Wife Sues To Rescind Death Certificate Of Comatose Brooklyn Man
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — The wife of a Brooklyn man on life support has asked Brooklyn’s Supreme Court to rescind a death certificate that she said was issued in error.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital on May 31 issued a death certificate for Yechezkel Nakar, 68, several weeks after he was admitted to the hospital and suffered a stroke, the New York Post reported Sunday. He was placed on life-support.
Doctors at the hospital declared him brain dead on the first day of Shavuot, and issued an electronic death certificate. But Nakar remains on life support.
His wife, Sarah, who objected to taking her husband off life support for religious reasons, filed a lawsuit against the hospital late last week.
“The man is still living, and the family is distraught at the whole situation,” their attorney, Morton Avigdor, told the Post.
Rabbi J. David Bleich, a professor of Jewish law at Cardozo Law School and an expert in biomedical ethics, told the Post that brain dead patients on respirators typically die in three to 12 days and that “there is room for error in everything, including neurological criteria.”
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
