A 27-year-old son of George Pickering suffered multiple strokes and fell into a coma. Doctors declared that his brain had stopped functioning. After Pickering was informed that his son would be taken off life support, the father pleaded with the doctors not to do it.

Following this conversation, he arrived at the hospital with a weapon, threatening to kill anyone who tried to disconnect the life support system. He then barricaded himself in the room, buying time while negotiating with the police. When the SWAT team eventually broke into the intensive care unit, the son regained consciousness and squeezed his father’s hand. It turned out that the brain death diagnosis had been made in error. The son survived.