Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Posted on 04/07/2005 2:59:57 AM PDT by schmelvin
For Immediate release! To: All media, and supporters of life. From: The Family of Mae Magouirk Date: April 6, 2005 Contact: Kenneth Mullinax - Mockingbird@compuhelp.net
Shiavo case revisited in Georgia
Mae Magouirk…not comatose …not vegetative …not terminal
Why is Hospice LaGrange, Ga. withholding nourishment?
(LaGrange, Georgia) Mae Magouirk is being withheld nourishment and fluids and the provisions of her Living Will are not being honored at the Hospice-LaGrange, (1510 Vernon Street, LaGrange “Troup County” Georgia, 706-845-3905) a subsidiary of the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange Georgia. Her family is desperately seeking to save her life before she dies of malnourishment and dehydration.
Mae Magouirk IS NOT comatose and she IS NOT vegetative. She is not terminal!
Despite these facts the Hospice and Beth Gaddy, a school teacher at LaGrange’s Calloway Middle School and granddaughter of Mae Magouirk have been denying her proactive nourishment or fluids (via a nose administered feeding tube or fluids via an IV) since March 28 without prior legal consent; against the wishes of her Living Will and against the wishes of Mae Magouirk’s closest living next of kin. Mae Magouirk’s next of kin are: Mr. A. B. McLeod (Her Brother) and Mrs. Lonnie Ruth Mullinax (Her sister) both of nearby Anniston, Alabama.
Under Georgia law, unless a medical durable power of attorney is in place, your closest living next of kin are stipulated to make all medical decisions. When Mae Magouirk’s closest living next of kin lodged a complaint with Hospice LaGrange’s in-house attorney Carol Todd last Thursday, March 31, Ms. Todd checked Mae Magouirk’s case file and upon examination of both documents discovered that Beth Gaddy DID NOT have the durable medical power of attorney for Mae Magouirk and upon closer examination of Mae Magouirk’s Living Will ascertained that fluids and nourishment were ONLY TO BE WITHHELD if she was either comatose or vegetative. SHE IS IN NEITHER STATE!!!
Nor is Mae Magouirk terminally ill. Her local LaGrange, Ga. cardiologist, Dr. James Brennan and Dr. Raed Aqel, a highly acclaimed interventional cardiologist at the nationally renowned University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center have determined that Mae Magouirk’s aortic dissection is contained and not presently life threatening.
Two weeks ago, Mae Magouirk’s aorta had a dissection and she was hospitalized in the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange, Ga. Her aortic problem was at first determined to be severe and she was admitted in the intensive care Unit. Her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, a teacher at the Calloway Middle School in LaGrange, stated that she held Mae Magouirk’s medical power of attorney and thus invoked said powers against the wishes of Mae Magouirk’s closest living next of kin by having her moved to Hospice-LaGrange. While at Hospice-LaGrange, Beth Gaddy stated that her wishes were for no nourishment for Mae Magouirk via a feeding tube or fluids via an IV. Before hospitalization Mae was lucid and never had been diagnosed with dementia as was testified to in Probate Court on Monday, April 4, by a local MD.
Page Two Mae Magouirk is being starved to death!
Upon learning from Hospice-LaGrange that Mae Magouirk was being denied nourishment and fluids and upon being told by Carol Todd (Hospice LaGrange’s in-house legal consul) that Beth Gaddy DID NOT HAVE THE PROPER LEGAL AUTHORITY to deny said nourishment AND that the denial of nourishment went against Mae Magouirk’s Living Will, Mae’s family (Mullinax/McLeod) ordered the immediate beginning of such nourishment/fluids for Mae to Hospice via Carol Todd.
First Contact with Hospice on Thursday, March 31 Carol Todd told Mrs. Lonnie Ruth Mullinax (Mae Magouirk’s sister) and Kenneth Mullinax (Mae Magouirk’s nephew) via phone on Thursday, March 31 that Georgia Law stipulated that Mrs. Mullinax and her brother A. B. McLeod (Mae Magouirk’s brother) were entitled to make any and all decisions for Mae Magouirk. Mrs. Mullinax immediately told Carol Todd to insert fluids via an IV and insert a feeding tube, via her nose. Carol Todd had the IV fluids started that evening but told the family that they would have to come to Hospice LaGrange to sign papers to have the feeding tube inserted and because of such, she believed that Mae Magouirk would no longer be a candidate for Hospice LaGrange. She was then told that Mae Magouirk’s family concurred and the ONLY REASON Mae was at Hospice was because the LaGrange Hospital had failed to exercise due diligence in closely examining the power of attorney which Beth Gaddy said she had, as well as executing the provisions of Mae’s Living Will to her preordained stipulations. Gaddy only had a financial power of attorney and did not have a medical power of attorney and Mae Magouirk’s Living Will provided that a feeding tube and fluids SHOULD ONLY BE DISSCONTINUED IF Mae was comatose or in a vegetative state. She was and is in neither state.
