The little boy who sparked a brief battle over whether he should be disconnected from life support is no longer at Primary Children's Medical Center.
Witnesses said they saw Jesse Koochin removed from the hospital by his parents, Steve and Gayle Koochin, Friday morning. He was placed in an ambulance, presumably to take him to an apartment where he will be cared for by his mother and father with help from hospice specialists.
Hospital spokeswoman Bonnie Midget could not confirm that Jesse had been moved. Friday morning Steve Koochin rescinded permission for the hospital to discuss any aspect of the case with the media. Under provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the hospital could face steep fines and sanctions for not protecting the child's medical privacy, once permission to discuss the case was rescinded.
Koochin family attorney David Pace had already confirmed that the plan was to take the boy home and care for him there. Pace said Thursday that a local home health and hospice agency had agreed to supervise the boy's care, and he would be going home.
"It's like Christmas," Steve Koochin told KSL-TV of his son's homecoming Friday. "It's wonderful being home with my family and my son."
He also said Jesse's vital signs look good.
"He is alive and well and is better now at this minute with his blood pressure statistics and everything else than he has been in the past four days."
Jesse has been hospitalized at Primary Children's since Sept. 15 with a brain tumor that doctors there described as inoperable and incurable. On Sunday the tumor, which had tripled in size, pushed his brain stem down through his skull, Dr. Chris Maloney, associate medical director for medical services, told the media Wednesday. Subsequent testing by two physicians concluded the boy is brain dead. Tuesday, doctors told the family they would remove the life support in 24 hours.
His family strongly disagreed and contacted both the media and an attorney. Wednesday, hours before the physicians were to remove the ventilator, 3rd District Judge Sheila McCleve signed an order prohibiting the hospital from taking the boy off life support without the court's permission, restoring medication and treatment that had been stopped and allowing the parents to find care elsewhere for the boy. McCleve scheduled a hearing for Oct. 27.
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