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KPRC2
# Texas
'Brain dead' man wakes up after father's stand-off with doctors who wanted to switch off life support
During the three-hour stand-off with police, George Pickering’s son squeezed his father’s hand on command.
A MAN IN Texas who suffered a massive stroke that doctors said left him brain dead woke up from his coma after his father prevented staff from switching off life support by threatening them with a gun.
Eleven months ago, George Pickering II marched, armed with a gun, into the medical centre that was treating his son. Hospital staff told police he threatened them. The hospital had earlier that day ordered a ‘terminal wean’, which would see doctors slowly remove life support.
“They were moving too fast. The hospital, the nurses, the doctors,” Pickering told KPRC. He said he was certain there was still life left in his son.
“At that point I had blinders on. All I knew I just needed to have this time with George,” said Pickering.
During his three-hour stand-off with police, his son, also called George, squeezed his hand a number of times on command. Pickering later surrendered peacefully.
Speaking recently, George Junior said:
It’s the duty of a parent to protect your children and that’s all he did. Everything good that made me a man is because of that man sitting next to me.
His father was jailed, but one charge was dismissed and another was lessened to a state jail felony. The man’s defence lawyer said this was always a case of a father protecting a son when his son couldn’t protect himself.
Now the two men say they just want to move on with their lives.
