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

The meeting before the Idaho House of Representatives State Affairs Committee this morning was successful. They passed Senate Bill 1348 with full recommendation to the House for a "DO PASS" vote. This bill clears up language in previous statutes and allows family members to have priority say in the care of patients where there is a conflict of opinion between the patient/family and the doctor in cases where the medical staff deems the patient to have "no quality" of life.

And as usual, I did not stick to script. I had printed off an 8X10 of Brenna sitting on the side of her bed at 7 weeks past her brain injury. I told them this was the young lady who had been pronounced in a "persistent vegetative state", 7 weeks later. That got their attention. I told them about the refusal of hospital staff to even tell Brenna that her Mama was there for her in the ER and that the CCU doctor told me she would treat Brenna her way no matter what I found in research.

I made sure they understood that she received no treatment in the first hospital for swelling in the brain. I made sure they understood that because Brenna had a brain injury, she was denied dental care for 4 1/2 months, until she had 5 broken teeth and the rest were splintered. I had their attention.

I brought them home with Brenna after 15 1/2 months of a hellish nightmare in the health care system as it exists today, her final heart attack that put her in the hospital, and then to her last trip home where her Mama held her one more time and this time, let her go.

I left them with these words. "I said to my daughter, 'Mama loves you and in the blink of God's eye, Mom will be there with you.' On Brenna's behalf, please pass this bill out of committee."