Little Mirranda Grace Lawson from Virginia was just two years old when she inhaled a single piece of popcorn on her mum’s birthday last May.
Her frantic parents immediately cleared out her mouth and did CPR but the little girl has suffered a cardiac arrest, she was unresponsive, and put on life-support.
Her doctors told the family it was unlikely she would ever recover and asked the parents if they could perform a test which brings someone off a ventilator briefly to see if their brain allows the body to breathe on its own.
But Mirranda’s parents, Patrick and Allison, refused to let her take the test and so began a court battle between her parents and the hospital.
The Daily Mail reports that the couple expressed opposition to the test in a handwritten note to the doctors and cited their Christian faith as a reason for their refusal. They said that they believed that removing her from life support would be ‘murder’.
The case was still under appeal when Mirranda passed away.
A spokesperson for the Virginia Commonwealth University Health system said the two-year-old died on November 1st. The hospital who treated little Mirranda released this statement:
“We (VCU Medical Centre) extend our deepest sympathies to the Lawson family as they grieve Mirranda Grace’s death. During the several months Mirranda was at our hospital, we saw the Lawson’s enduring love and support of their daughter in dealing with the tragedy. Mirranda’s medical team demonstrated the highest-levels of quality and compassionate care for her and her family. Our thoughts and best hopes remain with the Lawsons”
What a sad, sad story. Our thoughts are also with Mirranda and her whole family.
