Condemned to Die: Ask me how. Tell me why.

Did you know?

I do not want Brenna's life experiences for those nightmarish 16 months to be in vain. Someone must learn from her experiences. DC must wake up. All God's children must re-examine where they stand on death for those with brain injuries. What percentage of brain injury do you feel is acceptable to end life before the practice becomes legalized murder or euthanasia?

Many nursing homes and Long Term Acute Care hospitals are not equipped with brain injury certified therapists to give the right kind of therapy in the early days. They won't tell you that. Families have to learn that for themselves. Facilities will give inconsistent simple range of motion exercises and do little in repetitive motion to repattern the brain. All this while making a family feel good that anything at all has been done.

Patients with an acquired brain injury are shuffled from one facility to another on the health care assembly line, most taken care of by staff who have reached the status of LPN, licensened practical nurse. LPNs make daily life and death decisions based on their limited education. Doctors frequently rubber stamp whatever the LPNs request, to the detriment of the patient. This repeatedly happened to Brenna with her diabetic care.

Brenna was a brittle diabetic since the age of 6 and was treated as if she were a Type II by many professionals who refused to use the protocol she used at home. Her blood glucose counts bounced from a low of 38 to a high of 500 in the care of professionals. When at last I was able to get her home and out of the clutches of institutions, her BGs stabalized. It took me almost 16 months to be allowed to take her home. That should never have happened.

Our system does not have a shared protocol for therapists to use for brain injury rehabilitation. It is long past time for those protocols to exist. Families should not have to begin the search each time a brain injury happens.

Did I know that brain injuries are given a coma function designation? I had to learn about the Glasgow Coma Scale and the Rancho Los Amigos scale on my own. Doctors never told me, not even the two neurologists that saw Brenna.

Did I know that many doctors who instruct families to end life have little or no specialized education about brain rehabilitation? No, not until I met a cold-eyed/hearted doctor in ICU whose main goal appeared to be my daughter's death.

Did I know that the United States had no published peer-reviewed studies on rehabilitation of acquired brain injury in the past 25 years? Not until I began looking for them. Yet, doctors in ICUs use out-dated studies, if they exist at all, to pressure families into ending life before all tests are completed. Doctors are not giving full disclosre to families who are forced to make the decision to end lilfe.

Did I know specialty hospitals existed for rehabilitation for brain injuries? I had to find them with the help of a good friend who spent countless hours looking for a hospital to accept Brenna.

Did I know that therapists or rehab hospitals should be brain injury certified when my daughter first became ill? No, and no one told me. I had to discover that information in a book six weeks before my daughter's death.

Did I know that brain injury rehab hospitals have a quota on patients with acquired brain injuries? No, I had to find that out from an evaluator from a large brain injury rehab hospital a month before my daughter died. From her words, the hospitals must accept 35% of the brain injury patient load as ABIs and they are seeking to have that percentage reduced in Congress. They receive Federal funds to which we all contribute, yet they do not want to accept our patients for rehabilitation. That is America's Shame. The Congressional Brain Injury Task Force should be addressing this inequality of treatment for ABIs. If you live in the district of one of them, please contact them until they hear the message.

Brenna's loving mom, Pam