young man does not have a chance at life. ... I'm doing everything in my power to give this child a chance. ... We need to file in the Court of Claims; please give us 48 hours to do so."
Attorney Michael Huget, representing the UM hospital, said Schwartz had no jurisdiction to continue with a stay of action.
"I think this court needs to proceed as it should and allow the doctors at the University of Michigan to engage in the medically appropriate treatment that they want to engage in," Huget said.
Swartz agreed and dismissed the restraining order, noting that both parties agreed his court lacks jurisdiction.
"This court, as all courts of this state, is required to follow the law," he said. "In this case, it is crystal clear, and conceded by plaintiff, that this court lacks jurisdiction.
"Without jurisdiction of the subject matter, any action to such cause other than to dismiss it is absolutely void ... I have no authority to do anything."
