Cancer Patient Dies, Son Is Arrested : Life Support Unit Shut Off at Gunpoint

A Bay Area man was held in jail without bail Monday, after he invaded a hospital’s intensive-care unit and held a nurse at gunpoint and repeatedly threatened to kill her until the supervising nurse disconnected his cancer-stricken father from a life-support system.

After the gunman was assured that his 69-year-old father had died, Edward T. Baker, 37, of Richmond apologized profusely to his hostage and to the supervising nurse and then surrendered quietly, according to San Pablo Police Chief David Sylstra.

The incident occurred late Saturday night at Brookside Hospital in San Pablo, which is northeast of San Francisco.

Sylstra said Edward C. Baker died about 10 minutes after supervising nurse Jackie Higginbotham disconnected him from the ventilator and intravenous tubes that had been keeping him alive.

“We don’t believe he was aware of what was happening,” a hospital official said. The father had been in a coma.

Sylstra said the son released nurse Florence Derego moments after Higginbotham told him: “Look, it’s over.”

At that point, Baker released Derego and carefully placed his .38-caliber pistol on the floor and surrendered to San Pablo Officer Chris Gormley.

The elder Baker was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 20 and was diagnosed as having cancer of the esophagus, according to hospital spokesman Fraser Felter.

Surgery was performed Dec. 11, and Felter said the patient had been listed in critical condition since then, lapsing in and out of consciousness. He declined to say whether Baker’s case was considered terminal.

Felter said the patient’s four attending physicians “had a medical plan of action for his continued medical care. . . . The tumor was removed.”

According to the American Cancer Society, cancer of the esophagus is one of the least treatable of cancers, and only about 5% or 6% of those afflicted survive.

Velma Brown, sister-in-law of the elder Baker, said the patient had asked his son “not to let him linger” on life-support machines.

The Rev. Palmer Watson, the hospital’s chaplain, who spoke to Baker shortly after he surrendered, said the son did what he thought was right.

“He felt the situation was pretty much useless,” Watson said. “He begged the doctor . . . to let him disconnect the machine. The doctor said he’d have to go through the courts. He promised his father he would never let him be kept alive by machine.”

Capt. Al Moore, commander of the Contra Costa County sheriff’s-coroner unit, said an autopsy performed Monday by a forensic pathologist showed the cause of death as “carcinoma of the esophagus.”

“The case is under investigation, and if we determine other significant factors, the finding could change,” Moore said.

San Pablo Chief Sylstra said his detectives intend to press for a murder complaint in the death of Baker’s father, as well as a complaint of assault with a deadly weapon in the holding of the nurse at gunpoint. However, he admitted that the official cause of death “really complicates things,” adding: “The ethical and legal implications of this case will be discussed for years.”

Felter said the younger Baker had visited his father in the surgical intensive-care unit about 2:30 p.m. Saturday and “he appeared angry” while discussing the patient’s condition with hospital officials.

“He left when his concerns appeared satisfied,” Felter said.

Police said Baker, who is unemployed, spent Saturday evening at the Eagles Lodge in Richmond, where he had once worked.

Mike Carlson, a friend of the elder Baker and former boss of the son, said about 10 p.m. Saturday, Baker rose from his chair at the club bar and told him: “I figured out what I’m going to do, and I’m going to do it.”

Sylstra said Baker returned to Brookside at 10:59 p.m. and went directly to the intensive-care unit, where Derego and Higginbotham were on duty.

There, the chief said, he pulled a pistol, grabbed Derego in a headlock and pressed the revolver’s barrel against the base of her skull.

He said Higginbotham immediately called the hospital switchboard and told the operator: “There’s a man in ICU (intensive-care unit) with a gun. Call police.”

Four officers were on the scene within three or four minutes, according to the chief.

Felter said both nurses tried to persuade Baker to put down the gun and leave.

Sylstra said, however, that Baker ordered Higginbotham repeatedly to disconnect the ventilator, reinforcing his demand with repeated threats of “I’ll kill her,” referring to Derego.

When he was finally convinced that his father was dead, the chief said, Baker surrendered quietly and told the nurses: “I’m sorry. . . .”

The Brookside incident underscores the dilemma confronting physicians and family members of seriously, perhaps terminally, ill patients over when, if ever, treatment should be stopped. Most medical ethicists believe that patients have a right to take part in these decisions, but many are too ill to do so.

Attempts to refine existing “right-to-die” guidelines continue, and such a proposed revision of current medical-legal guidelines will be considered by the influential Los Angeles County Medical Assn. at a meeting on Jan 6. The new guidelines were approved earlier this month by the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn.

Times Medical Writer Robert Steinbrook also contributed to this story.