A Sad Story

On January 16th an inmate at Wasco State Prison was shot by a guard in the head with a foam projectile. The incident is under investigation, but so far the story is there was an altercation of some sort and he did not lie on the ground as instructed, so he was shot. Shortly after being admitted to the hospital Daniel Provencio was pronounced brain dead.

Since then he has remained on life support, shackled to the bed and under 24-hour guard. Yesterday the 28 year old was finally released. The State Board of Prison Terms finally saw it fit to return the man to his family.

The family feels they are being pressured to “pull the plug.” Because he has no medical insurance the bills will be paid by Medi-Cal. The hospital has told his family to find a new hospital to take him, but so far all those they appealed to have turned them down.

The family has said that they are planning on leaving him on life support “until God says it’s his time” and that they don’t just want to find a hospital to take care of him, they want “people who will put in effort to try to make him better.”

I feel terrible for this family and what they are going through. I hope I never have to try to deal with something like that. However, in my humble opinion, the family is not being very realistic about the situation. He is not in a coma. Brain dead means he’s a body with a brain that is dead. That is not ever going to change. I found it interesting that there was an article in the local section today about a family in Lake Isabella who recently faced a similar decision.

A 14 year old boy from Kern Valley High School was pronounced brain dead on Monday after being hit in the head by a piece of wood. His family and his community were shocked and saddened by the news. He is described as a “nice kid” and “well liked.” It goes without saying that the parents must be devastated by their son’s death. He was described as being “the center of (his mother’s) universe.” Nevertheless, a decision was made by Tuesday afternoon to donate his organs.

I hope that Daniel’s family can step back for a moment and think about what they really want. The best way to keep him alive at this point is to not waste his death. His organs might be able to help save the lives of several people. They could take comfort in knowing his life was not lived in vain and that his death was not meaningless.

And then, hopefully, they can find some peace.