ICU Child

My stepdaughter is the ICU.  I don't know all the details...  Though I have access to computerized medical records at work, perusing them without cause constitutes a HIPPA violation.  So she's there, in a unit nearby to the one I'm stationed on, and I know nothing. 

I visited her this morning for 15 minutes before I left for class, and she seemed so young and so frail.  She was curled up beneath a bright blanket from home, IV's in each arm.  When she lifted her head from the coccoon she was wrapped up in, I saw a tangle of matted blonde hair and smudged eye makeup.  I looked up at the monitor above her, and her BP was approximately 90 over 50...  After a few minutes of talking, she sat up and seemed to be herself- a daughter whose personality reminds me so much of the man I married.  They are alike in so many ways, it's impossible not to love her.  It's also impossible not to feel overcome by the tragedy of her situation.   Her disease is so insidious and so toxic to life, and it seems like nothing can be done.

One of the last remaining options that hasn't been explored yet is for her parents (one or both of them) to obtain conservatorship status so that they can make medical decisions for her.  At age 19, she is technically an adult and can do what she wishes, but one could argue that she's gravely disabled and in need of a conservator.  Would this be a good thing?  Who knows.  It's never good to take someone's rights away from them.  But she's on a collision course with death right now- it's pretty apparent.  A child who feels betrayed by her parents is certainly a better option than a child in the ICU...  Or a dead child.