North Carolina Dad Battles Hospital For Guardianship Of Comatose Son

Article here. Excerpt:

'A North Carolina father is embroiled in a legal battle with a hospital that wants to assume guardianship of his comatose son.

A hearing was held on Tuesday to determine who will make the medical decisions for Freddie Lempe, 18, of Smithfield, N.C. The teenager has been in a coma since a car accident on March 6, 2011.

Lempe was in the passenger seat of a car that spun out of control on Highway 39 in Johnston County, N.C., throwing him out of the car. While the driver walked away with only minor injuries, the accident left Freddie with both brain and spinal cord trauma.

Now, WakeMed, the Raleigh hospital in which he has been receiving care for over a year, has filed a suit in Wake County Courthouse to replace Lempe's father as his legal guardian to ensure that the overwhelming amount of paperwork is completed so that the teenager is eligible for Medicaid.'