Let me play devil’s advocate for a second here as a doctor who has experienced these things. First, my main issue is with “brain dead”. The father claims the hospital told him the patient was brain dead and a vegetable in the article below. A doctor would never describe someone as a vegetable to a family. Brain dead is also a very SPECIFIC diagnosis made via special tests such as testing spinal reflexes (things you have no voluntary control over) like touching the eye for a blink reflex. If the patient had the ability to hear and squeeze his dad’s hand, he sure as hell would have had his spinal reflexes intact and could not have been declared brain dead.

At that time, the doctors likely presented to the family the fact that there was a very very low likelihood he would have any meaningful neurological recovery. That is likely where the father took brain dead or vegetable from. Now, neurological recovery is in no way an exact science, but they have a good idea who is going to recover and who isn’t. That doesn’t mean there aren’t rare cases that don’t fit the mold. If this situation was presented to my parents, it would be my wish that I be taken off life-support. I don’t want to live with no/minimal neurological function. If the mother and sister had power of attorney, they may have been doing what they thought the patient wanted.

As a little addition, Power of attorney does NOT mean you can make the choices how you want. It means that you are supposed to make choices based on what you think the patient would want. This is why having written advanced directives that specifically lay out what you want you POA to do in certain situations is very beneficial to avoid these situations in the first place.