Beaumont says Titus Cromer, 16, is brain dead. A judge says it can't pull the plug yet.

For the second time in a month, a teenager's life hangs in the balance as a Michigan hospital system and the child's family battle in court over who gets to decide to remove life support when a person has been declared brain dead.  

Oakland County Circuit Judge Hala Jarbou ordered Monday that Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak continue to provide medical care to Titus Jermaine Cromer Jr., a junior at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, at least until Nov. 7, when both sides are to appear again in court. 

The hospital system had planned to remove Titus from life support at noon Monday, saying that the boy had “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem," said Jim Rasor, the lawyer representing Titus' family.  

Titus, of Lathrup Village, was injured Oct. 17, and was taken by ambulance to Beaumont. When he arrived at the hospital, Titus was unable to breathe on his own, Rasor said. He needed help keeping his blood pressure stable, and was given IV hydration and nutrition through a feeding tube. Doctors cooled his body, which has been shown in studies to help reduce the damage in people with severe brain injuries. 

Since then, Titus has begun to show signs of recovery, Rasor said. He can now regulate his own blood pressure, heart rate and temperature without medication, and has been breathing on his own for short periods of time. 

"Those are very strong indicia that he has not suffered brain death," Rasor said. Citing privacy concerns, he would not disclose how Titus was injured, saying only, "That's something we're not focusing on."

The boy's mother, LaShauna Lowery, isn't ready to give up, Rasor said. 

"They are very much guided by their faith, and as Catholics, they believe that removing life support would be murder," Rasor said.

"As a parent, if there's a million-to-one chance that he's going to get better, I'm going to take it," he said. "And I'm not going to get two opinions. I'm going to get 20. I'm going to fight for my boy until there's absolutely no hope at all. And then I'm going to fight some more.

 "This family is fighting in a situation where there's a reasonable expectation of recovery and Beaumont is trying to deny that based simply on two opinions, which didn't even factor in a multitude of other possibilities for other persons who have been judged to be brain dead, recovered."

Beaumont Health did not offer details about Titus' case, but said Monday that it would abide by the court order. 

"We empathize deeply with families in these kinds of very difficult circumstances, but privacy laws prevent us from discussing the particulars of a patient’s care without the family’s explicit permission," said Beaumont Health spokesman Mark Geary. "We are committed to supporting the family in a compassionate, ethical and legally appropriate way. "

The family is now scrambling to find a long-term medical care facility that will give Titus more time to recover.

That's what the family of 14-year-old Bobby Reyes wanted for their son, too. 

Bobby was hospitalized Sept. 22 after suffering a severe asthma attack.

Two days later, doctors at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital conducted a brain-death examination and found no evidence of electrical activity in Bobby's brain stem. A separate blood-flow test found no blood flowing to the boy's brain. A repeat examination, completed Oct. 15, confirmed no electrical activity to Bobby's brain. 

More:Boy at center of brain death case officially dies after life support is stopped

More:Why parents don't get a say about end of life when a child is brain dead

The teen, who was from Ash Township in Monroe County, was disconnected from life support that afternoon. His heart and lung functions stopped moments later.

Bobby's parents, Sarah Jones and Jose Reyes, worked with an attorney to seek a court order to try to stop the hospital from removing their son from life support.

"Don't let them take our son before they gave him a chance," the family wrote in a Facebook post. "All we're asking for is a little bit of time."

The lawyer sought a court order in Washtenaw County Circuit Court to stop C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital from removing life support, but that was the wrong venue. Because Mott is connected to the University of Michigan, it is considered part of state government, and legal action must be filed in the Michigan Court of Claims.

Bobby’s family then changed attorneys and began working with William Amadeo, who scrambled to get an order from the Court of Claims before the hospital could remove Bobby from life support.

A Washtenaw County Circuit Judge said Oct. 15 that his court had no jurisdiction in Bobby’s case, but cleared the way for doctors at Mott Hospital to conduct a second test to confirm brain death. Bobby was removed from life support that afternoon and died soon after. 

In a statement, the hospital said: "Continuing medical interventions was inappropriate after Bobby had suffered brain death and violates the professional integrity of Michigan Medicine’s clinicians." 

Rasor said what happened in Bobby's case was tragic. 

"It appears that the lawyers committed malpractice because establishing the proper jurisdiction for a suit is vital," he said, in reference to the first attorney who worked with the Reyes family. "It's the first thing you do, and they failed to do it properly.

"I'm 100% certain that had they filed that case in the proper venue, Bobby Reyes would be alive today. I fully intend to get justice for the Reyes family."

Bobby's mother, Sarah Jones, and Titus' mother spoke Sunday night, Rasor said. 

"They had a very productive and emotional conversation,"  he said. 

These two cases are clear examples, Rasor said, of why the state Legislature needs to clarify Michigan law when it comes to determining who gets to pull the plug in situations like these.

"There's no authority in Michigan law for the health care providers to remove crucial lifesaving equipment from a patient," he said. "... The case law from the Court of Appeals is clear that the only decision-maker that counts is the family.

"The statute passed by the Legislature makes it clear when physicians can determine that someone has died, even though they're warm, and they have a pulse, and they're breathing. But it doesn't give them the authority over that person's life to remove treatment."

He said what's happening now to Titus and his family is not acceptable. 

"I hate to quote Sarah Palin, but what we don't need is death panels making decisions for us about our children," Rasor said. "And that's what we have here is a death panel making a decision for this family, and that's just wrong. ... It's a slippery slope. You know, it isn't too far from this to deciding that grandma or grandpa isn't worthy of care."

Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @kristenshamus. Free Press staff writer John Wisely contributed to this report.

Clarification: This story was edited to make it clear that the family of Bobby Reyes had two sets of attorneys. Jim Rasor, the lawyer for Titus Jermaine Cromer Jr., referenced the first set of attorneys, not William Amadeo, in his comments about filing in the wrong venue in Bobby’s case.