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George Pickering: Dad Takes Gun To Hospital To Protect His ‘Brain Dead’ Son From Being Taken Off Life Support

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 01:05 PST, Dec 23, 2015

A Texas dad grabbed his gun and went to the hospital to prevent doctors from taking his “brain dead” son off life support. A three-hour stand-off followed at the Tomball Regional Medical Center. George Pickering II was ultimately arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon — but his son survived. Just days after the desperate act, Pickering’s son woke up from his coma and has now fully recovered.

George Pickering II, 59, had to spend some time behind bars for taking a gun into the hospital and threatening his son’s doctor, but the Texas dad appears grateful that his extreme efforts helped to keep life support on. George Pickering III suffered a massive stroke in January and was was deemed brain dead by doctors at Tomball Regional Medical Center. He had a history of seizures before the stroke. The father said that he had “been down this road” before with his son, and that he knew if he could just spend a few hours with him that he would be able to tell if he was really brain dead or not.

Father Threatens Doctors With Gun To Prevent Them From Taking Son Off Life Support

https://youtu.be/5i48ohlUin0

After the brain dead diagnosis was delivered to the 27-year-old man’s worried family, his doctor said there was no hope for George Pickering III to recover, and wanted to being a “terminal wean” and slowly remove George from life support and let him die, Fox 13 Now reports.

Both the ex-wife of George Pickering II and his other son agreed to the terminal wean, but Pickering did not feel that his son was brain dead and ready to die.

“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,” the Texas father said during an interview with KPRC News.

After his son was being prepped for the end of life weaning and was placed on the organ donor registry, Pickering went home and got his gun. Upon his return to the Tomball Regional Medical Center, Pickering used his gun to threaten doctors and prevent them from turning off the machines keeping his son alive.

The three-hour stand-off ended when Pickering’s other son was able to get the firearm from his father. After his arrest, the emotionally overwhelmed father admitted to being both aggressive and drunk, but said he only did what he did to prevent his son from dying before his namesake was ready to go. He surrendered peacefully to police and was handcuffed before being removed from his son’s hospital bed.

During the Texas hospital standoff, George Pickering II said that his son squeezed his hand about four times on command. The assault with a deadly weapon charges were reduced. Earlier this month, Pickering was released from jail after being given credit for time served.

The now fully recovered “brain dead” son shared his thoughts about the ordeal during a media interview after his father’s release.

“There was a law broken, but it was broken for all the right reasons. I’m here now because of it. It was love, it was love. You do everything you can to protect your children. Everything good that made me a man is because of that man sitting next to me. The important thing is I am alive and well and my father is home.”

George Pickering II and his son are reportedly very close and run a small business together. Father and son build their home together with their own hands.

What do you think about the actions of George Pickering II to save the son doctors had declared brain dead”

[Image via Shutterstock]

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