The parents of 2-year-old Annelise Camp sued Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital in late May to block physicians from conducting brain death testing, arguing the procedure violates their religious beliefs and that their daughter needs more time to recover, The Texas Tribune reported June 22.
Their child was hospitalized at Texas Children’s west Houston campus after a near-drowning in a hotel pool on Memorial Day, according to the report. Physicians told the family three days later that they had exhausted treatment options and recommended brain death testing.
Her parents filed for a temporary restraining order, which a state court granted, and are now seeking a permanent halt to testing, the Tribune reported. They want their daughter transferred to another facility for hyperbaric oxygen therapy or stem cell treatment.
In court filings, Texas Children’s said it has no immediate plans to end care and wants to conduct testing to determine next medical steps. The hospital contacted 36 facilities about a transfer; 35 declined and the one pending required brain death testing before considering acceptance.
Texas Children’s declined to comment on the case with the Tribune. Becker’s reached out to the hospital for comment and will update this story if more information becomes available.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton publicly backed the Camp family on X and Texas Right to Life, which said it has supported 106 patients in life-sustaining treatment disputes, has joined the case.
Legal experts told the Tribune no Texas court has yet ruled on whether families can block brain death testing, making this a potential precedent-setter. Stanford Medicine biomedical ethics professor David Magnus, PhD, warned that if hospitals lose the ability to declare brain death, ICU capacity and organ donation rates in Texas could both decline.
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