Did you catch the remarkable story of the Pickering’s as reported by LifeSiteNews.com? George Pickering, the Second had to resort to an armed standoff with the hospital staff and a SWAT team in order to save his son, who had been declared brain dead.
George Pickering III had slipped into a coma following a massive stroke in January 2015. Soon, the doctors at Tomball Regional Medical Center of Houston pronounced brain dead the 27-year-old.
The doctors had given George Pickering, Jr.’s family no hope for recovery. The patient’s mother and brother signed off on administering “terminal wean” to their seemingly dead relative. This would slowly shut off the life support and effectively end the younger George’s life.
However, George Pickering, Sr. had not lost hope that his son would survive.
Pickering, Sr. brought a gun with him to the hospital and barricaded himself inside his son’s room, inducing a three-hour standoff. This illegal maneuver actually ended up saving his son’s life.
He felt his son just needed a little more time to prove he had not passed away. Three hours was all it took.
The hospital was prepared to pull the plug on his son, but Pickering, Sr. was able to get his son to make eye contact with him and to squeeze his hand during the standoff!
The SWAT team, who had actually brought their own doctors to the hospital, acknowledged Pickering, Jr’s signs of life. Once that was done, Pickering, Sr. surrendered peacefully to police, ending the standoff. His son was on the verge of being murdered after being pronounced brain dead. Thanks to his life-saving action, his son was allowed to live.
Pickering, Jr. has since made a full recovery and has gone on with the rest of his life, thankful for his father’s hope.
Pickering, Sr. was arrested and sentenced to a year in jail on account of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His sentence was reduced eventually and he was able to spend Christmas with his son and family.
You can watch a news report here.
MY TWO CENTS
It is a shame that so many hospitals are so quick to pronounce brain dead their patients. It comes, I think, from a eugenics undercurrent in our culture.
On top of that, the brain is an amazingly complex and wondrous organ of the body. When it suffers a serious injury it sometimes takes a long time to heal itself.
It’s too bad our society finds it acceptable to be less than patient with such patients. This reduces the number of patients whose lives are being treated and raises, instead, the number whose lives are ended prematurely.
I, for one, applaud this father. I know it is not right to threaten harm on someone, but those doctors were about to murder his son. We must not lose sight of the fact that the young man was still alive. Serving a year in jail is worth preventing precipitated murder—especially, of one’s own child.
Now you have read what I thought of the elder Pickering’s antics of inducing an armed standoff in order to save his son. I now ask you, dear readers, what you thought of this story.
YOUR TURN
I would really like to hear from you on this one.
What do you make of Pickering, Sr.’s tactics to save the life of his son who was pronounced brain dead?
Please sound off below.
