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***
She's old and has medical problems. Who would want to live like that? /sarcasm (it's sarcasm to me anyway)
We are in what is necessarily a decades-long fight to reclaim our courts and the fundamental constitutional principles that make America America.
This battle is not optional, if we truly care whether our children and grandchildren will still have a free republic to live in.
The other alternative, doing nothing, can only lead to darkness, bloodshed and incalculable grief.
Have you ever signed up for one of his list server mailings?
It is absolutely amazing.
You get the mailings form a Soro's mail source first, read it...
Then all the talking talking points in them are absolutely mimicked by MSM, sudden self appointed 'experts', MoveOn mailings, NEA, etc.
It is like a flock of migrating birds. One turns, they are follow in formation.
Are hospices turning into euthanasia centers?
In one word, "yes."
No, I haven't. How do you do that?
FYI:
http://www.nhpco.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3899&openpage=3899
NCHPP Awards of Excellence for Education honor outstanding programs that are innovative and serve as models for other organizations. 2003 recipients:
Program Designed for Hospice/Palliative Care Staff and/or Volunteers:
Care Giving at the End of Life, West Georgia Hospice/Hospice LaGrange Team, LaGrange, GA.
NHPCO BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2005
National Director, Treasurer
Mary Labyak
The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast
Largo, FL
I'll freepmail you what I do. I don't want my nosiness to be shut down.
okie dokie : )
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.
There is no "death FReeper crowd". There is only some dissent and call for careful proof of facts that was missing in the Schiavo case. There is a deperate need for a rational, factual debate about medical end-of-life issues and medical ethics in this country. But there are many who don't care about the facts, don't care what unfounded allegations get passed around as fact, and don't really want to engage in debate that would help us figure out exactly when and how medicine should give up hope in hard cases.
Many people left the forum because of this debate, not because they want to see people die, but because they were called shrill names for wanting reasoned and rational debate about issues.
News and Information Concerning the Euthanasia Debate,
Hospice And Efforts to Stop Involuntary Euthanasia (Medical Killing)
Yes, killing the patient does save money for the HMO, the hospice, and the government. Hospice care is less expensive than acute care services in a hospital. Real hospice care is humane. Killing the patient involuntarily is monstrous, but any form of euthanasia saves money as then Attorney General Lungren noted. Does this have any significance regarding widely reported inaction on the part of governments in prosecuting many medical killings which occur in hospices?
Was your loved one killed, against his or her will, through the use of narcotics and sedatives? Do you know of cases where chronically ill patients were shunted into hospices to be done away with? Was your loved one medically killed in a hospice? Write to Hospice Patients Alliance with a brief summary of the facts involved. Let us know if you are willing to work together to stop illegal medical killings of patients. Thanks!
Dear Patient advocates and families of victims:If you wish to make a difference and stop hospice killings, print the information below out (both the coupon and the instructions below the coupon) and place it as a display ad in your local "Pennysaver" type newspaper. Hospice Patients Alliance will collect the coupons and send them in to the Congressmen as well. HPA is working to get Congressional hearings into the mis-use of hospice for killings of patients.
This is a very real way to get a grassroots movement going to stop the killings! By working at the local level, we can let the people know how to stop the killings! Let hospice be what it once was: compassionate care for the dying as long as they live, without any hastening of their death. Help now! Copy this page and mail it to everyone you know! Or let them know to visit this page at: Coupon-to-Stop-Hospice-Killings! The killings must stop!
That hospice will be lucky if they don't get sued from here to the moon for medical malpractice. How on earth could they confuse a durable financial power of attorney with a health care power of attorney?
Yikes!
OTOH, I've got a finanancial power of attorney and a health care power of attorney for an elderly client, and the ONLY institutions that ask to see it are banks. Everybody else just takes my word for it.
Double yikes!
I suppose the judge thought a person asking for nourishment after being denied it for two weeks was just an "involuntary reflex".
Much appreciated if you are able to do it. :)
Why, exactly?
Killing the disabled is far more common than most of us even thought, and we are more aware than most.
youre exactly right
Read later.
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