Little Isaiah May has been give more time to live so lawyers and medical experts can review whether he should remain hooked up to a hospital ventilator at Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton.HO/The Canadian Press
Baby Isaiah May - at the centre of a life-and-death battle - will stay on a ventilator at an Edmonton hospital for several more weeks, giving lawyers time to locate experts who can assess the brain function of the infant.
One expert, Richard Taylor, a neonatologist from Victoria General Hospital, has agreed to evaluate the boy's condition in late February. In addition, a pediatric neurologist from the Mayo Clinic has also been contacted, Madam Justice Michelle Crighton heard today. She put the case over until Feb. 19th.
The legal battle to keep baby Isaiah alive has garnered the support of more than 24,700 people who have joined a Facebook group supporting the efforts of his parents, Rebecka and Isaac May.
"Isaiah has been lifting his knees to his stomach, but now it's gotten faster and he's alternating his knees and wiggling his body, and a lot more strength is behind him and it's more purposeful," Ms. May said in an interview. "He looks like a normal baby."
She stressed that staff at Stollery Children's Hospital, where he is being cared for, are "very professional, very nice and they haven't changed in any way towards us," despite the legal case.
The medical drama was court bound after Isaiah's parents received a letter on Jan. 13 from Alberta Health Services informing them that they were planning to disconnect the ventilator after 2 p.m. on Jan. 20, as physicians felt all medical procedures had been exhausted.
David Steele, lawyer for Ernest Phillipos, clinical director of Stollery's neonatal intensive-care unit, says the baby has an irreversible brain injury due to lack of oxygen at birth and will never have any meaningful function or recover.
Isaiah emerged from his mother's womb after a 40-hour labour at a Rocky Mountain House, Alta., hospital on Oct. 24. The umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck. At birth, Isaiah's eyes were shut and he was silent, Ms. May recalls of her son, who was resuscitated and then taken to Stollery.
Three months later, Ms. May says, her son has improved: his eyes dilate, he bends his knees and he has gained more than three pounds.
"We just need a little time to come to the decision that needs to be made," said Rosanna Saccomani, lawyer for the May family. "This is their first child; they're incredibly strong."