Man at centre of ‘brain death’ case now dead, family says

An Orthodox Jewish family that launched a legal battle to keep their son on life support after he was declared brain dead said the man’s heart had stopped, rendering him dead in their view, but they continued to seek a judge’s ruling in the case that pitted religious values against medical guidelines.

Shalom Ouanounou’s family, who held a funeral for him Friday, hopes a decision in the case sets a precedent that could save other parents the pain they have experienced, their lawyer Hugh Scher said.

“(Ouanounou’s mother) does not want to see another mother experience what she has had to experience,” he said. “She wants to see the courts recognize a form of religious accommodation … in the determination of death in a way that is respectful of the family of the individual and the individual’s beliefs.”

Ouanounou was ruled neurologically dead by doctors at Humber River Hospital in September 2017, after the 25-year-old Toronto man suffered a severe asthma attack. Doctors issued a death certificate and planned to take Ouanounou off life support, Scher said.

But Ouanounou was not considered dead under the laws of Orthodox Judaism, which define death as the stopping of the heart and cessation of breathing, his family has said in court.

To take him off life support would be an assault on his human dignity and religious liberty, they argued.

Ouanounou’s father — also his substitute decision-maker for health matters — obtained an injunction in November 2017 that required doctors to leave Ouanounou connected to a ventilator and feeding tube while his family challenged Canadian medical guidelines surrounding death.

Legal arguments in the case wrapped last month, and the two sides were waiting for a judge’s decision.

On Thursday, however, Ouanounou “suffered irreversible cardio-respiratory failure,” Scher said.

“That’s certainly death under Jewish law,” he said.

Scher said the judge who heard the family’s case has told all parties he still intends to release a decision in the matter.

That decision will be important, despite Ouanounou’s medical status no longer being at issue, Scher said.

The intention of the legal challenge was always to set a precedent for future cases, he added.

Humber River, which was named as a respondent in the Ouanounous’ legal challenge, “sends sincere wishes of comfort to the family in this sad time,” Daphne Jarvis, the hospital’s lawyer, said.

“We expect that the court will likely proceed to render a decision on the application in due course, but we’re not focused on that right now,” she said.