A young boy’s parents have filed a lawsuit against Norton Healthcare after they said Norton Children’s Hospital started end-of-life procedures on their child while he was apparently still awake.
Finnley McCullum, 8, from New Albany, had a congenital heart defect and was treated for it throughout his life. He died on April 19 at Norton Children’s Hospital.
The lawsuit, filed by his parents, Sally and Christopher McCullum, said around the end of July 2022, Finnley underwent a heart transplant, but his body rejected it within hours.
While Finnley was waiting for another transplant, court documents say he was kept alive through dialysis and a Berlin heart, used by doctors as what they call “bridge treatment.”
The lawsuit says that on April 4, 2023, Norton Children’s told his parents, Finnley wasn’t eligible for another transplant and said they would “end life-sustaining treatment.”
The suit states the initial deadline was set for just 24 hours later, and the decision was not made with or received the approval of the family.
According to the lawsuit, Norton officials told the parents the only thing that would stop them was if the parents had a “court order to stop it.”
Norton allegedly told the parents that health providers had never removed life-sustaining equipment from a child that was both conscious and cognitively aware before Finnley.
The suit says Norton promised Chris and Sally McCullum that Finnley would not be aware of this process, but on April 19, the day the procedure was done, his parents said Finnley was awake and in pain for hours and even called out for help.
His parents say in the lawsuit all they could do was reassure Finnley it would be okay, even though they knew he was dying.
The lawsuit goes on to say Norton did not have a doctor present to end that life-sustaining treatment who was skilled in end-of-life care, and that the process was a “drastic departure from the standard medical ethics.”
Source: WAVE
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