Brain Death

Thadd McNamara was at the helm of his motor home on a cross-country trip in 2005 when his cellphone rang and a neighbor gave him the news: His grown son, Sean, was in trouble with law -- again. McNamara and his wife turned around in Corpus Christi, Texas, and headed back home to Rolling Hills Estates. On the way, McNamara made several calls in an effort to piece together why his 41-year-old son had been arrested.

A Washington hospital has asked a judge for permission to stop treating a brain-dead 12-year-old cancer patient, even though his ultra-religious New York parents want to keep him on life support. Motl Brody of Brooklyn was pronounced dead this week after a half-year fight against a brain tumor, and doctors at Children's National Medical Center in Washington say the seventh-grader's brain has ceased functioning. But for the last few days, a machine has continued to inflate and deflate his lungs.

The Walt Disney Co. has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit with the family of a Spanish woman that contended she suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage as a result of riding the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland. Cristina Moreno, 23, of Barcelona rode the thrill ride while on her honeymoon in June 2000. She reportedly passed out after returning to her Hollywood hotel, never regained consciousness and died two months later. Her heirs were seeking more than $1 million in damages.

A man whose family agreed to donate his organs for transplant upon his death was wrongly declared brain-dead by two doctors at a Fresno hospital, records and interviews show. Only after the man's 26-year-old daughter and a nurse became suspicious was a third doctor, a neurosurgeon, brought in. He determined that John Foster, 47, was not brain-dead, a condition that would have cleared the way for his organs to be removed, records of the Feb. 21 incident show.

Samantha Palumbo lay still as a stone. She might as well have been dead. Above her head, a doctor held a needle. It contained Lidocaine, a local anesthetic. First some numbing, just in case she could feel, and then the doctor would insert a fiber-optic probe into what was left of Sami's brain. For nearly a week, Sami Palumbo, 16, had not moved. Her parents and classmates from her school came to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and prayed.

Re "Close call in death ruling of potential organ donor," April 12 The article places undue emphasis on the patient being a "potential organ donor," as brain-death diagnoses and declarations are made entirely independent of decisions to be organ donors. Brain death was formalized to enable families, doctors and hospitals to cease the futile care of patients whose hearts and breathing would stop without mechanical support. This patient and family were fortunate that the organ recovery coordinator was a part of a team that identified the misdiagnosis before the attending physician acted on The Times' cited statement, "We're pulling the plug."

In a move they called exceedingly rare, state prison officials Monday granted an early release to an inmate who was shot last month by a correctional officer and has been declared brain-dead. Daniel Provencio, 28, has been connected to a ventilator and feeding tubes in a Bakersfield hospital since Jan. 16, when he was struck in the head by a foam projectile.

An Oxnard man granted early release from state prison after he was shot by a correctional officer and declared brain dead has died at a Bakersfield hospital, authorities said. Daniel Provencio, 28, died at 2:05 p.m. Friday at Mercy Hospital, according to the Kern County coroner's office. Provencio's family fought to get him released early from prison after he was struck in the head Jan. 16 by a foam projectile fired by a guard attempting to break up a brawl at Wasco State Prison.

A brain-dead pregnant woman who has been kept on life support to give her fetus more time to develop gave birth to a baby girl Tuesday, the woman's brother-in-law said. There were no complications during the delivery and the baby was "doing well," Justin Torres wrote in an e-mail to Associated Press. The baby, Susan Anne Catherine Torres, weighs 1 pound, 13 ounces and is 13 1/2 inches long, he said. The infant was delivered by caesarean section, the hospital said.

A brain-dead woman who was kept alive for three months so her fetus could develop was removed from life support Wednesday and died, a day after giving birth. "This is obviously a bittersweet time for our family," Justin Torres, the woman's brother-in-law, said in a statement. Susan Torres, 26, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, had melanoma and suffered a stroke in May after the cancer spread to her brain.