FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – A Texas appeals court has agreed to allow another week for parents to find a facility to maintain life support for their 9-year-old daughter, who has been declared brain-dead.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the Texas 2nd Court of Appeals on Friday upheld state District Judge Melody Wilkinson’s order that keeps Payton Summons on life support until 6 p.m. Monday. Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth had appealed the order, saying its doctors have determined that no hope remains for the girl’s recovery and she should be removed from life support.
Wilkinson previously ruled doctors could remove the girl from life support this past Monday when her parents could find no alternative facility. Attorneys for her parents, though, asked for an extension after they and lawyers for the hospital couldn’t reach an agreement on a next step.
Attorneys for the hospital appealed, saying the extension asked hospital staff to maintain a dead person on ventilation and continue treating a “deceased deteriorating body.” The attorneys argued such measures were “medically, ethically and morally repugnant.”
