They say a father’s love knows no bounds. The story of George Pickering proves that, albeit in a dramatic way.
In 2015, George was told his son, George Jr, had no chance of recovery after suffering a massive stroke.
Doctors had declared his son brain-dead and prepared to take him off life support. For most, this would have been a time for processing the devastating prognosis and grieving.
But George Pickering simply wouldn’t accept what doctors were telling him. He was convinced his son wasn’t beyond hope, but nobody was listening.
Time was running out for George Jr, and his father was getting desperate: he was sure his son would make a recovery and just needed more time to come round from his stroke.
Equipped with a gun, the distressed father made the decision to enter the hospital room, determined to stop the looming life-ending procedure at any cost.
As law enforcement and hospital staff panicked and tried to defuse the situation, a standoff ensued, lasting hours. Then, a miracle happened: George Jr. began to stir from his coma.
Here are the shocking events that took place in that hospital room and the aftermath of the dramatic standoff.
A Father’s Intuition
In January 2015, 59-year-old George Pickering Sr. found himself confronted with any parent’s worst nightmare: his son had suffered a devastating stroke and was rushed to hospital in Tomball, Texas.
The prognosis for 27-year-old George Pickering Jr. was dire. Doctors had declared him brain-dead and revealed there was no chance of recovery.
The medical professionals told the family that life support would be withdrawn since George Jr. would never have brain function again, which was a lot for the Pickering family to digest.
In particular, George Sr. struggled to process what he was being told.
The process would involve what’s known as a “terminal wean”: the gradual withdrawal of mechanical ventilation from a patient. All treatments are discontinued as the patient is let go, their condition deemed too severe to recover from.
George hit back at the medical staff who told him this. He knew his son, and he knew George wasn’t ready to pass.
To add to the trauma the family was dealing with, it was revealed that George Jr’s organs were going to be donated. In fact, they already had a recipient lined up, and the medical team was on standby to harvest his organs as soon as the terminal wean protocol had been completed.
It was all too much for George Sr. to comprehend, and he refused to let the hospital dictate what happened to his son. Tensions escalated when doctors and hospital staff prepared to carry out the gradual withdrawal of life support.
Desperation fueled what George did next.
He obtained his gun and barricaded himself inside the hospital room next to his son, blocking any attempt for a terminal wean to take place.
As George stood by his son’s bedside, he grasped onto his hand. He talked to him and asked for a sign of life. He told his son to squeeze his hand.
He did squeeze it, not just once, but several times.
This was all the confirmation George Sr. needed that he was doing the right thing.
Now, he was faced with convincing the medical staff—and now the police who were outside the hospital room—that his son was not brain dead.
At one point, George’s other son had managed to convince his father to hand the gun over to him. He did as he was asked, only to announce he’d concealed another one on himself.
This was a lie but bought him more time next to his son. The standoff quickly found its way onto the news.
Public opinion on George’s actions was divided. Some thought he was a father who simply couldn’t accept that their child was too far gone to survive and was, therefore, acting irrationally. Others applauded him for taking matters into his own hands.
While George didn’t have any real plan on what he was going to do next, he knew that simply standing by his son’s bedside, “gun” in hand, ensured George Jr would still receive the medical care that was keeping him alive.
The Standoff
The hours dragged on, and neither side was relenting. George knew his son wasn’t a lost cause, and the medical staff felt as though the desperate man was just prolonging his son’s agony.
After all, George had proof his son was still there; he’d squeezed his hand multiple times on command as he stood by him. A brain-dead individual simply wouldn’t be able to do that.
No matter how much the medical staff tried to reason with him or convince him to leave the room and allow them to take over, George Sr. stood firm. He would not be leaving his son’s side.
The gun he initially brandished wasn’t supposed to cause harm; it was simply a way for him to ensure nobody could take George off life support.
The second gun—which George didn’t really have on him—was a desperate lie told to buy his son more time to come around.
His intuition told him he needed time, and George would pull through. It turns out, by some miracle, he was right.
During the standoff, while George Jr. managed to reciprocate his father’s hand squeezes, he also moved the muscles on his face from time to time. This was yet more proof to the desperate father that his son would pull through.
Three hours passed. The local police, the medical staff, and now the SWAT team stood outside, trying to reason with an exasperated George.
In the end, law enforcement sent in a robot to pull open the curtain that the elder George had pulled around his son’s bed. This finally led to a breakthrough in communication.
Eventually, both sides reached an agreement. If George surrendered, they would reassess his son’s situation.
He handed himself in and passed the care of his son back to the hospital staff, praying they’d do what they promised and reassess his condition.
The hospital carried out additional neurological tests on George Jr. to verify any signs of responsiveness, not expecting him to show any improvement at all. But there were—albeit faint—signs of improvement in his brain activity.
There was enough improvement to stop the hospital from going through with the planned terminal wean.
Meanwhile, George Sr. was in police custody, though it’s likely that he felt the outcome was worth it: his son was now showing enough signs of life to stop his imminent terminal wean.
The desperate act of his father ended up allowing George Jr. enough time to improve. Then, he began to regain consciousness, proving the father’s gut instinct had been right all along.
While George Sr. was faced with some serious legal consequences for his actions, his decision to intervene and barricade himself in his son’s hospital room ultimately saved his child’s life.
George’s Showdown Spared His Son
In the wake of the tense standoff, George Pickering Sr. was looking at a lengthy stint behind bars.
However, although he accepted his actions as unlawful, he remained firm in his belief that he did what was necessary to save his son. His sole intention, he later explained, was never to hurt anyone or cause a scene. It was to give his son a chance to live.
George Jr. had suffered from seizures before, and similar attacks had occurred in the past, though he’d always made a recovery. His father felt like this time, although it was more serious than the times before, would have the same outcome.
For this belief—which turned out to be right—he served 11 months behind bars.
As Geroge served his sentence, his son made a miraculous recovery. He regained consciousness, showed huge neurological improvement, and was eventually taken off life support. Over time, his strength returned.
The family had kept the whole ordeal from the younger George for the first few weeks as he recovered in hospital.
Three weeks into his recovery, they finally told him how close to death he’d been, which came as a huge shock to him.
George Sr. served almost a year behind bars for his actions that day in January 2015 but was safe in the knowledge that when he returned, he’d be reunited with his son.
When that day came, the press vied for an interview with the father and son, which the pair duly gave.
George Jr. expressed gratitude for his father’s intervention. “It’s the duty of a parent to protect your children, and that’s all he did,” he said.
His father told the press he knew the doctors had been moving too fast by wanting to take George off life support and knew his boy just needed a few hours to come around.
“The important thing is I’m alive and well, my father is home, and we’re together again,” George Jr. said.
Sources
https://texasrighttolife.com/a-father-s-desperate-and-dangerous-attempt-to-save-his-son-
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