Life Support

Early in the summer of 2009, I was finally done. For real, this time. He didn't know it yet, but I did. And that was enough. Years ago, I had promised myself that I would start having children no later than age 38. I was 36 that summer. It just wasn't going to happen with Mike. In truth, Mike and I had been simulating a relationship for months. I fooled myself into thinking we would transition into something greater. He fooled himself into thinking I had given up that notion.

Early in the summer of 2009, I was finally done. For real, this time. He didn't know it yet, but I did. And that was enough. Years ago, I had promised myself that I would start having children no later than age 38. I was 36 that summer. It just wasn't going to happen with Mike. In truth, Mike and I had been simulating a relationship for months. I fooled myself into thinking we would transition into something greater. He fooled himself into thinking I had given up that notion.

Nearly six years after Compton Community College lost its accreditation after an array of financial problems and administrative corruption, the school remains on life support, community college officials said at a campus event Friday. School officials had embezzled money and the college was seen as woefully mismanaged when an oversight agency revoked Compton's accreditation in 2005. After the college gave up on its appeals, it was subsumed by El Camino Community College in Torrance, becoming El Camino Compton Center.

Students at Northwood High School in Irvine came to class Tuesday wearing white as a tribute to cheerleader Ashton Sweet, injured in a Memorial Day weekend crash involving a suspected drunk driver. Those students, amid tears, learned hours later that Ashton had been removed from life support and died. The 14-year-old freshman and three other teenage girls were being taken home very early Sunday from a birthday party for one of them. About 1 a.m., the Mercedes-Benz they were riding in, driven by Michael Ghaemi, the father of one of the girls, was hit in the left side by a Toyota pickup near Culver Drive and Irvine Boulevard, according to police.

Boxer Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter is on life support after she was found with her neck caught in a cord of a treadmill machine Monday, police said. The 7-year-old brother of Exodus Tyson found her next to the exercise machine at their Phoenix home, police Sgt. Andy Hill said, calling it a "tragic accident." The boy told the girl's mother, who was in another room. She called 911 and tried to revive her.

Life-support systems will not be used on 87-year-old Emperor Hirohito because it would not be appropriate for the highest symbol of the nation, Imperial Palace officials said today. Hirohito, in the sixth week of an illness believed to be abdominal cancer, recovered to a stable condition shortly after a sudden and small blood loss today, doctors said.

American tenor Jerry Hadley remained on life support and "do not resuscitate" orders Thursday, two days after being found in his upstate New York home after apparently shooting himself in the head with an air rifle, family spokeswoman Celia Novo said. Hadley, 55, was in St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where neurosurgeons determined that he has suffered severe brain injuries, said New York State Police senior investigator Robert Rochler.

What would cause strangers with opposite personalities to fall in love while awaiting news of their respective hospitalized spouses? Probably more than glib banter. Lab results on "Life Support," George Tricker's new two-character drama at Actors Alley at the El Portal, reveal an intriguing premise, valiant efforts from a pair of fine actors, and a script in need of intensive care.

An American advising Cambodia's budding democratic politicians was among those wounded in a grenade attack that killed 16 people and injured 118 this spring. The injury may not have been life-threatening, but Phnom Penh's decrepit, poorly equipped Calmette Hospital was another matter. The medical assistance group covering the American flew him to Singapore within hours. Few areas of the world offer as great a contrast in medical care as Southeast Asia.

The mother of an infant with an often lethal skeletal disorder won a victory in her fight to keep a Houston hospital from removing the boy from life support. A judge earlier had lifted a restraining order, saying there was no chance another hospital would take over the care of the 4-month-old. But an attorney for the boy's mother, Wanda Hudson, appealed and a state appeals court reinstated the order.

Nearly six years after Compton Community College lost its accreditation after an array of financial problems and administrative corruption, the school remains on life support, community college officials said at a campus event Friday. School officials had embezzled money and the college was seen as woefully mismanaged when an oversight agency revoked Compton's accreditation in 2005. After the college gave up on its appeals, it was subsumed by El Camino Community College in Torrance, becoming El Camino Compton Center.

