Parents sue to keep son on life support after asthma attack

ROSEVILLE, CA -- A couple is fighting to keep their son on life support after he took a turn for the worse after an asthma attack.

The parents of Israel Stinson, 2, are awaiting a federal judge's ruling on whether they can force doctors at Kaiser Permanente Hospital to keep their son connected to a ventilator tube and feeding tube.

VIDEO: Boy taken off life support against parents' wishes

Jonah Panduro, 12, has been in a medically induced coma for one week. He was critically injured in a boating accident on Lake Kaweah.

Jonee Fonseca and Nate Stinson maintain their son is alive, in spite of a doctor's determination the child is brain dead.

Fonseca says Israel moves as a result of being tickled and touched by his mother, but pediatrician Dr. Angelica Ha says they are merely involuntary reflexes.

"They may look like twitches or muscle contractions, and that can be very difficult for people to see," Ha says. "But in brain death, the brain is not functioning. It's an irreversible condition."

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Fonseca says her son is not where they want him to be, but that "doesn't mean we have to start planning a funeral."

A GoFundMe account has been established to take Israel to New Jersey, where the laws that govern death and brain death are different than in California.

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