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The parents of a 13 month old canadian boy are in the middle of a fight with a hospital treating their son. the hospital says that the little boy has a degenerative brain condition, and they want to remove his breathing tube, but the family says, no, way and are fighting to keep their son alive. tell us exactly what's going on. >> first of all, i want to say this a horrible story, a sad story on all accounts. the fight is between the parents and the hospital. the parents say that the hospital has told them that their son is in a persistent vegetative state, and when that happens both in canada...

Them alive if they are not going to recover but the parents say they are not convinced that their son is in a persistent vegetative state. the parents gave us this voe. you can see here someone is tickling the baby, and the baby moves. we showed this video to my colleague sanjay gupta who, of course, is a neurosurgeon, and he says it's possible that we are seeing movements that are reflexes, and not deliberate movements by the baby, and babies have more of these preserved reflexes than adults do. who knows? but the parents really feel there is a possibility that their son is not in a vegetativ...

You're going to see that special on hurricane katrina, that was actually one of those events i want to tell you about. i want to give you a picture of three watershed moments in american history. hurricane katrina, new orleans all but destroyed by natural disaster. another watershed moment, terry schiavo, the fate of a woman who was in that persistent vegetative state and whether she could be allowed to die or not. and the third thing is the bankruptcy of general motors, the difficulty in which the u.s. auto industry was in when we thought it was on the brink of collapse. what do these three m...

Working with abbie. there had been some articles in some papers from her former husband's attorneys, that have said that she was in a persistent vegetative state. do you agree with that? >> no. >> absolutely not? >> no. i think that abbie's clinical condition is more indicative of a brain-injured individual. >> reporter: but her ex-husband would not talk to us, disagrees. he says abbie could not possibly be communicating and is preventing their three children from visiting her. vicki bregreen is his attorney. >> as far as we know, medically speaking, she is in a vegetative state. and to have h...

Abbie survived, of course, though her brain was severely damaged. the triplets, they were fine. today they're 4 years old. we're not showing you the faces because they are minors. abbie has not seen them since they were 1. her parents say she wants to, that she tells them that with her blinking. robert mccarthy is a therapist working with abbie. there have been some articles and some papers from her former husband's attorneys that have said that she was in a persistent vegetative state. do you agree with that? >> no. >> reporter: tlabsolutely not? >> no, i think her clinical condition is more ...