After a monthslong legal battle in which a California family fought to keep a brain-dead 2-year-old boy alive, the child, Israel Stinson, was removed from life support at Children's Hospital Los Angeles on Thursday, CBS Los Angeles reports.
“They are devastated. I think still in shock,” the attorney representing Israel's family, Alexandra Snyder, said. “It’s not even my child; I am still in shock this could happen so quickly.”
A judge's decision to remove the little boy from life support was a huge blow, especially given that just last week the court gave Snyder a temporary order to stop the hospital from removing the ventilator so that the family could get an opinion from another neurologist.
“That is something every family has to decide for themselves, not a choice that should be imposed upon somebody,” Snyder said.
Israel was declared brain-dead back in April after suffering a severe asthma attack that led to cardiac arrest. Since then his parents have been fighting to keep him on life support in hopes of eventually being able to take care of him at home.
“These doctors [are] telling you there’s no hope, but then you go and see your son and he moves to your voice and it brings you back up,” Jonee Fonseca, Israel's mother, said.
His parents went as far as taking the boy to Guatemala, where doctors determined that their tests showed Israel had brain activity. After that, Children's Hospital Los Angeles reportedly agreed to take Israel as a patient, Snyder says. However, shortly thereafter, doctors said that they were going to remove the toddler from child support.
On Thursday morning, both parties went to court and a judge ruled in favor of removing Israel from life support.
Read more at CBS Los Angeles.