It's Happening Again (We've Got Another Schiavo, Starving In GA, No Brain-Damage)

Media Release | 4-6-05 | The Family of Mae Magouirk

[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***

[Sun]

"However, if mailing, mail direct to your senator in your state - not DC, as the mail getting to them there, because of the continued screening (anthrax) takes up to 2 months (!) to get through. Also, they pay more attention getting mail at their home office, they know it's from the people that vote for them."

Thanks for the tip. I'll add this to my current contact info the next time I post it.

[Smartaleck]

"Kenneth Says This Story Gets the FACTS Right."
(The story appeared briefly in the Lagranenews.com...only available to suscribers now. http://straightupwsherri.blogspot.com/ scroll down to Kenneth says...)

"He wants a temporary feeding tube inserted until she can be evaluated for treatment at the University of Alabama Medical Center."

For all the phone calls...consider.

“We¹re taking the posture of refusing to deal with those people because they¹re not representing the responsible parties,” said West Georgia Health System President Jerry Fulks. “We¹re focusing on taking care of the patient and her family.”

"Mullinax said his aunt does not have a terminal condition, which is a requirement for admission to hospice."

"Boyd said Gaddy testified at the hearing that she feeds her grandmother Jello, chips of ice and “anything else she'd be willing to eat.”"

"Danny Daniel of LaGrange, the attorney for Gaddy and another grandchild, said doctors made the decision to admit Magourik into hospice."

Gaddy has been taking care of her grandmother for 10 years, he said.

“They¹re following the doctors¹ recommendations and they want to do what¹s in the best interests of their grandmother,” Daniel said, adding that hospice is providing “excellent care” for Magourik, a widow with no children.

[Wampus SC]

Threads about involuntary euthanasia attract more than their share of trolls who push killing. Narcissism is a very good explanation for their behavior. Points 2 & 3 could easily explain their attraction to the idea of punishing the less than perfect with death.

As a veteran of the troll wars over Terri Schiavo, I can tell you that it isn't the specifics of a case that draws them to these threads. It's the killing, and the manner in which death is brought about. 'Nuff said.

[ClancyJ]

Probably very true - about the killing and how done.

We have a major battle on our hands and none of us even thought about this a few months ago.

Amazing. Bless Terri's heart - if nothing else, she at least opened the eyes of some in this country.

[olliecollie]

Cool, visited your blog site.

[Republic]

I followed the link to glennbeck.com and clicked on the tiny CD emblem by the hear KEN speak with Glenn in interview regarding his Aunt Mae.

MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have all of you heard this interview...............it not only blew Glenn out of the water and into the twilight zone....it surely must be sending everyone who hears it out into stratosphere of the surreal!

Just go LISTEN.

When you here what Gaddy did the MORNING Ken was at the hospice waiting to meet with the attorney.........your hair will stand on end.

There is something very evil going on with the Hopsice association...an attraction to death that seems to flood over the old, the NON TERMINALLY ILL but disabled and imo...that is called...EUTHANASIA.

[olliecollie]

I followed the link,and listened, It is hard to grasp that this is happening, even though it is. As Ken said in the interview, he listened to the news the week before about Terri as a bystander, and the next week it was happening to him.
Reminds me of a documentary I saw a few weeks back about Bosnia, Croatia, Herzo(sp?) They interviewed these women who had been held prisoners of the opposition. they had been tortured and raped, The most revealing statement I heard was by one of these women , who said that their captors/guards/ tor tourers where there neighbours, they knew them , they had been coworkers with them. And they said over and over again how could this happen in our day and age?

[maine-iac7]

but science/math can confuse/confound my brain, which is more of a analytical/writing brain....and, therefore, when I get confounded by math processes, I forget these kinds of things. : )

LOL

I hear that! I'm an artist/writer and we get all tangled up with math, numbers - we would never make good bookkeepers - can hardly spell the word!

But here's a good link to a MIT study. It's a good place to start and has lot's of great colored charts on the dispensation/lineage of "all our family" :)

http://tedlab.mit.edu/~dr/Papers/Rohde-MRCA-two.pdf

But I did have the advantage of generations of our family charts and then an aunt who took over and became a well known genealogist/historian. I worked with her on our family charts for 30 years - we have many lines back more than 1600 yrs +. She was the "facts: vital stats" person. I leaned more towards: "What did they do/think/believe,etc." so we made a good team. She died before the birth of the Internet. I often think about how she would've been ecstatic to be able to go online and be able to get a years worth of research done in one session!

One also learns a lot of history when delving back thru' the generations. You also find that your talents/leanings/likes/dislikes also are passed on genetically as well as eye/hair color, etc. (For example, I have many writers/artists/political activists in my lines. (One wrote a book nearly 400 years ago that is in print today. His mentor had a price on his head (England) for writing and printing - in a clandestine shop - tracts against the Church of England. the crown had Pinkerton detectives on his trail for years. He was eventually smuggled aboard a now famous ship and was the spiritual leader of his village until his death just a few weeks shy of 80 - almost 400 years ago. - So, you see, I come by my 'rabble rousing' honestly!)

