Posted on 04/07/2005 5:34:06 PM PDT by News Hunter
Edited on 04/07/2005 5:39:05 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
In a situation recalling the recent death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo in Florida, an 81-year-old widow, denied nourishment and fluids for nearly two weeks, is clinging to life in a hospice in LaGrange, Ga., while her immediate family fights desperately to save her life before she dies of starvation and dehydration.
Mae Magouirk was neither terminally ill, comatose nor in a "vegetative state," when Hospice-LaGrange accepted her as a patient about two weeks ago upon the request of her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, 36, an elementary school teacher.Also upon Gaddy's request and without prior legal authority, since March 28 Hospice-LaGrange has denied Magouirk normal nourishment or fluids via a feeding tube through her nose or fluids via an IV. She has been kept sedated with morphine and ativan, a powerful tranquillizer.
Her nephew, Ken Mullinax, told WorldNetDaily that although Magouirk is given morphine and ativan, she has not received any medication to keep her eyes lubricated during her forced dehydration.
"They haven't given her anything like that for two weeks," said Mullinax. "She can't produce tears."
The dehydration is being done in defiance of Magouirk's specific wishes, which she set down in a "living will," and without agreement of her closest living next-of-kin, two siblings and a nephew: A. Byron McLeod, 64, of Anniston, Ga.; Ruth Mullinax, 74, of Birmingham, Ala.; and Ruth Mullinax's son, Ken Mullinax.
Magouirk's husband and only child, a son, are both deceased.
In her living will, Magouirk stated that fluids and nourishment were to be withheld only if she were either comatose or "vegetative," and she is neither. Nor is she terminally ill, which is generally a requirement for admission to a hospice.
Magouirk lives alone in LaGrange, though because of glaucoma she relied on her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, to bring her food and do errands.
Two weeks ago, Magouirk's aorta had a dissection, and she was hospitalized in the local LaGrange Hospital. Her aortic problem was determined to be severe, and she was admitted to the intensive care unit. At the time of her admission she was lucid and had never been diagnosed with dementia.
Claiming that she held Magouirk's power of attorney, Gaddy had her transferred to Hospice-LaGrange, a 16-bed unit owned by the same family that owns the hospital. Once at the hospice, Gaddy stated that she did not want her grandmother fed or given water.
"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?"
Gaddy's telephone is not in operation and she could not be reached for comment.
According to Mullinax, his aunt's local cardiologist in LaGrange, Dr. James Brennan, and Dr. Raed Agel, a highly acclaimed cardiologist at the nationally renowned University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center, determined that her aortic dissection is contained and not life-threatening at the moment.
Mullinax also states that Gaddy did not hold power of attorney, a fact he learned from the hospice's in-house legal counsel, Carol Todd.
On March 31, Todd told Ruth and Ken Mullinax during a phone conversation Georgia law stipulated that Ruth Mullinax and her brother, A.B. McLeod, were entitled to make any and all decisions for Magouirk. Ruth Mullinax immediately told Todd to begin administering food and fluids through an IV and a nasal feeding tube.
Todd had the IV fluids started that evening, but informed the family that they would have to come to the hospice to sign papers to have the feeding tube inserted. Once that was done, Magouirk would not be able to stay at the hospice.
Ken Mullinax recalled that Todd said the only reason Magouirk was in the hospice in the first place was that the LaGrange Hospital had failed to exercise due diligence in closely examining the power of attorney Beth Gaddy said she had, as well as exercising the provisions of Magouirk's living will.
Todd explained that Gaddy had only a financial power of attorney, not a medical power of attorney, and Magouirk's living will carefully provided that a feeding tube and fluids should only be discontinued if she was comatose or in a "vegetative state" – and she was neither.
Gaddy, however, was not dissuaded. When Ken Mullinax and McLeod showed up at the hospice the following day, April 1, to meet with Todd and arrange emergency air transport for Magouirk's transfer to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center, Hospice-LaGrange stalled them while Gaddy went before Troup County, Ga., Probate Court Judge Donald W. Boyd and obtained an emergency guardianship over her grandmother.
Under the terms of his ruling, Gaddy was granted full and absolute authority over Magouirk, at least for the weekend. She took advantage of her judge-granted power by ordering her grandmother's feeding tube pulled out, just hours after it had been inserted.
Florida law requires that a hearing for an emergency guardianship must be held within three days of its request, and Magouirk's hearing was held April 4 before Judge Boyd. Apparently, he has not made a final ruling, but favors giving permanent guardianship power to Gaddy, who is anxious to end her grandmother's life.
Ron Panzer, president and founder of Hospice Patients Alliance, a patients' rights advocacy group based in Michigan, told WND that what is happening to Magouirk is not at all unusual.
"This is happening in hospices all over the country," he said. "Patients who are not dying – are not terminal – are admitted [to hospice] and the hospice will say they are terminally ill even if they're not. There are thousands of cases like this. Patients are given morphine and ativan to sedate them. If feeding is withheld, they die within 10 days to two weeks. It's really just a form of euthanasia."
Ken Mullinax does not want that to happen to his aunt. He pointed out that one of the ironies in this tragedy is that the now-helpless woman worked for years as a secretary for a prominent local cancer doctor.
"She devoted her whole life to helping those who heal others, and now she's being denied sustenance for life," he said.
Mullinax said he has begged Gaddy to let him take on full responsibility for his aunt's care.
