The doctors are telling you your loved one has no chance. They're in a brain-dead state and will
never recover. Only their life support machine is keeping them this way, but the best thing to do
would be to pull the plug and let them pass on. While you ultimately have to do what's best for
them, this can be hard to accept - after all, the first stage of grief is denial. Some families will
insist their loved one just needs more time, but in 2015, one man took it further, bringing a gun
into the hospital and taking over his son's room, to prevent him from being taken off life support.
In January 2015, Tomball Regional Medical Center in Texas, USA was visited by 59-year-old George
Pickering II - was George Pickering really that good of a name that it needed to be used a second
time? Pickering was visiting his 27-year-old son, George Pickering III - tut, lord. Also present
were Pickering's ex-wife and his other son. George Pickering III was admitted earlier
that month after suffering a series of seizures and strokes and remained in a vegetative state.
The doctors said he was brain dead with no hope of recovering and ordered a "terminal wean",
a process where life supporting systems are gradually shut down.
Pickering's ex-wife and other son had agreed to this, and George III had already been placed on an
organ donor donation register. But for Pickering, this was all moving too fast. What if the doctors
were wrong? His son just needed more time. Pickering became very emotional while arguing
with medical staff, and nurses complained that Pickering was highly-intoxicated and aggressive.
This is a fairly common reaction from family members who refuse to accept the doctor's word,
and delude themselves from the reality that their loved one is gone. However, in Pickering's case,
his denial was not entirely devoid of reason. You see, George III had had seizures in the past,
and Pickering was hoping that this hospital visit would be like all the
others and that his son would come out the other side ok. But now the hospital
was turning off his life support? Pickering thought he had to stop that from happening,
or at least buy some time for his son. He was drunk, but he had a plan.
Now hospitals aren't generally known for their security - really, I mean there's rooms full
of people you can beat up that can't defend themselves, babies and everything, I highly
recommend it to anyone learning to fight. And this is how George Pickering II was able to unveil his
plan unopposed - what was his plan? A gun. Threatening to kill everyone in the room,
Pickering forced medical staff and family out of his son's room. But Pickering's other son,
assumedly not wanting to lose his father as well as his brother, wrestled him for the
gun and took it off him. But he was ushered out of the room and police were called as Pickering
made it clear he wasn't leaving his son's side. He shouted "I was in the Boy Scouts, you think I
only have one gun?", which really makes me wonder what does be happening in the American Scouts. Do
they teach you the virtues of having more than one gun or do you just learn to stay strapped
around some of the Scout Leaders? Whatever the case, this was a lie, Pickering did indeed
only have one gun and was relying entirely on the reputation of the Boy Scouts to uphold his bluff,
which just raises more questions honestly. Obviously this threat meant more to the
people present that it does to me, because no one entered the room,
and Pickering drew a curtain around himself and his son to conceal his gunlessness. As police and
SWAT showed up, a three hour stand-off ensued. As the hours went by, Pickering prayed over his
son, and held his hand while refusing to surrender from behind the curtain. Then something amazing
happened. His son squeezed his hand. Pickering was talking to his son, and his son was squeezing his
hand in response. He wasn't brain dead after all. Pickering then surrendered peacefully.
George III recovered, meaning his father had been right the whole time. Now it was just a
matter of what charges the authorities would slap on George II. This would be tricky, because he
did only break the law in an attempt to save his son. There's a huge emotional factor to this case,
that would resonate with most people and prompt public outcry if the sentence was perceived to be
in any way harsh. At the same time, he did bring a gun into a hospital and threaten to kill people,
the law can't just ignore that. Pickering was charged with two counts
of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, although one count was later dismissed and
the other lessened. Pickering was out on bond when an incident just a few months
later in April landed him back in jail. George II and George III - seriously just
pick another name - got baptized together at their church on Easter Sunday. Pickering believed what
happened that night in the hospital room was a miracle, and was assumedly paying God back the
favour, I guess. The problem was, the judge had put a temporary no-contact order in place, barring
Pickering from seeing his son. Apparently getting baptised together is a violation of a no-contact
order, so Pickering was back off to jail. He'd be released that December, so it was
still a fairly light punishment given the severity of what was done. George II commented; "There was
a law broken, but it was broken for all the right reasons. I'm here now because of it. It was love."
But Pickering's true punishment came from the media attention. Once his story got out,
his old Scout Leader discovered Pickering had broken the sacred more-than-one-gun oath,
and revoked his scouthood. Pickering was never allowed into a hospital drunk with a firearm
again. Like any red-blooded American would, he died from lack of freedom.
As a disclaimer, I'm required to inform you that that last sequence of events happened in
a version of reality that exists only in my head. But a great many magical things happen
there, like the idea to release a video every week - so if you liked this one,
why not subscribe and see more? You'd be joining millions of other subscribers,
that once again exist only in my head. But what a fantastic head it is. So come on in.