Attempt to rescue Mae on Friday denied by Probate Judge Donald Boyd On Friday, April 1, when A. B. McLeod (brother) and Kenneth Mullinax (nephew) showed up to meet with Carol Todd and to arrange emergency air transport of Mae Magouirk to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center (One of the top cardiovascular centers in the USA) Hospice LaGrange stalled them while Beth Gaddy went before Troup County Georgia (LaGrange, Ga.) Probate Judge Donald W. Boyd (who DOES NOT hold a law degree) who granted Beth Gaddy emergency guardianship of Mae Magouirk, giving Beth Gaddy full and absolute authority. Thus, they COULD NOT MOVE HER FOR PROACTIVE MEDICAL CARE Friday because Beth Gaddy had Hospice stop them and then she had Mae’s IV fluid tube pulled out. Beth Gaddy has repeatedly told Mr. McLeod, Mrs. Mullinax and Kenneth Mullinax that she feels they all should let Mae not eat and thus cause her to die because, and we quote Beth Gaddy: “Grandmamma is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus. She has glaucoma, and now this heart problem and who would want to live with disabilities like these?”
As stipulated under Georgia Law, a hearing for an Emergency Guardianship, must be held within 3 days of its request and Mae Magouirk’s hearing was held on this past Monday, April 4, before Troup County Georgia Probate Judge Donald Boyd who favors granting Beth Gaddy permanent guardianship and thus will seal Mae Magouirk’s fate of allowing Beth Gaddy to starve her to death against the wishes of her Living Will and in full knowledge that Mae Magouirk is not terminal, not in a coma and is not in a vegetative state and that medical care at UAB Medical Center is awaiting her. Shiavo revisited!
Mae’s present state and vital signs Mae’s blood pressure is good, averaging 140/82 with a pulse rate of 88. However, since admission to Hospice she has not been lucid but who would be since nourishment and fluids have been denied since March 28, 2005. Also adding to her confusion is that she is off her regular medicines and is on a dose of Adavan and Morphine. Without food or water her electrolytes and body chemistry is not within its proper parameters. If her condition is not given major public attention soon, she will die, not by divine cause but by the omission of assistance by man. WE MUST GET Mae moved to UAB Medical ASAP
Resources: Probate Judge Donald Boyd…Court CASE NUMBER: Estate 138-05 Attorney for saving Mae’s life: Jack Kirby, Kirby & Roberts***
The infiltration of the forced euthanasia movement into hospice is another front in the ongoing attack on the stability of the family as an institution.
Put yourself in these situations:
The trucker out on the interstate thinking, "If I'm hurt in a wreck, will my wife try to kill me"?
The grandmother thinking, "If I fall and break my hip, will my grandson try to kill me"?
The high school football player thinking, "If I break my neck in a game, will my mother try to kill me"?
Thoughts like that will be in the back of everyone's minds from now on, should the euthanizers have their way. The family as we know it will be gone. It would be useless if everyone had to wonder if those "nearest and dearest" to them would kill them if they dared get sick or hurt.
Yet another reason we have to keep fighting this fight.
And that's my typical rant for this evening. Nite y'all.
Hi mother! Can't you sleep? It's only 7pm Saturday in Aussie land, and I've been on the comp all day as usual. Hello back to you.
No, can't sleep. Fibro is acting up, and while pregnant can't take pain meds or other fibro meds. ;)
you will have mail in a minute or two...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/terri-schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html (snip)
Hospice that enrolls Non-Terminal Patients Commits Fraud
The United States Office of Inspector General has issued its warning to the public about questionable hospice agency practices and stated that some hospices have been found to engage in, "practices which ... have inappropriately maximized their Medicare reimbursements at beneficiary expense. These practices include: Making incorrect determinations of a person’s life expectancy for purposes of meeting hospice eligibility criteria."3 A hospice that bills Medicare, Medicaid or a private insurer for a non-terminal patient is violating the contracts which allow hospices to provide services for the terminally ill.
Hospices are not licensed to care for the chronically ill. In order for a patient to be admitted to hospice, the physician must "certify" that the patient is likely to die within six months due to a terminal illness. Terri Schiavo has no terminal illness; the only cause of death in her case would be her intentional murder by those intent on ending her life.
Original Hospice Mission Violated
The original hospice mission is to care for, support and manage the symptoms of the terminally ill until a death occurs in its own natural timing. Every hospice nurse and physician knows that hospice is supposed to neither hasten death nor seek to cure the terminal illness. Hastening the death of a patient goes against everything hospice stands for.
Although Terri Schiavo's case will be decided in a Pinellas County courthouse, any hospice that accepts a chronically ill patient has violated not only the spirit of hospice and the mission of hospice, but the federal regulations governing hospice4
Regarding post 999:
"The hospital policy is that doctors will not do that while a patient can still swallow and ingest food by normal means."
It's a hospice, and if she gets a feeding tube, then they have to move her to a hospital, as I understand it. FReegards....
"Free Republic does not advocate violence..."
I'll be! It's against FR policy to side with death.
Interesting....
Good work.
Medicare encourages the public to report instances of Fraud and Abuse. Information can be found at www.Medicare@gov and www.hhs.cms@gov as well as the Office of the Inspector General. There are email and phone contacts shown.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid really cracked down on wheelchair abuse, when physicians certified a need for "scooters" that did not meet "medically necessary" definitions. IMHO, abuse and death of Medicare beneficiaries is much more diabolical.
