Posted on 03/25/2005 12:45:44 PM PST by freedomfryer
HOUSTON - The family of Spiro Nikolouzos won another legal round in court Tuesday in its fight with a Houston hospital to keep him alive, Local 2 reported. Late Tuesday afternoon, the 14th Court of Appeals issued an injunction for St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital to not touch the 68-year-old's life support. The decision came after an appeals court earlier in the day dissolved an emergency injunction issued Saturday because the appeals court has a specific way it assigns cases to one of two courts. "This was literally a matter of life or death," Local 2 legal analyst Brian Wice said. "It's a process that's in place for a very simple reason -- to keep the litigants from choosing a particular court of appeals where they may think they'll find some home cooking they might not find in the other court." The First Court of Appeals granted an emergency injunction Saturday morning to keep Nikolouzos on life support after a judge denied a temporary restraining order following three hearings Friday. A new hearing date was not immediately set. The patient's family has cited opinions from medical experts not associated with St. Luke's, who say his condition does not meet the criteria for brain dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Update:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3094699
March 21, 2005, 2:01PM
Facility takes in man on ventilator
Change of heart by San Antonio home ends the fight between his family, St. Luke's
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
A Friendswood man in a persistent vegetative state was transferred to a nursing home in San Antonio on Sunday, ending a battle between St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and his family over whether to take him off life support.
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At 7:30 a.m., Spiro Nikolouzos, 68, was hooked up to a portable ventilator, feeding tube and other support lines and taken by ambulance to Avalon Place, which had rejected his application just nine days before. Facility officials confirmed his arrival about 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
"Thank God that was an ambulance taking Spiro to another health care facility, not another car taking him to a funeral home," said Nikolouzos' wife, Jannette. "I can't tell you the relief and excitement I feel that my husband is still alive."
Dr. David Pate, St. Luke's chief medical officer, said he was "very surprised" Avalon Place agreed to take Spiro Nikolouzos — more than 30 facilities had rejected him — but that he is glad the matter has been resolved to the family's satisfaction. The hospital's ethics committee had argued continued care would be futile and inhumane.
The surprise relocation capped three weeks during which the Nikolouzos family and St. Luke's looked for an alternative facility to accept him and the family's lawyer filed one temporary restraining order after another to prevent the hospital from pulling the plug. Nine days ago, one of those orders was granted just a few hours before St. Luke's planned to act.
Avalon Place officials would not explain their change of heart Sunday, but Pate and family members said they understood that someone from Avalon Place's corporate headquarters intervened late Friday to give permission.
The Nikolouzos matter and another involving a 6-month-old baby, whose mother last week failed to stop Texas Children's Hospital from withdrawing life support, shone a light on a fairly new Texas law that allows hospitals to discontinue such care 10 days after notifying family members.
Mario Caballero, the plaintiffs' lawyer in both cases, complained 10 days is too little time to respond to such notification and an appellate court justice who ruled in the Nikolouzos case urged the Legislature to revisit it, saying it ``creates confusion where there should be clarity.''
The Nikolouzos controversy dates to March 1, when St. Luke's gave the Nikolouzos family notice it planned to take him off a ventilator and remove his feeding tube. Five days later, the family's lawyer, Mario Caballero, announced he would ask a judge to stop the hospital.
Nikolouzos, a retired electrical engineer who suffered brain damage in a motor vehicle accident more than a decade ago, has been in a persistent vegetative state since at least 2001, Pate said. Until Feb. 10, his wife took care of him at their home, feeding him through a tube inserted through his side into his stomach. But when the area around the tube began bleeding, he was rushed to the hospital, where his condition seriously deteriorated and he was placed on a ventilator.
Jannette Nikolouzos acknowledged at one point last week that "he was never like this" before.
Pate, able to talk about the case for the first time Sunday, said the case was particularly hard on staff because there was no possibility Nikolouzos would ever improve, even with around-the-clock care. Nikolouzos' serious complications include constant infections and ulcers that penetrate all the way to bone, and muscle atrophy that has left him rigidly curled up in a fetal position. Pate said it is hard to believe that hospital hygiene efforts necessary to prevent infection don't physically hurt the patient.
"He's unaware of his surroundings, he can't eat, he can't speak, he can't move any of his extremities," Pate said. "I can't imagine anybody in his condition wanting extraordinary means of life support to be kept alive."
Nikolouzos' adult son, also named Spiro, acknowledging "mixed feelings'' Sunday, said it was hard seeing his father like that. But he added that he was glad his father hasn't passed away yet and reiterated that "a hospital shouldn't be able to tell you when it's going to euthanize your family members.''
Jannette Nikolouzos also expressed happiness that "Spiro got out of that execution chamber that is St. Luke's."
Pate said payment for Nikolouzos' care was never an issue for St. Luke's, contrary to claims by the Nikolouzos family.
Payment for Nikolouzos' care at Avalon Place was thought to be an issue; Caballero said in court a week ago that the San Antonio nursing home turned down Nikolouzos because his Medicare was about to be reduced.
No one could answer Sunday whether that matter has been resolved.
Nikolouzos' wife and son, who plan to visit him today, said they don't know what the future will bring, beyond regular trips to San Antonio.
But they said it is preferable to the alternative.
"We're just thankful to anyone who helped my husband stay alive," said Jannette Nikolouzos.
todd.ackerman@chron.com
I'm glad it's going better for this family than for Terri.
p.s.: I see that you've signed up today...
yes, we are well aware that Bush signed this Texas law, and Terri would have been dead years ago if she had lived in Texas.
This has been discussed at length.
Well, I mean, Duh. Everyone knows that men are more worthwhile than chicks. I mean, hello? That's what this is all about - The evil satanic bloodthirsty male patriarchal dominated society... or something...
Shuurrr we do. Nice of you to join us here, Mar 25 2005. Wonder who you are the rest of the time?
I saw Janette Nikolouzos on San Antonio television, and she said she called the owner of Avalon Place, and the owner upon hearing her plight said, "We'd love to have your husband."
There was no mention of him being rejected by Avalon Place before. It is one of only eight nursing homes in Texas (according to the news report) that is capable of caring for those on a ventilator.
They also showed Mr. Nikolouzos being taken from the ambulance, and wheeled into Avalon place, and interviewed one of the ambulance workers who transported him.
I've heard much confusion as per "life support", generally implying that Terri is on a ventilator. In some cases, I'm convinced that the confusion is deliberate.
Interesting. This man is on a ventilator as well as a feeding tube. True life support as I understand it. Now removing the Ventilator, but leaving the feeding tube would seem to me letting nature take its course
So do we just forget about all of the others in similar situations after this? I don't get it. Do we only care about Terri and forget about the rest, or do we address this as a movement. If our support is a one-time deal, then why even bother? I think that you, like most of us, agree with me when I say that it isn't just about Terri's plight.
You forgot to add that this law is better than the previous law (which only stipulated 72 hours vs. the now 10 day limit) and it allows for ethics board appeals for extending that time. Not perfect by any means, but the TexLeg would not pass anything more lenient, so Bush signed it. Also, he previously vetoed a bill on this matter that wasn't as lenient.
That's exactly what I always thought was 'common knowldege' regarding this issue.
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