Boy on life support is leaving hospital

Jesse Koochin will likely leave Primary Children's Medical Center today. Gayle and Steve Koochin, his parents, have arranged home health care assistance for the 6-year-old, who has a cancerous brain tumor and is on life support.

Jesse on Tuesday was declared brain-dead by physicians at Primary Children's Medical Center, who told his family they would remove the ventilator Wednesday.

The Koochins, who recently moved to Salt Lake City from Florida to get immune system rehabilitation from a private Utah practitioner, obtained a court order to stop the hospital from declaring the boy dead or withholding any treatment until a court hearing is held Oct. 27.

The physicians had already stopped intravenous fluids, which were restored after the court order.

David Pace, the family's lawyer, said the Koochins now will provide home health care for Jesse under the supervision of a hospice medical doctor and his staff. Pace said the family recognizes the need for conventional medicine but also wants alternative medical therapies included in Jesse's regimen.

Despite declarations from doctors at Primary Children's Medical Center that Jesse already is dead, Pace said the Koochins still have faith a miracle can happen for the little boy.

"They're actually very excited," Pace said Thursday afternoon. "Jesse, to their minds, appears to have improved since yesterday. His vital statistics are better, he's had 24 hours of fluids and nutrients at this point.

"There's no reason to stop this child's heart from beating until it stops naturally, or if it doesn't, it doesn't. He's still breathing, he's still warm, his heart is beating, and he's surrounded by loving people," Pace said.

Getting the court order was important, according to Pace, especially the provision that required the hospital to return custody of the child to his parents.

"What we achieved by getting the court order — whether Jesse continues to live or die — is giving the parents the opportunity to deal with that transition on their own terms and in their own space and their own family, without having a doctor walking up and pulling a plug on Jesse's life with no input from the family," Pace said.

"It turns control over life and death with this child for the parents to deal with on their own terms and in their own place, instead of having that ability and that transition taken away from them."