Girl, 2, dies; was focus of fight over brain death test
RICHMOND, Va. — A 2-year-old Virginia girl whose parents went to court to block a hospital from performing a brain death test on the child has died, the hospital said Monday.
Mirranda Grace Lawson passed away Nov. 1, said Michael Porter, a spokesman for Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. Lawson had been on life support at VCU Medical Center since May, when she choked on a piece of popcorn and went into cardiac arrest at her parent’s home in Fauquier County.
Lawson’s doctors had said they were certain she wouldn’t recover and wanted to perform an apnea test, which involves taking someone off a ventilator briefly to see if her brain tries to tell the body to breathe on its own. But Lawson’s parents refused to allow the test, saying they worried it would harm her.
The Richmond Circuit Court ruled against the Lawsons in June, but allowed them to pay a $30,000 bond that blocked the hospital from conducting the test while the family appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court. In July, the Supreme Court denied the hospital’s request to immediately perform the test, but hadn’t yet decided whether it would consider the Lawson’s appeal.