Alex Hoover of Limestone County has critical aortic mitral valve stenosis, a condition which could cause his heart to fail at any time.
In recent years, the 16-year-old’s condition has worsened significantly, according to his mother, Rene Hoover.
A bill named for Alex – “The Alex Hoover Act” (HB373) – could see a vote in the state senate by as early as Thursday.
Alex’s family, friends and local physicians began lobbying in favor of legislation dealing with Do-Not-Resuscitate orders for children in places other than the hospital.
According to its text, the Alex Hoover Act would “provide civil and criminal immunity to individuals, healthcare providers, and schools, who undertake to follow the directives of a palliative and end of life individual health plan.” In other words, employees at a school could not be sued or charged for complying with a student’s “DNR” while at school.
“It’s a set of guidelines and a set of medical orders in place literally to protect him,” Rene Hoover explained. “It’s not only to protect him, but protect the people taking care of him as well.”
Hoover has been at this for three years, drawing international media attention to the matter, slowly making allies along the way.
Her central message is that she wants to maximize Alex’s life while he has it, and not put him in pain in his final days.
“If it was something imminent, nothing they could do is going to change what’s going on. There’s no chance in saving him. Or two, even if they did save him, it would be futile to him. The outcome would be horrible. That’s where that DNR would really protect a child like Alex, in particular.”
That message has received less argument now than in years past, said Hoover and her supporters.
Dr. Monica Williams-Murphy, an emergency department physician who has lobbied in favor of HB373, said she has been “blown away at how many stakeholders said they’d support it now.”
The extra motivation to try to keep Alex in school with a DNR that carried weight was because Alex also has autism.
“He was in a fantastic program at his school for autistic children and he’d been with those kids since he was three years old. They had been through the program together,” Hoover said. “When we found out his illness had progressed as much as it did, he needed that (bring in school with an effective DNR) even more.”
