A brain dead Texas girl will be taken off life support on Monday — two weeks after a judge gave her parents time to find another facility to take her in.
9-year-old Payton Summons collapsed after suffering a cardiac arrest during an overnight stay at her grandmother’s house on Sept. 25.
Payton’s mother, Tiffany Hofstetter (pictured bottom right), said her daughter woke up and screamed for her grandmother to help her. She told her grandmother she couldn’t breathe.
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Payton was rushed to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where doctors revived her, but her brain was without oxygen for over an hour. Brain damage occurs after 4 minutes without oxygen.
Doctors found a cancerous tumor twice the size of Payton’s heart cutting off her circulation in her chest cavity. Payton battled cancer as a toddler.
An EEG brain scan determined Payton was brain dead and the hospital informed her parents of plans to take her off life support.
Tiffany Hofstetter filed a restraining order against the hospital to keep her daughter on life support.
Judge Melody Wilkinson of the 17th District Court granted the restraining order, giving Payton’s parents 2 weeks to find another facility.
But 25 hospitals and facilities refused to take Payton in.
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This week, Judge Wilkinson (pictured top right) declined to extend the restraining order, saying the parents did not meet the burden of proof for injunctive relief, according to family lawyer Justin Moore.
“Unfortunately after 25 out of 28 facilities that were contacted, we had no takers,” said family attorney Paul Stafford. “We have two maybes and those were preconditioned on certain things which may be life threatening to Payton [if performed].”
Cook Children’s administration said Payton’s case is hard on the staff because it depresses them to provide care for a dead child.
The family is considering their options.
