Baby Joseph Maraachli is not allowed to die at home

One year old baby Joseph Maraachli is going to die; his parents want him to die at home. In order for that to happen, Joseph needs a tracheotomy to allow him to breath. The hospital refused and will remove his breathing tube Monday, which will cause him to choke to death. The hospital’s reason  for not doing the tracheotomy – which the courts upheld? It could cause infection or pneumonia.

R.I.P. Canadian health care, judicial sanity and baby Joseph.

From here:

With all of their legal avenues exhausted, the family will have to say goodbye to Joseph Monday morning — on Family Day — when his breathing tube will be removed.

“I do my best for my baby. My son is not a criminal . . . to just let him die,” dad Moe Maraachli said through tears.

“They are taking my baby away from me . . . Where is the humanity?”

He said he didn’t know how to break the news to his wife Sana Nader, who was too upset to sit through the day’s court proceedings, or explain to their seven-year-old son Ali what’s going to happen to his little brother.

Maraachli and Nader fought to bring Joseph home to Windsor so he could spend his last days surrounded by loved ones. Joseph suffers from a severe and deteriorating neurological condition that has left him in a persistent vegetative state, according to specialists in London, Ont., who’ve examined him. He’s been at the Victoria Hospital, part of London Health Sciences Centre, since October.

Nine years ago, Maraachli and Nader lost a daughter who suffered from health complications nearly identical to Joseph’s.

Although the couple has accepted their baby boy’s inevitable death, they insisted that it occur peacefully at home and not by removing his breathing tube, which will cause him to choke since he can’t swallow or breathe on his own. The parents asked for a tracheotomy, which would open up a direct airway through an incision in Joseph’s trachea and make it possible to bring the baby home.

But doctors refused to perform the procedure, citing serious risks of infection, pneumonia and other possible complications.

18 thoughts on “Baby Joseph Maraachli is not allowed to die at home

  1. But doctors refused to perform the procedure, citing serious risks of infection, pneumonia and other possible complications.

    So the poor kid suffers from a severe and deteriorating neurological condition that has left him in a persistent vegetative state, terminal and they are worried about possible complications?

  2. Sounds like the Canadian healthcare system just want the baby dead as soon as possible and they want to be the ones to do it. May God have mercy on their merciless souls.

  3. Not “the Canadian health care system” – one doctor (or doctors), and a sympathetic (to the doctor) judge. The other child they had with the same condition was given a tracheotomy and allowed to die at home, presumably by that same “Canadian health care system”.

    The Euthansia Prevention Coalation is reporting on Facebook that the family hired a different lawyer and got a court order preventing the doctors from removing life support.

    • Actually, this poor child was admitted to LHSC in mid-October and immediately was put on life support. Many pediatric specialists were consulted before they came to the conclusion that there was no hope for the baby’s recovery. The other child, Zina, was trached, but she also was repeatedly brought back to the hospital for treatment for infection. She finally died in the hospital. A tracheotomy is invasive and would cause Joseph untold misery–once a trach is inserted, it requires constant care and numerous daily cleanings. The fact that over a dozen hospitals in the U.S. refused to admit Joseph, along with the fact that Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital has had the baby for a full week and has still not performed this procedure should be evidence in itself that performing a tracheotomy is probably not at all in the child’s best interest.

    • Magatha,

      A tracheotomy is invasive and would cause Joseph untold misery

      Not according to this:

      Let’s get something straight: A tracheotomy does not necessarily prolong the life of terminally ill patients. Its main purpose is to provide comfort to the patient.

      Breathing tubes inserted through the mouth or nose can cause painful sores to develop along the inside of the mouth and throat. A tracheotomy, meanwhile, inserts a tube directly into the throat through an incision in the neck. This eliminates some of the pain and discomfort associated with intubation.

      In this particular case, the tracheotomy will also allow Joseph to go home and live out his remaining days with his family.

  4. Get a grip America!! The father has lied and manipulated. The American advocacy groups are using him as a puppet. Now for the best part – Americans are so stupid, they are buying the bullshit!

    The vigils last weekend had about 20 people, mainly the family and the American “advocates”. No one in London gave a shit and it had no media attention.

    The father is an unemployed muslim, married to his first cousin. This is their third child with the disease. Canadian taxpayers have paid for everything!

    If the Canadian system is so bad, why is there a priest begging for any place in America to take him – with no takers! It has nothing to do with charts, its because it is wrong to do procedures on dying patients. Wake up!!

    • it is wrong to do procedures on dying patients

      If that’s the case, we’re all in trouble since we are all in the process of dying – at different rates.

      • Why?

        If you are an atheist you believe that what follows life is an eternity of nothingness; if you are a theist, an eternity with God – or without him.

        Either way, any life’s length is proportionally the same to eternity: if living 80 minutes is worthless, then living 80 years is, too.

        Christians believe that life is precious – however long is given to us.

    • You have now commented under the names “Sam Sansalone”, “John Smith” and “Joe Realistic”, all using an IP address owned by the London Health Sciences Centre, the institution currently treating baby Joseph.

      First, you don’t appear to have the native common sense needed to construct a sensible argument.

      Second, if you persist in changing the name you comment under, I will delete your messages.

      Third, if everyone else at LHSC is as bright as you, baby Joseph can’t be removed quickly enough.

  5. David…I find it interesting that “Sam” is posting from LHSC. He’s been bashing that hospital for weeks now and saying awful things about the Canadian Health care system and the doctors and nurses that work there and at Sick Kids. He’s crazy, actually, posting all sorts of lies on the “Save Baby Joseph” website.

    I believe it’s time he was called out.

  6. Hi David. LHSC has public internet access (ssid = lhpublic) throughout the hospital. Anyone can connect. You can sit in the parking lot and connect. Your guy with multiple personality disorder could be anyone.

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