Couple Sue to Disconnect Son’s Feeding Tube

The parents of a 19-year-old man who has been in a coma since a 1984 traffic accident filed suit in federal court Wednesday to force doctors to remove the feeding tube that keeps him alive.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Arturo and Adalgisa Sanchez said their son, Jesus Arturo Sanchez, had told them when he was in high school that he would never want to be kept alive by artificial means.

Sanchez has been unconscious since Aug. 24, 1984, when he suffered multiple skull fractures and extensive brain damage in a traffic accident in Pasadena, the lawsuit said. He has been a patient at Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa since July, 1985.

The Sanchezes said in the suit that for the last year they have been urging doctors to let their son “expire naturally” by withdrawing the feeding tube that was surgically inserted into their son’s stomach through a wall in his abdomen.

But Fairview officials have refused, telling the couple they did not believe state law and policy permit such a move, the suit said.

The Sanchezes claim that continued feeding violates their son’s wishes, invades his privacy and violates his right to control his medical treatment. They seek a court order forcing removal of the tube.

Fairview officials could not be reached for comment.