Family petitions to keep man on life support

A Vancouver woman has won a temporary court order preventing St. Paul’s Hospital from taking her young husband off life support.

On Nov. 11, Onkarbir Singh Toor, 34, suffered cardiac arrest at his home and was rushed to the Vancouver hospital.

Two days later, the hospital advised Raspaul Kaur Toor, 24, that three physicians had assessed her husband and concluded he was brain dead, according to court documents filed in the case.

She was told it was contrary to the medical code to continue to provide treatment to a patient who had been declared clinically dead and that if she didn’t get a court injunction by Monday at 4 p.m., the hospital would remove her husband from life support, ending his life.

On Monday, she went to court and was granted an order restraining the hospital and its physicians and staff from discontinuing the health care being provided to Toor.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elaine Adair ordered that for the next few days, fluids be administered to Toor as necessary and that regular blood work continue to be done at least once a day for him.

The order is good until Wednesday, when the case is expected to be back in court to hear the merits of the family’s application to keep an injunction in place for at least four weeks to allow Toor a chance to recover.

On Tuesday, a member of the family identifying himself as Dr. Toor said they were going to be busy for the next few days.

“As you can understand, we’re dealing with a very difficult situation.”

The petition in the case said that after Toor suffered the cardiac arrest, his father and brother, both of whom are medical doctors, immediately started administering CPR to him and CPR was continued until he was taken to St. Paul’s by ambulance.

After arriving at the hospital, Toor, whose family said had no prior history of heart problems, was put on life support and after some treatment, his heart and kidney regained normal function, according to the petition.

A CT scan of Toor’s brain indicated normal results but on the day of his admission, he was wrongly given a dose of the drug aripiprazole that is a known central nervous system depressant and is “contraindicated” in comatose patients, stated the petition.

A second CT scan was conducted showing diffuse cerebral edema — the accumulation of fluid in the brain — and based on that scan doctors at the hospital declared Toor brain dead, said the court document.

But Toor’s family consulted a radiologist at Abbotsford Hospital who reviewed the second scan and while agreeing it showed signs of edema, was unable to identify any “cerebral necrosis,” it said.

In an affidavit filed with the petition, Toor’s wife said that she and her husband were married in India in January 2015 and she was able to move to Canada in May this year.

Toor added she’s a trained nurse in India and is currently studying to obtain her certification in Canada.

“As his wife, I’m his substitute decision maker. I know my husband’s wishes and know that he would want treatment to continue.”

Providence Health Care, which runs the hospital, had no immediate comment.