Indiana mother Angela Kosarue believed her daughter, Treasure Perry, was alive when she was taken off life support, despite doctors declaring her dead.
Kosarue fought to stop Riley Hospital for Children from taking Perry off life support after doctors pronounced that the teen was brain dead. The declaration was made days after the 17-year-old suffered from a severe shellfish allergy and asthma attack at her restaurant job, but her mom refused to believe it. She tried to block the hospital from following through with the procedure so she could find another facility willing to take her daughter.
“God can work a miracle, but I know it’s down to the wire,” Kosarue said on the morning of Aug. 11. She expressed her sentiments just hours before a temporary restraining order that prevented doctors from removing Perry from life support was set to expire.
On Aug. 5, a court granted Perry more time on a ventilator, writing that “the injury suffered by the Plaintiff will be irreparable, in that if life-sustaining measures are terminated, the Plaintiff will likely be deceased.” However, on Aug. 10., a judge declined to extend the deadline.
Hospitals also reportedly said they couldn’t receive Perry as a patient because she hadn’t had a tracheotomy–a procedure in which a hole is made in the windpipe to assist breathing. Unfortunately, Riley Hospital said they couldn’t have performed a tracheotomy because the teen was already considered dead. Yet, her mom still didn’t give up hope, as she believed her daughter’s condition could improve because she felt she was still alive. Kosarue even claimed that Perry made movements prior to being removed from the ventilator, saying she squeezed her hand for “like a quick couple of seconds” and that her pupils were reactive to light.
“I believe when your heart stops beating, and your body shuts down is when you’re dead,” the patient’s mother said. She added that taking her daughter off life support “goes against my beliefs.”
Perry, who was a middle child with seven siblings, was reportedly working to save money for a car before entering her senior year of high school.
“She was an amazing niece, sister, aunt, daughter and granddaughter,” her aunt Skylee Kosarue said. “We never gave up on her — the doctors failed her and us.”
The young girl’s mom additionally inserted that she was “so loving and full of life.”
