LONDON, Ont. - A London, Ont., hospital has asked Ontario's public guardian's office for consent to remove a Windsor baby from life support as the infant's family waits to learn if he can be transferred to a U.S. hospital.
However the London Health Sciences Centre says it won't take any further steps in Joseph Maraachli's case until it hears whether the Children's Hospital of Michigan will take him on as a patient.
Moe Maraachli, who has been sleeping at Victoria Hospital since Friday, said in an email Tuesday he's not being allowed any privacy with his dying son. He said a security guard is "watching every move" he and his family make.
Maraachli and his wife Sana Nader defied an Ontario Superior Court order Monday morning that ordered them to consent to removing their terminally ill 13-month-old son from a ventilator at the hospital, where he's been since October.
Since the hospital could not obtain consent to remove Joseph's breathing tube from family members, it took the next legal step in the process. It sought consent from the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee, said the hospital's lawyer.
"They've been contacted in the context of providing consent," said Julie Zamprogna-Balles.
"The court gave a time frame of Monday at 10 a.m. for the parents to consent. After that, if no other family members consent, then the Public Guardian and Trustee is consulted. So the hospital is just following the legal process."
The family's lawyer, Mark Handelman, said Tuesday he expected it would take the hospital a couple of days to obtain consent from the public guardian's office.
But the hospital has agreed to await the decision of the Michigan facility, where the boy's medical records were sent on Monday, said Zamprogna-Balles.
Another hospital spokeswoman said doctors in Detroit have a 1,000-page medical chart to go through.
By mid-Tuesday afternoon, London hospital officials said they had not heard back whether the Detroit facility would seek the boy's transfer.
In Detroit, Children's Hospital spokeswoman Vickie Winn refused to say whether the hospital had received Joseph's chart or when it would make a decision on a possible transfer, citing privacy concerns.
London doctors recommended Joseph be removed from life support in November because they say he won't recover from the rare neurological condition that has left him in a vegetative state. He is fed through a feeding tube.
The family fears Joseph will suffer a painful choking death if the ventilator is removed.
Doctors refused their request to perform a tracheotomy so the family could take the baby home to die surrounded by loved ones, saying it wasn't in the boy's best interests.
Ontario's Consent and Capacity Board sided with the doctors, and last Thursday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Helen Rady ordered the couple consent to take Joseph off the ventilator.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said he's collected about $2,000 towards a legal defence fund for the Maraachli family. About 50 people have donated from Canada and the U.S., and there was even a $25 donation from someone in Slovenia, he said.
