A Brooklyn man died three weeks after a hospital declared him dead against the wishes of his Orthodox Jewish family.
Yechezkel Nakar’s heart stopped beating Tuesday, creating consensus on his death. But 21 days earlier, his family disagreed with New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s decision to issue him a death certificate.
According to the New York Post, Nakar had a stroke after being admitted to the hospital. Doctors at the hospital declared him brain dead on May 31, during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and issued an electronic death certificate. He was then transferred, on life support, to Maimonides Medical Center.
For religious reasons, Nakar’s wife, Sarah, objected to her husband being taken off life support. She filed a lawsuit against the hospital asking the court to rescind the death certificate so she could file insurance claims for his treatment.
No ruling on the lawsuit was made before Nakar’s death.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this