UPDATE: Extension to keep nine-year-old on ventilator

Payton Summons will stay on a ventilator until Monday, October 22 at 6pm.

Her parent’s lawyer filed a new request on Monday, October 15 to extend a temporary restraining order that would keep her on the machine.

A previous temporary restraining order against a Fort Worth hospital was scheduled to expire Monday afternoon.

Payton has been on the ventilator at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth since late September, when she was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest. Doctors said that she was brain dead after a cancerous tumor cut off her circulation.

The hospital has found the girl legally and medically brain dead, and there is nothing more that can be done to help her.

The controversial Texas Advance Directives Act, passed in 1999, allows doctors in Texas to stop life-sustaining treatment, after a 10-day waiting period, even over the wishes of the patient’s family.

Texas Alliance for Life’s Executive Director Dr. Joe Pojman said they, and other legitimate pro-life organizations, do accept the concept of brain death.

"So sad for this family. It's a tragic case. They're doing everything they can, understandably, to try to help their daughter.  The simple reality is that the daughter is no longer with us. And, there's nothing that can be done to change that," said Pojman. "The family is struggling to find a solution. But, the reality is this poor girl, Peyton, is clinically, medically and legally dead."

Reportedly, more than two dozen facilities were asked to take her, but have refused.

“Death, including brain death, is a condition that everyone will eventually reach. We are very sad for Payton's family who are no doubt experiencing immense grief,” said Pojman.

EKG monitor

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