while marty and michelle mcnerney were getting ready for their son connor s funeral, over at olympic memorial hospital, anguished nurses, doctors, administrators and lawyers were struggling with connor s unusual death. the cause was still unknown and the action of his position, dr. eugene turner were in question. the hospital s executive committee decided to report the incident only to washington s medical quality assurance commission, not to the police. a letter was approved and mailed. but before that letter ever reached its destination, someone who wasn t even in the hospital when connor died brought the case into a very public spotlight. my assumption was a crime had occurred.
i just wanted him back. you don t expect that to happen three days after the best day of your life. michelle jumped in the backseat of the ambulance to ride with connor. i just heard him yell back and forth to tell the hospital, but i could aren t understand what they were saying. connor was delivered to a very busy emergency room at olympic memorial. the full code team went to work and an iv was inserted into connor s arm and medications to revive him were started. the nurse noticed that at first he looked dead and blue, but as the steady rhythm of the bagging and the artificial breathing began, he regained a normal pink color and nurses could detect a pulse. his frantics were worried about what had gone wrong with their seemingly healthy baby. it was a mystery to doctors. did anyone come and say this
what s it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we ve got to be smart about this. it s a smart way to go. while marty and michelle mcnerney were trying to come to term of losing their son connor, an equally unexpected sequence of tragic events were unfolding in the emergency room they had just left thinking their son was no longer alive. because the e.r. was bursting with patients needing immediate attention, connor s body was left wrapped in a blanket and put aside in a small examining room until nurses had time to get him red for the morgue. a dispatcher called olympic memorial. the weather cleared and it was 12 minutes after canner was
dr. turner tried one more treatment. wrapping the baby in cold towels. there was no response. then shortly before midnight after almost four hours of trying to revive him, dr. turner asked to be left alone with the infant. according to nurse boucher, when she returned to the treatment room he had his hand over the baby s mouth and pinching his nose closed. dr. turner said he could not stand to watch this go on any longer, but what exactly did he mean by this? only then did connor stop breathing. his heart ceased to beat. his body was taken to the morgue. you went home believing your son had died. when did you find out that had not been the case? a few days later. on january 15th, three days after connor s death dr. turner asked marty and michelle to meet
why not simply let nature take his course instead of putting his hand over connor s face and most important why hadn t dr. turner or anyone else at the hospital called them so they can make the choice about connor s treatment and be with him? the mcnerneys filed a claim against the hospital. some people in town called them greedy, but their attorney said there was a principle at stake. there are some people who will look at michelle and marty say these people are in it for the money. sue the doctor, sue the hospital and see what they can get. that s so wrong. marty and michelle have suffered a horrible tragedy. they lost connor, and they lost more than that. they had their basic human right, their right to make decisions about their child s welfare taken from them by a doctor who decided on his own to