Family: Calif. toddler declared brain dead moved to hospital outside of U.S.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A California toddler whose family waged a court battle to keep him on life support after he was declared brain dead has been transferred to a hospital outside the U.S., the family said.
Attorney Kevin Snider declined to release the name of the hospital or its location, citing the privacy of 2-year-old Israel Stinson's family.
The boy's mother Jonee Fonseca said in a posting Sunday on the website gofundme.com that the facility was outside the U.S. She said a neurologist and pediatric specialist who examined Israel at the new hospital determined he was not brain dead.
The boy was receiving nutrients and was on a treatment plan, she said in the post on the fundraising site.
Israel went to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Roseville on April 11 after treatment at the University of California, Davis Medical Center following what appeared to be an asthma attack, according to court documents. At UC Davis, he went into cardiac arrest and was later found to be brain dead.
Two more evaluations at Kaiser Permanente also determined he was brain dead, Kaiser Permanente attorneys said.
Fonseca had been looking to move the child out of Kaiser Permanente, where doctors said his condition wouldn't improve. She said Israel had moved his body in response to her touch and voice, and she believed he was still alive as long as his heart was beating.
A federal appeals court on Friday gave Fonseca more time to find another facility for Israel, ordering Kaiser Permanente to continue life support while it considered his mother's appeal.
A lower court had extended life support only to the end of the business day Friday. Snider said Fonseca's appeal is now moot.
Kaiser Permanente confirmed in a statement that Israel was no longer at the hospital.
"Our primary goals have always been to offer our support to Israel's family and follow the courts' direction," said Chris Palkowski, chief of staff at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville. "We hope this transfer brings peace for Israel's family."
Fonseca filed a lawsuit in state court to prevent Kaiser Permanente from removing Israel from life support. A judge ruled against her last month.
Fonseca filed a separate federal lawsuit, arguing that state law doesn't allow patients to bring in their own doctors to challenge the finding of death, and that violates due-process rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Israel's family was given a renewed sense of hope from a woman in the Bay Area who is still alive a year after she was pronounced brain dead.
Two San Francisco neurologists determined that the 29-year-old woman, Anahita Meshkin, did not meet the clinical criteria for brain death, CBS Sacramento reported. She remains in a coma.
Her story was cited by the parents of Israel.
The families are going through heartbreaking situations, and though they don't know each other, the fact that Meshkin remains alive gave Israel's parents some hope.
"I'm not the only parent who would fight for their child," Stinson previously said.
Stinson sees pictures of 29-year-old Anahita Meskin as more motivation to keep fighting.
"It does make me hopeful, but it's still frustrating, that they haven't declared my son alive," she said.
Mohammad Meshkin, Anahita's dad, never gave up even though she's been comatose for nearly a decade after suffering a massive seizure while battling anorexia. She remains hooked up to machines at a care facility.
"I can can only imagine what the dad is feeling. His daughter is still fighting for her life," Stinson said.
The fight over life support for Israel is also similar to the battle over Jahi McMath -- a 13-year-old girl who underwent a tonsillectomy and tissue removal at Children's Hospital in Oakland, California, to treat sleep apnea.
The girl suffered massive bleeding, had a heart attack and was declared brain dead in 2013. But her family fought to keep her on life support and moved her to New Jersey, which requires medical treatment of patients like McMath who are declared dead but show minimal brain function.