The premise Jake Spencer (James Nigbor), a 31/2-year-old boy, is badly injured in an automobile accident and suffers brain damage. In the operating room, neurosurgeon Patrick Drake (Jason Thompson) performs an emergency operation in which he cuts away part of the child's skull to relieve the pressure on Jake's damaged brain. The procedure is not successful, and brain function is lost. Jake is left on life support with no hope of recovery. Meanwhile, Josslyn Jacks, 11/2, has developed cancer in both kidneys, and her doctor says that only a kidney transplant can save her life.

Hospitals may be pulling the plug too soon on some patients who have undergone therapeutic hypothermia after a heart attack, researchers said Saturday. Therapeutic hypothermia, which has been part of the American Heart Assn. guidelines for treatment of a heart attack since 2005, involves lowering the patient's body temperature to between 90 and 93 degrees Fahrenheit for about 24 hours. The idea is to slow the body's metabolism, reducing the demand for oxygen and giving the brain and other organs time to recover in the aftermath of the heart attack.

Stopping life-support for a critically ill and incapacitated person is not an easy decision. But a new study shows that about half of all surrogate decision-makers choose to maintain sole authority to make difficult end-of-life decisions. The study was aimed at better understanding the processes by which people make life-support and treatment decisions for others that are loaded with moral and ethical uncertainty as well as emotional consequences. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh surveyed 230 surrogate decision-makers of incapacitated patients who were in intensive care units and had a high likelihood of dying.

Jamie Merrett, paralyzed from the neck down, was so worried about the quality of nursing care he was receiving at home that he had a camera set up in his room to monitor the activity around him. The Englishman's worst fears were realized when the camera recorded his nurse switching off his life-support system, apparently by accident, then fumbling to revive him while he lay helpless in bed. Merrett, 37, is now brain-damaged. On Monday, that grainy footage was broadcast on national television, shocking Britons and adding to the catalog of medical horror stories that have left many here bemoaning the state of the nation's vaunted National Health Service, or NHS. Health officials have apologized to Merrett's family for the incident, which occurred in January 2009 but was not publicized until the BBC aired the disturbing video Monday.

While the Dodgers cling to slim hopes for postseason play, they're also trying to spoil the playoff hopes of their archrivals, the San Francisco Giants. Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley held the Giants to two hits in eight innings and contributed a two-run single to lead the Dodgers past the Giants, 4-2, Friday night at Dodger Stadium in the opening game of their three-game series. Philadelphia also won, so the Dodgers remained eight games behind the Phillies in the National League wild-card playoff race with 27 games left in the regular season.

Police arrested a 17-year-old Friday after his girlfriend's 18-month-old daughter was hospitalized in extremely critical condition. The Santa Ana teen-ager, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was being held in Juvenile Hall on suspicion of felony child endangerment, Sgt. Dick Faust said. The charges could change if the child, Carina Ramirez, dies. She has been placed on life support, Faust said.

Aaron Paul from 'Breaking Bad' : Now that we're finally catching up with this remarkable show on DVD, Paul has been a revelation for us as the tweaked-out sidekick to terminally ill meth-chemist Bryan Cranston. Cranston earns every bit of praise he's gotten as the show's center, but Emmy voters should reward the pathos Paul brings to the bumbling Jesse, who somehow keeps earning our sympathy even as his actions often defy it. Lost in the Trees : Take the delicately wistful folk-pop group Iron & Wine and have it run out of gas outside a classical music festival and you've got some idea about this North Carolina chamber-folk collective.

Police said Wednesday they were investigating the death of a 13-year-old boy who choked on a hot dog during a Haiti fundraising event at the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club. The boy choked on the hot dog during a contest last week and died several days later after he was taken off life support, said Sgt. Danny Contreras of the Los Angeles Police Department's Harbor Division. He said people tried to help the boy before rescuers arrived. "None of them were able to dislodge it from his throat," Contreras said.