13 year old Hannah Jones refuses heart transplant

[TheMorningStar]

The article says the drugs could bring her leukemia back. Not would.
Yes? No?

[brokenandtwisted]

If that was all that was involved, nobody would be disputing it.

Way to go on failing to read the other half of that.

The article says the drugs could bring her leukemia back. Not would.
Yes? No?

No, not specifically, but she would be prone to other diseases. Again, given her age and medical advances...there's really not a problem...

[CPL CHUD]

If she's not mature enough to elect to smoke tobacco or live outside of her parent's financial umbrella she's not mature enough to make life and death decisions on her own part.

[crickett]

First of all, autoimmunity and immunosupressants are 2 totally different things. Not quite sure where you are going with this. And, LOOK it up, if you had experience with heart pts or CA pts, you would know that chemo and radiation is known to cause cardiomyopathies as well as valve problems.
I, on the other hand, have worked with both; and transplant pts too.

Cardiac is my specialty area and tankgirl is right. Cardiomyopathy is quite often caused by chemotherapy. Heart problems can also be actually CAUSED by immunosuppressive drugs.
If this young lady were to have a heart transplant, the immunosuppressive medications that she would require COULD cause a return of the leukemia. The treatment for any recurrence of leukemia would weaken and endanger her new heart. It's a vicious catch 22.
It's clear that she has thought this out. Given that her parents support her I would only ask that she be examined by a psychologist to ensure that it is not just depression that she is suffering from. Past that, we need to respect her decision.

[brokenandtwisted]

If she's not mature enough to elect to smoke tobacco or live outside of her parent's financial umbrella she's not mature enough to make life and death decisions on her own part.

Lol...good point. However, by applying that same logic...you can die for your country in war at seventeen here, but can't drink until nineteen years of age? WTF is that?!

[CPL CHUD]

Lol...good point. However, by applying that same logic...you can die for your country in war at seventeen here, but can't drink until nineteen years of age? WTF is that?!

It has to do with stunting your brain growth. We let people make the decision to join the military at a younger age because we don't assume they are necessarily going to die and it's around the age you begin narrowing down career paths anyways. However drinking beer is going to kill brain cells and hinder cortex development to a certain degree.

[brokenandtwisted]

It has to do with stunting your brain growth. We let people make the decision to join the military at a younger age because we don't assume they are necessarily going to die and it's around the age you begin narrowing down career paths anyways. However drinking beer is going to kill brain cells and hinder cortex development to a certain degree.

Very true. But, the brain isn't full developed until the mid 20s. So, why do we have the legal drinking age so low?

But that's for another thread...I read today in the paper that the girl is allowed to die. I'll find the online version in a minute.

[Sister Iroz]

I have never heard anyone say "I suffer from autoimmunity"

Tankgirl it can be called that but usually it's referred to as an Autoimmune Disease and depending on how involved the disease is they will put you on cancer medication. They tried that with me but within one day my blood showed problems with I think it was the kidney. So I take plaquenil which is a drug for malaria. I have a form of Scleroderma.

To find out if you have an autoimmune disease they go on a blood test for Antinuclear Antibody. Your body is actually attacking itself.

[Angelinfl]

I think it should be up to her. At this point I'm sure she knows the ramifications.

[Sister Iroz]

Brain damage is mostly irreparable.

My daughter who will soon be 20 was born 32 week gestation. Since she had to be on a ventilator about 3 days after her birth she apparently received too much oxygen and had a Grade IV bleed on the left side and Grade III on the right. Well the Drs. told me that if she were to live she would be severely disabled living in a wheelchair. She does have a shunt on the left side of her head, seizures, Cerebral Palsy mostly on right side and a few other things. However, you would only notice the CP on her right hand which she can't use and keeps it in a fist. Also she had her temporal lobe removed in 2003. So my point is the younger the person or child is, there is better chance of the brain partly being reparable.

[katyk]

Reading through all the posts (especially yours, Broken) made me so happy to be back!

I am torn on this issue. On one hand, I think government needs to butt out and let the family make this decision. This poor girl has lost her childhood to disease and the thought of continuing the rest of her life, and into old age, on tons of medication, with no real guarantee of getting better -- well, I can only imagine how she struggles with that decision.

On the other hand, she is only 13 and we all know they don't have the best decision making skills at times. The parents and doctors, not government, should do more to make the option of life more appealing. By agreeing with her, they are giving up, too. She needs strong, positive adult guidance right now, steering her in the right direction. Otherwise, they could regret it for the rest of their lives.

[brokenandtwisted]

Reading through all the posts (especially yours, Broken) made me so happy to be back!

I am torn on this issue. On one hand, I think government needs to butt out and let the family make this decision. This poor girl has lost her childhood to disease and the thought of continuing the rest of her life, and into old age, on tons of medication, with no real guarantee of getting better -- well, I can only imagine how she struggles with that decision.

On the other hand, she is only 13 and we all know they don't have the best decision making skills at times. The parents and doctors, not government, should do more to make the option of life more appealing. By agreeing with her, they are giving up, too. She needs strong, positive adult guidance right now, steering her in the right direction. Otherwise, they could regret it for the rest of their lives.

Yeah, she's allowed to die.

Nonsense...and what I said in this thread still holds. Sure, it's ethical and compassionate, but the parents will regret this for the rest of their lives.

[Athena]

Nonsense...and what I said in this thread still holds. Sure, it's ethical and compassionate, but the parents will regret this for the rest of their lives.

If they thought they would, they probably wouldn't be supporting her decision. They've probably discussed it at great length and will take comfort in the fact that their daughter is no longer suffering. I'd bet they are religious folks.