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***
Do what? I'm sorry-- I certainly wasn't being smart-- not at all..
In fact- I think it was somehting about your youngest child's age that gave me the impresion that you were younger... I honestly wasn't being smart at all...
forgive me if I sounded like I was...
OMG!
Last time I did a google on Mae Magouirk, I got 37 results and a couple of news stories.
I just did another google and got 462 results and a whole page of news links.
"Empire Journal" has picked up the story. "Outside the Beltway" has it (the author didn't have much nice to say about Mae's supporters, but most of the people who posted comments about the article disagreed with the author). A news site in Canada covered the story too.
I kept clicking to see if the 462 results I got were really about Mae, and they were (with the exception of about half a dozen).
Go to google and type this:
"Mae Magouirk" Georgia
Check out all the results, then go up to the top and click on "news" to see all the news stories. None of the mainstream media has picked it up yet, but if word keeps spreading the way it has, they are going to look really stupid for ignoring this.
(((((((Jim Robinson eeevil judgemc Fred)))))))
THIS IS GREAT!
Good job!
Ummm! I thought I said I was rolling on the floor laughing. I was just joking around.
My friends have kids starting high school! I was the oldest person in my fist time parent lamaz class. That was wierd. Miranda is my only child. She was a suprise.
NOnonono! I meant why do you blog? I'm sorry I should have been more specific.
Excellent! Shine a light into the dark places and see the truth.
LOL!!
It's a LOVEFEST!!
Where is the Captain and Isaac.. oh no- that's the LOVE BOAT!
Kids are such a GIFT!
I love the mental image of you playing with yours that you paint..
NICE
WOW-- it is so nice for us all to hang out without stress for once...
In the future, hopefully, people are not going to risk being exposed for trying to kill a family member as happened to Terri. They will back off. IN this way, Terri's death will not have been in vain.
I'm going through my second childhood right now.
My living room looks like a toys r us exploded in it. I have bought Miranda every My Little Pony I can find because I love playing with them still.
The weather was so beautiful we planted this years victims ... I mean plants in the yard when I got home.
Most of the time she's covered in dirt, her hair is half in and half out of her ponytail, and her clothes are a mess, but she's smiling and laughing and that's the best thing of all.
How can you laugh if your too busy trying to be clean?
I started it as just practice in writing.
I grew up wanting to be a writer.. I had things published (editorials) in the Marietta Daily Journal when I was in high school....
My parents split and I had to move my senior year with a dad that is as backwoods and backwards as they get-- College isn't for girls... My plans for school here in GA were smashed-- buit I went anyway up in PA.
He kicked me out of the house half way through my first semester-- then I was so mad at my parents for destroying my plans- I became self destructive.... not good...
I found myself a single mother of 3, (husband is a dead beat) Then I worked myself through school- (Student of the Year BTW!) by scrubbing toilets and mowing lawns for anyone who would let me. Right before I finished school- a friend asked me to be his campaign manager. In school- My PASSION for writing was reawoken..
So, it had been almost 20 years since I had written. Politics and writing were my passions now- so I started just writing. At first it was just to practice. Just to discipline myself to write somehting everyday... then I got involved with Terri- and I went from politics to Activist.....
All my political ties have helped- the experience, etc..
I love blogging because I love helping people-- I LOVE PEOPLE! I love writing. I love research. I love investigating. I love trying to right injustices.
It is just the way God created me-- these are my passions- and I am finally using them for something.....
I am blessed.
OH MY GOSH!!
Yes my kids are a wreck! LOL!!
I let them wear costumes and dress up clothes to church-- it is hilarious-- then at home they are a mess! they have pet slugs and catepillars-- My house is a DISASTER!
They are great!
Thanks for sharing so much with us...
LOL!!!
IT IS AN AWESOME DAY!!!
AMEN!
I like debating. (just in case you didn't notice. lol)
I love taking a problem and working it from every angle possible. That doesn't make me a very good activist, but I work excellent in think tanks.
Because I can see things from many angles law was a natural fit. I have a head for minutia.
Since we are sharing: I ran away at 16 because I was smater than my parents (cough). I ended up in South Carolina taking care of my grandma. Everybody else was to busy.
I'd work and take one class at a time. I met a great guy, we got married, bought the house, got the promotions. you know all the stuff your supposed to do when you get married.
Do you want to hear the rest? It's sad. and I don't want to monopolize the board.
sure! Go ahead-- share... This is nice...
We tried to have a child. Just one. We knew that would be all we could handle.
2 misscarriages later I sitting in a doctors office wondering what's wrong with me. It turned out I had a 12 lb. ovarian cyst that had invaded my instestins so it could not be picked up in ultrasound. The docs removed my cyst, a whole ovary, a half ovary, and a fallopian tube. They said no to get my hopes up.
Six months later I was pregnant. At 25 weeks something went wrong. Cassie wieghed one pound 2 ounces. She died before they could get her out of me.
Again, don't get your hopes up. One year later I was pregnant again. Miranda weighed 2 bls. 4 ounces. She came out screaming. That's unheard of for a 29 weeker. She breathed on her own from the begining. She spent three months in the hospital. One month after her birth I had her moved to a hospital closer to home because my grandmother was in it. I toof care of both of them at the same time. My hubby took care of me.
This was when I got the brilliant idea do go back to school for a medical degree and to finish my JD. Med school and law school at the same time.
I tell people its because I don't want to chase the ambulance.
WOW!
How incredibly painful for you, and yet Miranda is just so much more special now..
You have a great husband too..
I am impressed. YOu must be quite the acheiver!
Thanks for sharing that.....
Thanks so much...
Thank you. I just do the best I can.
But look at you. you overcame so many odds to do what you loved and you didn't have the support network I did. I don't know if I could do the things I do with out my family.
How did you keep going? It must have been so hard. And you didn't have the resources available to us pampered young women. lol
LOL!!
Honestly, I have a great support system. God, and my church family...
It is lonely.... sometimes it bugs me-- but then when I decide on Thursday that I am driving to Florida for the weekend, have no idea where I am going to stay-- rush to get soemone for keep the kids, etc-- I think- LOL!! Good thing I am not married-- who would put up with this?
And I would hate note being able to move or act when I feel called to...
Then the next weekend I went again- and this time stayed with another blogger-- LOL! only knew her via internet... a man in my life would have "WORRIED" himself and ME too death.. Maybe I am a little too independent for a man-- He would have to be a STRONG man to put up with me!
I have overcome things- but I have not had to experience the loss of a child-- I am NOT THAT STRONG!
I am very blessed...
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