A report in Fox News Insider today stated that a woman was declared dead by a New York Hospital from a drug overdose. Colleen Burns was mistakenly pronounced brain dead upon her admittance to the hospital.
This mistake could have actually cost Colleen Burns her life. Burns was in a deep coma when she was delivered to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, New York for admittance. She was diagnosed by her doctors as having had a heart attack and was declared brain dead.
Burns organs were to be harvested after her death; and sixteen hours before her body was to be harvested, a nurse performed a reflex test on her, and to the nurse’s surprise, Burns responded to her tests.
The report stated the nurse contacted Burns doctors immediately, but her request was ignored. Brain scans were not performed on Burns nor were there any tests conducted to ascertain if the drugs were out of her system.
When Burns body was delivered to the operating room for harvesting, she opened up her eyes, realizing she was alive.
The report indicated this horrible act was not investigated by the hospital until after the State Health Department commenced to check into the facts of the case. It’s hard to believe that doctors at St. Joseph’s Hospital was only fined $6,000 for this terrible act of negligence.
In my opinion it makes a person wonder if others have gone to the morgue as being declared dead when they were actually alive.
Burns, who had suffered from severe bouts of depression for many years ended up taking her own life by committing suicide a year after the horrible hospital incident.
The report stated the hospital released a statement, reading: “We have learned from this experience and the hospital has modified its policy to include this type of unusual circumstances presented in this case.”
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article based on a Fox News Insider report.
Source:
Fox News Insider