NYC Woman Says She Mistakenly Took Stranger Off Life Support

A New York City woman sat vigil for days at her dying brother's hospital bedside, authorized doctors to stop life support and was arranging his funeral when officials revealed it had all been a big mistake. The man wasn't her brother at all, but a stranger with a similar name.

Per its records, St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx discovered it had treated a Frederick Williams before and called his sister, Shirell Powell—but, unbeknownst to the hospital and Powell, they'd called the family of the wrong Fred Williams. Hospital staff, meanwhile, told Powell that her "brother," also 40, was brain dead.

Powell said when she visited the man she thought was her brother, he had a tube in his mouth and a swollen appearance. Another sibling arrived and raised doubts about whether some error had been made. "She walked up into the room and said, 'That is not my brother,'" Powell said. But the man's facial features were similar enough that the family decided it couldn't be a mistake.

Her actual brother, Frederick Williams, was alive, but unbeknownst to his family, he was locked up in a city jail.

Shirell Powell is now suing a Bronx hospital over the case of mistaken identity, saying she and other relatives were put through more than a month of unnecessary grief.

Powell authorized doctors to withdraw life support on July 29. The city's medical examiner discovered the erroneous identification Aug. 16. "I nearly fainted because I killed somebody that I didn't even know. I gave consent," said Powell.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Woman-Takes-Stranger-Off-Life-Support-New-York--504975141.html

http://www.newser.com/story/270577/a-woman-took-her-brother-off-life-support-it-wasnt-him.html