Family decides to donate youngster’s organs
Boy declared brain dead after beating
The family of a 7-year-old boy who is brain dead after allegedly being beaten by his father has decided to donate his organs, Worcester police said yesterday.
Nathaniel Turner had been at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and was declared brain dead Tuesday.
Nathaniel’s family, led by his mother and grandmother, were given the legal right to end life support by a Juvenile Court judge earlier this week.
Worcester police Sergeant Kerry Hazelhurst said the family was anticipating that the organs would be harvested yesterday. On Thursday, the family asked for privacy and banned UMass Memorial from releasing any information about Nathaniel’s status.
“They are going to donate the organs, which is a nice thing out of a tragic thing, to give people a chance to live,’’ Hazelhurst said yesterday.
Leslie Schuler of Worcester, the boy’s father, has been charged with assault and battery, but Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said he expects Schuler will now be prosecuted for homicide.
Schuler and his girlfriend, Tiffany Hyman, had pleaded not guilty in Worcester District Court on Tuesday to multiple assault charges. He is being held on $250,000 cash bail, and Hyman is being held on $50,000 cash bail.
Hazelhurst confirmed what Massachusetts Probate and Family Court officials have been saying: Schuler did not have a court order granting him custody of the boy. Instead, the boy’s maternal family agreed to let him leave Alabama, where he was living with his grandmother, to spend the summer in Worcester with Schuler, who had little contact with the boy until this year.
“I don’t think there was any formal court order,’’ he said. “It was an agreement among family members that the boy would spend the summer with his father in order to develop a relationship.’’