Friday, February 16, 2007

Texas Legislation Challenges Futile Care Law That Hurts Patients


Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- A coalition of pro-life legislators and those concerned about protecting the disabled are banding together to promote a bill in the state legislature that would revise the state's futile care law.

The law has come under fire because it allows medical facilities to tell the family of a patient that they have 10 days to find another medical center willing to treat the patient because their doctors think the case is hopeless.

Families who have been affected by the law told lawmakers it needs to be changed so others don't suffer the same fate.

Sen. Bob Deuell, a physician and a Greenville Republican, is one of the prime sponsors of the bill.

"I understand the cost of health care; I'm not insensitive to that. But our medical system is so complicated now that I don't think that 10 days is enough," he told the Dallas Morning News.

"If we're going to err, let's err on the side of life and give families a chance to get loved ones transferred without a 10-day window," he added.

Some health care professionals oppose the bill and say lifting the 10-day limit hurts the Advanced Directives Act, which they say is one of the best laws in the nation.

Dr. Robert Fine, oversees end-of-life cases at Baylor University and helped write the law for the Texas Medical Association, called the bill a publicity stunt.

"It's a fundraising gimmick. ... They have accused us, the providers, of murdering people," he told the newspaper.

But, that's not the way patients and their families see it.

Lanore Dixon, who battled with St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital over the fate of her sister Andrew Clark represents many families who have had problems with the futile care provision.

"This law allowed a hospital to steal precious time from our family during a loved one's end days," she said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "Was that really necessary?"

Clark, 54, suffered complications following open heart surgery and required a ventilator and dialysis to survive. Her motor control faculties were damaged but, her family says her cognitive abilities were unaffected.

The hospital informed her family that her medical care would be discontinued in 10 days after a hospital committee decided Clark's condition was beyond hope and refused further medical treatment.

It took legal action from a family attorney to prevent Clark's treatment from being withheld, in an act of euthanasia.

Cynthia Deason, who took Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital to court to stop it from taking her disabled daughter off life support added, "I just don't want anybody else to go through what I've gone through."

1 comment:

TruePatriot said...

December 2005 I had a friend from Eritrea call me on the phone telling me that Baylor was going to pull a woman off a ventilator against her wishes and the wishes of her family. I thought "This is America and that surely could not happen and my friend had no understanding of the situation." None the less I headed to the hospital and called an old friend from college who had become an attorney at the time at the request of the family. He told me to have them call him as soon as I got there so that he could get an idea of the situation.
When there I met the young lady's brother Daniel and he explained the situation and introduced me to his sister Tirhas Habtegiris. She in fact was sedated by morphine but was still able to respond to questions by writing on paper, slow as it be. I was shocked. Daniel had already heard from the others that I had a friend that was an attorney and asked to call him. He used my phone talked to my friend and then asked my friend to talk to me about all that was going on because he had to attend to his sister.

While in the middle of the call a P.R. person came armed with a Baylor Police Officer (Yes, Private entities in Texas can have their own police force with the same powers as any government sworn police officer. As a matter of fact they are one in the same except they report to the corporation.) and started having the officer question me about why I was there and many other thing. All this time I had not hung up on my friend but kept the phone by my side so that he could hear the conversation. The officer was asking questions that should not have been asked in front of the PR person. About 10 minutes in the PR person noticed that the phone was still connected and asked who was on the phone. I told them that it was my friend who was an attorney who was representing the family pro bono and they very quickly said sorry to bother you and got out of there faster than you could say lawsuit.

They had given the girl the 10 day letter 10 days prior and they had about 2 hours before Baylor was going to pull the plug. My friend had tried to reason with the attorney for Baylor but nothing came of it. Seems that they new what they were doing. The Texas Futile Care Law gives full civil and criminal immunity to the Doctor pulling the woman off life support, the Ethics Committee of Baylor Doctors, and the hospital itself. They had nothing to fear.

After the time was up, they sent in an officer to make sure that nothing got out of their control and the doctor started to pull her off life support. When he went for the ventilation tube, she bit down to keep him from taking it out. He told her to open up. She would not and he yelled in her ear. She opened up from the shock and he pulled the tube right out. She then reeled around gasping for air and died about 15 to 20 minutes later.

In the waiting area 2 people came so that they could sign for the release of the body. Gigi who was the person legally responsible for her signed. They asked a couple of questions that seemed subtle at the time. "What will you do with the body?" Answer "Bury her in Eritrea" and "Who will accompany her" Gigi said that he would with a couple other family members. Now here is where it gets even more sinister. When Gigi was away in Eritrea they had a summons stapled to his door. Baylor was suing for the rights to Tirhas' medical records so that they could use them for anything. This included a major PR cover up after some of the press that Daniel got on TV. Also it only took a matter of days to get it on the docket and into court. No lawyer that I know can do that. Needless to say without any way to contact Gigi, they won their case and immediately started publishing the stuff they already had written. One of which denied that she was conscience. This of course was a lie for 2 reasons. One, I met her before it happened. Two, the doctor knew it too because he yelled in her ear to get her to open her mouth.

A couple of last things I want people to know: The law not only gives full criminal and civil immunity but also gives all the power of the decision to the hospital to pull the person off life support. Every one from the Doctor who does the procedure to the Ethics Committee are employees of the hospital. The law also ties the hands of any judge wanting to award an injunction. He can only award one if you can show a reasonable chance of finding anther facility to take the person to. No insurance, no millions in the bank, or insurance that has met its cap and you no longer have a legal reasonable chance. Also in the case of showing legal reasonable chance he can only grant you a 30 day injunction.
The law does not mandate that you be in a coma or even unconsciousness for them to pull the plug. You can be writing down "I don't want to die" all day long and it will get you no where.