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***
You did great catching this when you did....I'd sure want you on my side in a troubling time.
Who knows how this would have turned out if not brought to the public's attention.
WE ALL DID THIS!!
IT WAS A TEAM!!
I would want ALL of YOU on MY SIDE AS WELL!
WOW, awesome news! Let us know what happend and how she was taken out of the hopsice and who made it possible! Thank God!
I don't know that "we" need to know all of the details here. After all, there is private medical and family information to consider. If the information here is correct, Mrs. Magouirk is being moved to a hospital where she will be cared for. I would think that she is entitled to some privacy.
LIFE is exciting. I would hope that, as a judge, you haven't become too jaded to appreciate that. I DO NOT mean that as an insult. Judges deal with the tragedies of life on a regular basis. It would be easy to become disillusioned.
*bump*
Thank you. Prayers for her and family, for healing, and for an abundant measure of faith.
I think waht Sally meant- was knowing how the LAWS, etc- were able to let this situation occur.
We only got involved because a FAMILY member AKSED us to.
We ar not out looking for family tragedies to publicize.
We are not the media searching for the train wreck in order to get ratings.
We are just activists fighting for LIFE-- ASK US- AND WE WILL FIGHT!
Sorry to offend. I will henceforth speak only for myself. Rephrasing, *I* need to know the details. Of course I'm not referring to strictly private family matters. I mean the procedural and legal things. Aren't you intereted in whether the law was violated at different junctures? Aren't you interested in how Mae was admitted to a hospice without proper orders? Etc. etc. etc.
I bet Mae revisits her Last Will and Testament ;-) I know I would.
MAE IS SAFE! MAE IS AT UAB! OUT OF HOSPICE!!
Kenneth called me and told me the news- but I want to share this email with you all!!
THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF THE FRIENDS OF TERRI, MY AUNT MAE MAGOUIRK HAS BEEN AIR LIFTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM MEDICAL CENTER
... and receiving IV fluids, nourishment and some of the finest medical care available in the United States!
Praise be the name of the Lord GOD...
Thanks to Terri's friends...
It would NEVER ever have been possible without bloggers who love life , and the truth!!
I am racing from my home to UAB now and will type a detailed update after I see my Aunt Mae!
Thanks guys, your calls, emails, blogs and prayers did it ALL!!!
I so love you guys!!!!!!!!!!
Ken Mullinax, nephew of Mae
IT IS NOT OVER YET - THE OPPOSITION IS STILL TRYING TO GET HER BACK TO THE HOSPICE - SO KEEP FIGHTING BLOGGERS!
Florida set the standard. Hope they are proud. Mae's grandaughter stated how many people feel, and try to force the law to follow suit:
""Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus," Gaddy told Magouirk's brother and nephew, McLeod and Ken Mullinax. "She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who would want to live with disabilities like these?"
Is this still the action thread or the debate thread? Just wondering if I should post contact info. here and on the research thread or just the research thread?
Huh, hoooo YEAH!!! Leave whatever she has to the nephew!! Geez he must be a great guy. I only wish I could have done the same for my uncle in time.
I did not find out until he was gone, that the hospital refused to treat him.
However, he said: "If it should transpire that food and fluids were withdrawn in good faith and in the not unreasonable belief that it was in their best interests as the lesser of two evils, committing them to die in as much comfort and dignity as possible. . . it would be grossly unfair to record a verdict other than that of death by natural causes."
legalese for "giant loophole?"
so as long as you kill then in "good faith" - it's acceptable?
Lord, save us from the legalese parsing of lawyers and judges - It "IS" murder
Procedures & legal matters, sure. I'm just concerned that people will be invading other's privacy.
It's not so much that you become jaded, but you realize after hearing the same arguments over and over, like you guys were hear, that the biggest problems are that teh two sides were not addressing the needs of the others. The grandaughter obviousley cares for teh grandmother or she would not of taken on the enourmous burden of caring for her. And I speak from personal experience with that. She probably thought that she was doing the right thing. "Let grandma go to Jesus." it's that what she said. Does that sound like an evil person? While you guys were trying to tell me Georgia law I was researching arotic dissections. The mortality rate for a woman of the grandmothers age is very, very high. Especially if there are other complications. That was what this young woman was hearing. Don't demonizer her for wanting to let her grandmother go. In her mind from teh information the doctors gave her. Her grandmother has a terminal condition in the grandaughters mind.
That brings me to the rest of the family. It is HIGHLY unusual for the family member who makes the medical decisions to not live in the same area as the person. I am going to hazzard a guess and say that they were problably not listed in the contact information the hospital had, or if the situation was critical, which at the moment of the dissection it would have been, where time was of the essence the hosptial will defer to the wishes of the family member that they have availble. Which is not against the law. Hospitals have that authority. All the regulations and codes that you have been so diligently posting only apply in emergency situations where the family is there.
Now afterwards, is a different story. Once the patient is stable in order for the other family members to assert thier rights they have to go to court and ask for them. Which is exactly what happened. and After readig the psot by the nephew, I would go back to my original premise that at some point before this incident the grandaughter had an ajudication in her favor or the nephew would not have said that he wanted her to turn legal authority over to him.
You are one heck of a great lady. God will bless you for all you have done. All I can do is send emails and make phone calls. You are out there gettin it done. You and Floriduh voter and all the others who are physically there are friends I am proud to know.
AMEN TO THAT!
LOL!!
I don't know what it turned into!
But right now-- I claim it to be a CELEBRATION THREAD!
WOOOOOO! HOOOOO!!!
we can get back to debating after a little snoopy dancing!
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