27-year-old George Pickering III, comatose, was set to be taken off life support until his father entered a Texas hospital with a gun and threatened the staff, resulting in a standoff with the police — which ended when George regained consciousness, according to reports.
According to the Daily Mail, his father, 59-year-old George Pickering II, was involved in a standoff with the police until his ill son squeezed his father’s hand. George III had come to during the standoff, for which his father has now been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The altercation occurred at Tomball Regional Medical Center in Texas, where George III was being kept after he had suffered a stroke earlier this month. The hospital had declared him brain dead.
As a result, the hospital ordered a “terminal wean,” meaning that his life support was set to be slowly withdrawn to end George’s life.
George Sr.’s ex-wife and other son had agreed with the hospital’s decision to pull the plug, but he believed they “were moving too fast.”
“The hospital, the nurses, the doctors. I knew if I had three or four hours that night that I would know whether George was brain-dead,” he told KPRC.
Pickering’s standoff with the police lasted three hours, during which nobody was killed, before his other son was eventually able to get the gun away from him. George Sr. later admitted to being drunk during the whole exchange, but he stands by his actions — he did what he did, he claims, because he knew his son wasn’t ready to die.
Pickering Sr. later had his charges reduced, and he was released earlier this month.
“There was a law broken, but it was broken for all the right reasons,” said his son, now recovered.
“I’m here now because of it. It was love, it was love.”
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to indicate that this was an armed standoff, not a gunfight.
Too often fathers are demonised are persecuted for their primal protective instinct…How many insurers, doctors and hospital managers have been thrown in jail for refusing, limiting or ceasing care to patients? This father didnt break the law…this father took to weapons to defend his son’s life from people who developed a god complex and act unimpeded. What lies and fantasies they must have told the mother for her to allow the equipment to be turned off? Why wasn’t the father’s heard? This man was pushed to his limit and reacted only to defend his son life.