Parents Honor Dying Girl’s Request for Heaven Over Hospital
Julianna, just like any other little girl, loves Disney princesses. (Instagram/julianna.yuri)
Five-year-old Julianna Snow has an incurable and progressive disease. Her disease, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, is a hereditary disease where neurons in the brain and spinal cord are progressively destroyed, CNN reports.
Julianna’s illness has been a “slow-motion horror story,” her mother, a neurologist, told CNN. Initially the disease had weakened only Julianna’s arms and legs, but it moved to attack the nerves that controlled her breathing muscles when she was still a toddler.
The very sick little girl had to suffer through naso-tracheal suctioning several times a day during her hospital visits, to remove the mucus that settles into her lungs. She also lost the ability to walk, stand or support herself.
Related: California’s Stalled Right-to-Die Bill Will Come Too Late for Terminally Ill Mom
It was after many, many long hospital visits and after talking to her doctors in Portland, Oregon, that her parents asked the then four-year-old, “did she want to go back for more treatments, or did she want to die at home?”
Julianna chose heaven over the hospital.
Her parents have chosen to honor her wish, but obviously their are those that feel a child isn’t capable of such a decision. Bioethicist Art Caplan told CNN their decision didn’t “sit well with him,” and worried she may have elected to come home to please her parents.
However, Dr. Danny Hsia, who has treated Julianna, disagrees, telling CNN that “in this case, it makes a lot of sense to listen to her. I have the utmost faith in her mother and father.”
Related: California Mom Christy O’Donnell Fights to Die on Her Own Terms
Julianna spends her days in her “Princess Room” and watching her brother play. She has been infection free for three months. Her mother is chronicling their journey on her blog.
Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have a personal health story to share? We want to hear it. Tell us at YHTrueStories@yahoo.com.
