Christine Haveford
There is nothing like a father’s love for his son. And a Texas father was so exception.
George Pickering III was so enraged that a hospital wanted to pull the plug on his ‘brain dead’ son.
He decided to take matters into his own and took a gun to the hospital and threatened to kill the doctors.
During the three-hour standoff his 27-year-old son, George II squeezed his hand.
This meant that he wasn’t brain dead and he was kept alive – amazingly he is now recovering and doing well.
But 59-year-old George Pickering II, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after marching into Tomball Regional Medical Center in Texas with a gun.
George II had been declared brain dead after suffering a massive stroke in January.
After doctors declared there was no more hope for him, they ordered a ‘terminal wean’ – whereby life support is slowly withdrawn to end a life.
Pickering’s ex-wife and other son had initially agreed to the move and his son was been placed on an organ donation register.
But Pickering Sr told KPRC: ‘They were moving too fast. The hospital, the nurses, the doctors. I knew if I had three or four hours that night that I would know whether George was brain-dead.’
During the three-hour standoff, Pickering’s other son was eventually able to get the gun from him.
Pickering admitted to being drunk and aggressive but said it was only because he knew his son wasn’t ready to die.
During the standoff, Pickering’s faith that his son had been misdiagnosed never wavered and after he finally got the response he wanted from his boy, he surrendered peacefully to authorities.
‘During that three hours, George squeezed my hand three or four times on command,’ he said.
His son later came out of his coma and is now fully recovered. The charges against Pickering were eventually reduced and he was released earlier this month.
His son said: ‘There was a law broken, but it was broken for all the right reasons.’
‘I’m here now because of it. It was love, it was love.’
Comments
Loading…