Story airs of Alabama mother fighting for teen son's do not resuscitate order
By Jeremy Gray | jgray@al.com
Athens, AL
The TV show "The Doctors" today features the story of Rene Hoover, an Alabama woman who has fought to have school officials abide by the do not resuscitate order for her 14-year-old son Alex.
"I've been subjected to some pretty cruel comments. I've been told I just want to send my child to school to die because I don't want him to die at home. I've been told what a bad mom I am. We have literally walked through the gates of hell with his condition," Hoover said on the show.
Alex Hoover suffers from aortic mitral valve stenosis, a condition that causes the heart's mitral valve to narrow and restrict blood flow.
Rene Hoover has drawn up legal documents known as an advance directive to ensure Alex is not revived if he goes into cardiac arrest. But Limsetone County school officials say they can't follow that directive if his heart stops at school.
But if she and her son lived just over the state line in Tennessee, it wouldn't be an issue, Dr. Monica Williams-Murphy, medical director for advanced care planning and end-of-life education at Huntsville Hospital, recently told AL.com. Dr. Williams-Murphys appears on the show with Rene Hoover.
"The parent of a minor can sign [an order] and say this is in the patient's best interests," Williams-Murphy said in the AL.com interview. "It would allow paramedics or school caring for a child to be covered if the child died at school.
Here in Alabama, we're just behind the national trend."
Rene Hoover in November told AL.com she believed she was doing what is right for her son.
"We chose to do the positive thing and choose quality of life," Hoover said.
"We could be selfish and put him through all the surgery and all the things that scare him, but there comes a time when you want peace for your child."
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