Genealogy is fascinating - and gives you, not so much pride, as a feeling of obligation to these ancestors for what they endured and accomplished. You feel like you can't drop the ball, as it were. The biggest problem with genealogy is - it's extremely addictive :o)

[maine-iac7]

It seems to me - and could be totally wrong - that the judge gave the granddaughter TEMP guardianship over Mae with the stipulation that 3 doctors evaluate if she needed hospital treatment that is not available at a hospice - and the family would abide the decision of the majority of the doctors. BUT included in his order was that the doctors were to make this determination within 24 hours! (that was Monday. He also stipulated that she WAS to get food and water in the interim. GOOD. BUT, she still needed hospital care for the heart condition - which was urgent and which needed to be done at a HOSPITOL.

Was not the foot-dragging of the doctors, wasting critical days - day after day - why the nephew was in a panic? And was not this rightly so? Didn't he wait until Weds. before hitting the panic button? And wouldn't that be totally reasonable?

So, she may have been put back on food and water, per the judges order - but that was only part of the treatment she needed...and a hospice is not equipped for that. They are for the terminally ill - and extra measures are not taken. they are there to be be made comfortable while they live out, naturally, the short remainder of their lives.

Where the hospice may well be in trouble is that they accepted Mae as a patient - as 'terminal' on the say so of the granddaughter's claim that she had medical POA - and they did not verify.

With the other doctors looking at her and determining she needed to be in a hospital for treatment of her heart condition - that would seem to be tacit proof that she WAS NOT terminal. (Altho' she well could've died what with having her treatment delayed!)

[Sally]

"Where the hospice may well be in trouble is that they accepted Mae as a patient - as 'terminal' on the say so of the granddaughter's claim that she had medical POA - and they did not verify."

BINGO.

I think the hospice got caught with pants down around the ankles. That's part (but not all) of the store here, which must be followed through. I believe this has been posted before but it's worth repeating:

[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." 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.

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 hospice. [END SNIP]

Read entire article here:
http://www.hospicepatients.org/terri-schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html

[maine-iac7]

I had contacted the editor of the LaGrange paper the first day and gave them a heads up on the story, giving them my personal info as a writer/columnist for them to check out that I am with the press. My figuring was that a local newspaper story would bear credence - that they would be able to reach the participants, etc. and that they would not want to be caught with their pants down concerning a story that might break into national news at any moment.

I know how the press works - and that they would likely not want to print anything without thoroughly checking the facts - since they have to live with the result in their own town.

The very next morning, after my contact, they had it as their front page story - and a good, balanced one.

I don't know if if it was my contact that triggered them to get on it or not. But, bottom line, we then had a solid source to refer too.

I have saved the story complete - but hesitate to print it as I don't want to infringe on copyright law. But I could freep it...?

[nicmarlo]

I've done some geneology research, myself. I'm at a dead end, as far as verifying the information I have. I will probably have to travel to Pennsylvania and see if I can gather documented/written information concerning my family in that state...it's been quite a fun project. Yes, it's also been a great learning of history education, as well.

[maine-iac7]

I followed the link to glennbeck.com and clicked on the tiny CD emblem by the hear KEN speak with Glenn in interview regarding his Aunt Mae.

Can't find it...Do you have to register - and how much$

[maine-iac7]

I've done some geneology research, myself. I'm at a dead end, as far as verifying the information I have. I will probably have to travel to Pennsylvania and see if I can gather documented/written information concerning my family in that state...it's been quite a fun project. Yes, it's also been a great learning of history education, as well

Have you tried the Online genealogy site of the LDS Church (Mormons?) It's free and they have been gathering vitals stats. world wide for 50 years. They have the largest genealogical records in the world.

Also, Most LDS churches have a "reading library' where you research ancestors - or areas, countries, etc. and request the CD files which will be mailed to the library for your use, free, for 2 weeks or more.

(The story of how they built the vaults in the Utah mountains for storage of all these records is fascinating.)

http://www.familysearch.org/

(I've often thought it would be fun to have a "Genealogy" category on FR.)

[lil'bit]

I'm just guessing that your genealogy research is in the Northern States / Maine area?

[maine-iac7]

Good Guess ;O)

[Smartaleck]

"There is something very evil going on with the Hopsice association"

Is it really fair to judge them after only hearing one side of the story? ... something about a presumption of innocence?

Something in the story doesn't smell right. Ken appears to be a Democrat operative and an administrator for one of the cities. How come he went to the internet rather than the MSM?

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Thank you thank you thank you for your work. Auntie Mae is safe! The Holy Name of God be praised!!!

Good news bump!!!

[Smartaleck]

"BUT included in his order was that the doctors were to make this determination within 24 hours"

Hadn't seen that. There was one comment that said the judge was in chambers when the doctors and family worked out a plan of action. He apparently had no one objecting and went with it.

[Smartaleck]

"I have saved the story complete - but hesitate to print it as I don't want to infringe on copyright law."

I read it on a blogger site. Seemed balanced and I had the same concerns you do bringing it here.

It'll be interesting to see if they do a follow-up.