12-year-old boy to be removed from life support against parent's wishes

A 12-year-old boy's family is fighting to keep him alive after he was critically injured in a boating accident on Lake Kaweah in California.

Jonah Panduro, from Corcoran, California, went inner tubing on the lake last Sunday. While he was being towed through the water, a metal loop came off the tube and became lodged in his head.

According to Jonah's family, he was declared brain dead by two doctors at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, California.

However, the family claims that they have seen Jonah cry and move his fingers.

"The medical response is like, 'Oh, his eyes are just swelling up, that's why his eyes are opening' or 'He's just building moisture in his eyes,'" said Bruce Panduro, Jonah's father.

And now, Jonah's family says that they don't even have a choice in the decision to keep the boy on life support or to take him off.

"They're going to disconnect him even though me as a parent -- the father -- and the mother came up with a decision that they're still going to disconnect him," said Panduro.

According to the family, the doctors are following California state law by taking Jonah off of life support on Monday. They claim that in order to move forward with removing a patient from life support, two doctors have to pronounce the patient brain dead.

The family says that they can't take Jonah home either, because moving him would kill him.

"We have faith, we have hope that there is something that could still be done for him, but they're just stating that they've already did plenty of exams, they've been getting medication to him, and just basically that they're running out of options," Gina Carranza, Jonah's aunt, said.

A rep from CRMC was unable to comment because of privacy issues.

The family intends to fight the hospital's decision, but due to the holiday, they were not able to get in touch with an attorney over the weekend.

According to the family, unless Jonah begins to show brain activity or an attorney steps in to help, Jonah is expected to be removed from life support at 10 a.m. Monday.

Jonah's GoFundMe: