Supreme Court judge has ruled that a Vancouver hospital can take a 65-year-old man off life support almost three months after he suffered a heart attack.
The case ended up in court after the daughters of Leo Edward Bikus sought an injunction that would continue his treatment at St. Paul’s Hospital.
In a written decision posted Thursday, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled it would be inappropriate for the court to interfere with the clinical judgment of the patient’s physicians, all of whom unanimously agreed that it would be in Bikus’s best interests to end treatment.
His two daughters, Evangeline De Châtillon and Elise Bikus, are entitled to act as his temporary decision makers.
The physicians, among them cardiologists and neurologists, concluded that continuing the care “would simply prolong his life and be futile, leading to a persistent vegetative state, with no conscious awareness, and would likely result in further harm including bed sores, infection and other complications.”
They asked for St. Paul’s to continue the treatment and for a three-week extension to give them time to get “an unbiased and independent review of their father’s circumstances from professional neurologists.”
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Supreme Court judge has ruled that a Vancouver hospital can take a 65-year-old man off life support almost three months after he suffered a heart attack.
The case ended up in court after the daughters of Leo Edward Bikus sought an injunction that would continue his treatment at St. Paul’s Hospital.
In a written decision posted Thursday, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled it would be inappropriate for the court to interfere with the clinical judgment of the patient’s physicians, all of whom unanimously agreed that it would be in Bikus’s best interests to end treatment.
His two daughters, Evangeline De Châtillon and Elise Bikus, are entitled to act as his temporary decision makers.
The physicians, among them cardiologists and neurologists, concluded that continuing the care “would simply prolong his life and be futile, leading to a persistent vegetative state, with no conscious awareness, and would likely result in further harm including bed sores, infection and other complications.”
They asked for St. Paul’s to continue the treatment and for a three-week extension to give them time to get “an unbiased and independent review of their father’s circumstances from professional neurologists.”
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