Well, I would prefer not to make Hitler comparisons as there have been far too many both here and during the election. Anyway, as I have said before, I am hardly a Soros fan, but if the $45 million grants were for legitimate purposes as stated, that is, for better care and comfort in hospices, then I applaud it. If not, well....
We will have to see how the $45 million in PDIA grants were spent. I have nothing against care and comfort for the terminally ill. I would hope most here wouldn't.
Soros' quotes elsewhere on this thread about his father's and mother's deaths are very telling.
How so?
The meds and deprivation are obviously keeping Mae from being coherent. Looks like a huge blossoming court case to me.
Have you read anything other than the WND report on this?
He, Ted Turner and many celebrities and world luminaries belong to various world organizations that believe the planet's only hope of survival is to halve the population--or better. Ted Turner is on record as believing that 90,000,000 would be a good world population
That may well be, but none of that has yet linked to factual evidence that the expenditure of the $45 million was anything other than as stated in the PDIA report.
Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Following this story is the ONLY living will that I MIGHT sign:
The Will to Live
When Marjorie Nighbert entered a nursing home after having a stroke, she did not expect to be starved to death, but that is what happened when she became a victim of her own "wishes."
Like many people, she did not want her life to be prolonged when death was imminent. So Nighbert created a durable power of attorney (DPA), in which she gave her brother control over medical decisions in case she could not make them for herself. And according to the family lawyer, Nighbert said she did not want a feeding tube if she became terminally ill.
When Nighbert fell ill the nursing home followed the orders of the DPA and denied her food and water for two weeks. But then something unexpected happened: She asked to be fed. A court battle ensued, and the court ultimately upheld the nursing home's decision to deny Nighbert food and water. According to the judge, Nighbert was not competent to ask for food, and to give her food would constitute "extraordinary means."
Nighbert died on April 6, 1995.
In recent years we have heard a lot about the "right to die." Many organizations, such as Choice in Dying, and even President Clinton, promote living wills as a way for people to control when and how they will die. Yet, as Nighbert's story illustrates, nothing could be further from the truth: Many people sign living wills without realizing that they may be signing their own death certificates.
The inherent danger in the living will is that the terms in the document may not mean what a person thinks they mean or they may be dangerously vague. Webster's Dictionary defines "terminal" as "of or in the final stages of a fatal disease." Similarly, the average person thinks that "terminally ill" means that death cannot be prevented even with medical treatment. But in 24 states, for the purposes of the living will, a person is legally in a "terminal condition" even if her life could be saved by medical treatment, as long as she would still have a permanent disability of some kind. In fact, many living wills stipulate that "life-sustaining" treatment, including food and water, will not be administered if the person is in a "terminal" condition, even if the condition is non-fatal.
The purpose of any medical treatment is to sustain, if not prolong, life. Unfortunately, many people who sign living wills may be completely unaware that they are agreeing to their own starvation.
The issue at hand is not about keeping people alive at all cost simply because the medical technology is available; the issue is about protecting people who are being denied medical treatment and being starved to death merely because they are ill. What kind of message does this send to the infirm? Instead of creating a society where the sick are treated with compassion and care, we are creating an atmosphere of death.
To prevent people from suffering the same fate as Marjorie Nighbert, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) has created the Will to Live. This differs from the living will by being based on a general presumption for life. It is also much more detailed to avoid ambiguities that could later be interpreted in favor of death. Currently, the Will to Live is complete for fourteen states: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The other states are in various stages of preparation and will be completed soon.
If you would like a Will to Live for one of the states mentioned, send a business size, self- addressed, stamped envelope to:
The Will to Live Project
419 7th Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20004.
Anne E. Brennan
Reprinted from The American Feminist, Winter 1995/1996
© 2004 Feminists for Life
http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf/1995/winter/wiltoliv.htm
What do we do if the judges rule against the Constitution?
I say IMPEACH, and if their judgement results in the death of an innocent person, put them in jail.
"What is the Will to Live?
http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/index.html"
Thanks for providing the link.
You see them a lot around here--very small southern town. In cities, I think they get to the point they can't drive and are afraid to walk down the streets, so they huddle in their homes or go to the nursing homes.
vaudine
Okay, we both stated our cases--neither is going to budge. I connected the dots from the man's quotes and statements of goals by organizations of which he is a member, and the perversion of
hospices presently in the news. If you choose to see him with wings, and I see horns and a forked tail, so be it.
vaudine
It does appear that most states need to relook at this whole end of life issue, from living wills to hospice care, to the use of opiates, the powers of guardianship, and other related issues. Thanks again.
Troup
Judge Donald W. Boyd
Troup County
900 Dallis Street
LaGrange, GA 30240
PHONE: 706-883-1690
FAX: 706-812-7933
Isnt this the Judge that Ruled in this case?
http://www.georgiacourts.org/councils/probate/judges_county.asp
I stated no case, just posed some questions to you that you felt you couldn't answer. The answers would of course, help to clear the air. I don't know if he has wings or horns.
After all, it was you who posted to me, not the other way around.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.