The number of opponents of euthanasia will increase in Denmark. The young girl got into a car accident and fell into a coma in the hospital. The parents agreed to disconnect their daughter from the artificial respiration apparatus and decided to distribute her organs. And then the girl came to her senses.
The Girl Who Refused to Die, a documentary aired on Danish national television, sparked a European debate even before its premiere.
This is the story of 19-year-old Karina Melchior. A year ago, she went to sunbathe on the beach in her parent's car. On the way, I lost control, an accident, a head injury, a coma.
The film crew, which was preparing a film about families faced with the need to make a decision to donate organs of their loved ones, documented everything that happened from the first day the girl ended up in the hospital. After three days, the doctors admitted that Karina had no chance. The moment when hope is taken away from the father is on the tape.
"Isn't it possible at least some miracle?" - asks the father of Karina Kim Melchior with hope.
“No,” the doctors categorically declare.
After agonizing thought, the parents agreed that their daughter would donate organs to patients who still had hope. It got to the point that the doctors turned off the artificial life support device, but Karina not only did not die: a day later she began to come to her senses, the moment of awakening was also captured on camera.
In these shots, taken a year later, Karina is already free to move around the house, helping her mother with the housework and even learning to ride a horse again - equestrian sport was her favorite pastime before the car accident.
Promotional video:
“Now it’s even strange for me to think that until recently I could not walk. Now you can't keep up with me,”the girl swaggers a little.
“She washes her own clothes. Complains that I force her to clean my room, behaves typical of girls of her age,”says Karina Maybritt's mother Melchior.
Parents have already filed a complaint against the hospital - a day without artificial ventilation may have caused more damage to Karina's brain than an accident. She has almost no short-term memory, she does not smell, and the full extent of the damage remains to be assessed. The hospital does not comment on the case while the proceedings are ongoing. But this did not stop one of the doctors from expressing his personal opinion on camera.
“I think my colleagues have acted too harshly. It is necessary to inform relatives without killing hope,”says neurologist Jens-Christian Sorensen.
Karina's case is not the only one. In the United States last year, the victim of a car accident regained consciousness an hour before the already planned transplant, after the doctors declared brain death. Five years ago in Poland, a man came out of a coma after 20 years on artificial life support.
The Danish Ministry of Health has already ordered a complete review of the procedure for organ transplants from hopeless patients. Other countries have also thought about it. In Belgium, for example, every citizen is a default donor until he or she issues his refusal in writing. Doctors, of course, will consult with relatives at the last moment, but the story of 19-year-old Karina proves that no one can guarantee that a miracle will not happen.