NATION : Brain-Dead Woman Dies Before Life-Support Is Disconnected
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TULSA, Okla. — A brain-dead woman’s heart stopped beating this morning, hours before a hospital planned to disconnect her from a respirator over the objections of her husband.
Isabel McFall, 56, had been unconscious since April 17, when a blood vessel burst in her brain. Officials at St. John Medical Center declared her brain dead a week later.
Her husband, Bill McFall, had picketed the hospital Sunday in protest of the hospital’s plans to disconnect the life-support system this morning. He said he wanted his wife to remain on the respirator to give God time to work a miracle.
Doctors said she met Oklahoma’s criteria to be declared legally dead: no electrical or chemical activity was detectable in her brain.
McFall said the hospital called him about 2:30 a.m. today and told him that his wife’s heart had failed.
“God took her home. . . . God knew there was just such a burden on the family. I was satisfied there was no chicanery and that God had performed his will,” McFall said.
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