"If she would just give us a chance to keep Aunt Mae alive, that's all we ask," he said. "They [Beth and her husband, Dennis Gaddy] have a family and Beth is a teacher, and it was just getting to be a lot of trouble. But I'm the caregiver for my mom, and Aunt Mae could move in with us. We'll buy another house with a bedroom and we'll take care of her. She can move in with us once she can leave the hospital."
But her health becomes more precarious by the hour. Her vital signs are still good, but since admission to hospice she has not been lucid – "but who would be since nourishment and fluids have been denied since March 28," Mullinax remarked.
Attorney Carol Todd could not be reached for comment; a message on her voicemail said she would not be gone the entire week of April 4. Hospice-LaGrange did not return phone calls.
Remember ~ God is in control.
Arioch7 out.
I doubt all the hyperbole made any difference, this was probably in the works all week and Mullinax knew it. Ken Mullinax got his 15 minutes, now he better learn to change a bedpan.
Looks like the court order was adhered to and the granddaughter said "fine if you want to take care of her go for it". Who would blame her after watching the Schiavo debacle. Off to Alabama Grandma goes, everybody is happy except for Grandma, she probably wanted to die.
Don't worry, toots. No, my friend isn't part of the problem. Yes, she 'reported' this and is now suffering the consequences. The family had their ducks in a row and got away with murder.
ping
LOL!
"Let's just wait and see the other side of it, if there is another side."
Wait for the other side? After the woman, with a living will, non-terminal, non-vegitative has food held for two weeks, then reinserted because of POA not in granddaughters hands, judge rules temporaily POA over weekend, allows tube to be reyanked until final ruling.
My God! If this isn't a case that deserves a temporary reprieve until all is investigated then I don't know what the F@$K is. And if my instincts are right, and I looked through all your Schiavo postings, I'm sure I'd find you arguing all about a lack of a living will, Michael had guardianship/POA which the granddaughter in this case didn't have but the hospice accepted it anyway. Hell, this poor woman doesn't even match the criteria to be in the hospice anyways.
Find your soul before it's too late. And that goes for sinkspur and dog gone too!
I thounght she had a living will. What makes you think she wanted to die?
You find that post amusing?
Yo, homey, she had a living will that said otherwise. What would you say if you had a gun legally, it was then taken away with the comment, "You would have wanted it taken away anyways."? In this case you had a constitutional right acting as a living will/POA.
If I may I'll jump to my safer, life-affirming conclusion: the granddaughter got sick of the old lady and needed more time to herself. And who knows what kinda monetary flow is hanging in the balance. I don't know but heck I'll jump to conclusions that have some common sense angles vs. a hospice director saying she was getting great care when she was being starved from the get go.
Seems to me the states have had a week or so to fix the problem, and that's time enough.
Laughable....as in 'ridiculous.'
"I thounght she had a living will. What makes you think she wanted to die?"
Such liberal rationalizing, huh? State in one case that the problem was the absence of a living will and a week later when a living will proves inadequate, change the criteria. Then read into the living will the opposite of what it states ("she probably wanted to die")
Cut out the judges and replace them with psychics I guess.
These people all have the same very long, hard to remember family names.
Yeah but once people are tired of you, it's sefish and rude to insist upon living. And don't call me pro-death, you hysterical religious wacko! (/sarcasm)
By the way Probate Judge Donald W. Boyd does not hold a law degree.
You know what the three doctors said? She may be severely brain damaged and semi-vegetative. That's common in aorta dissection cases. Maybe Kenny boy just wants to stick pins in her to see if she will snap out of it. Makes him a hero to some.
Greetings all. I wasn't going to respond to this thread as it is difficult for me to be civil while commenting on this topic as I learned in the Terri case.
judgemc, surely you can see that this type of action leads to the rebirth of eugenics? If someone wants to be killed in certain circumstances, then they should have to be the parties that provide abundant proof that thier wish was death.
If the people who are in such a state have such ambiguous wishes, they should be left to live.
I hate to bring this up but my Grandmother has Senile Dementia and my step-mother has a rare disease that is like Parkinsons disease. Some of the people on the "death" side might have good intentions but the intellectual leaders of these folks do not. Altzheimers folks should die acoording to George Soros and his ilk.
I know what the wishes of all of my family members are and I will carry them out faithfully even if I don't agree with them.
I have to break with the eugenics crowd though regarding the rule of law.
I respect the law but if some judge says my grand mom or my step-mom is going to be put to death then they will have to kill me too.
This is a non negotiable point with me. My family controls it's own affairs, not some stinking judge. No offense to them but the constitution does say Right to LIFE. So, if it is an amibiguous situation, the right to life is implied by our Constitution. I follow the Constitution, not some tinpot dictator that doesn't know his own job.
So sorry, I can not support these new developments in Eugenics. It's barbaric. Gee, I can't wait until I become an elderly gent so some Judge can kill me because I am a waste of time and cause hardship to my living children. I thought we used to respect our elders?
So I will try to hold the line until some court appointed authority comes up to check my grandmas mental health and deems her unfit to live. Oh, and you can be sure I'll cooperate, LOL!!!
Arioch7 out!
"You know what the three doctors said? She may be severely brain damaged and semi-vegetative. That's common in aorta dissection cases. Maybe Kenny boy just wants to stick pins in her to see if she will snap out of it. Makes him a hero to some."
Source please. Or is this your great Carnac impression again?
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.