In re Guardianship of Hailu

Aden Hailu suffered severe oxygen-deprivation brain damage during appendix surgery at St. Mary's Regional Hospital (defendant) and never regained consciousness. Applying American Association of Neurology (AAN) guidelines, the hospital's neurology director concluded Hailu was brain dead and sought to remove life support; her father Fanuel Gebreyes (plaintiff) sought an injunction, and his own expert, while agreeing Hailu met the AAN criteria for brain death, testified he could not say her chances of recovery were exactly zero, citing her young age and otherwise-functioning body. The trial court denied the injunction based on St. Mary's compliance with the AAN guidelines, without separately examining whether those guidelines satisfy the legal standard for death under state law.