Lives in suspense

Press, 3 January 1980, Page 4

Lives in suspense

NZPA-Reuter Wichita, . Kansas

. Michael Saad, aged three months, lies motionless on a hospital bed while lawyers. and doctors' argue over whether lie is alive or dead. ■■ •’'

Two fates hang in the balance.- ■ Michael, who has .been connected to life-support machines since he arrived at the hospital on Christmas Eve, is a victim of child abuse, the authorities say.

His stepfather, Thomas Saad, aged 25, was arrested two days after Christmas, charged with aggravated battery, and is being held in lieu of a SUSIO,OOO

bond. From his jail cell Saad, a- labourer, won a temporary court order preventing the hospital from removing Michael’s lifesupport machines. If Michael dies, the charges against Saad could be changed to murder. Dr Richard Gilmartin, a neurologist and head of the Wesley Medical Centre’s brain death team, thinks Michael might be legally dead already. Tests showed there was no activity in or: blood flowing . to the child’s brain, he said; But Saad’s court-appoint-ed attorney asserts that Michael is still alive: He describes the civil suit as a father protecting his son. Saad and his stepson

were home alone on the morning of December 24 when Michael suffered the , injuries, the authorities say. Detective J. McCloud said that Michael had old fractures in various stages of healing as well as head injuries. Dr Gilmartin, one of three doctors on the Wesley Centre’s brain death team, said the hospital procedure for studying cases of possible brain death called for a series of tests. It also called for removing the patient from life-support devices and drugs for 10 minutes. The temporary restraining order has kept the doctors from removing the devices for the test.