Posted on 04/13/2005 7:40:32 AM PDT by amdgmary
In an intense life-and-death tug-of-war reminiscent of the Terri Schiavo case, the fate of Ora Mae Magouirk is still raging, despite the transfer Saturday of the 81-year-old widow to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center in Birmingham for treatment of an aorta dissection.
In the latest twist to the saga, Magouirk's granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, 36, of LaGrange, Ga, who is also her temporary guardian, barred immediate next-of-kin from visiting the stricken woman. No explanation was given, nor were the relatives notified.
When Magouirk's brother, A.B. McLeod, 64, of Anniston, Ala., attempted to visit Magouirk Sunday, the charge nurse said an order had been given not to allow him or his sister, Lonnie Ruth Mullinax, 74, of Birmingham, to visit their sister. The nurse refused to reveal the source of the order or even if it were written or verbal, and had McLeod escorted from the premises.
"We're just flabbergasted," McLeod told WorldNetDaily. "We don't know what to think. Why not let me see her? What's the big deal?"
McLeod spent Monday trying to determine the origin of the order "that's keeping me from seeing my sister, because I'm Mae's closest living kin – me and my sister, Lonnie Ruth." By late afternoon he was still in the dark, though he strongly suspected Gaddy was responsible. Gaddy had opposed her grandmother being moved to UAB for medical treatment and had been granted a temporary guardianship by Probate Judge Donald Boyd on April 4.
"It's got to be Beth, because she's the only one to do it," said McLeod. "We don't think that [the order] is legal in Georgia or Alabama, but right now it is a barrier. Right now it's stopping us from seeing her."
Yesterday, McLeod finally learned through his attorneys that Gaddy had indeed given verbal instructions to the staff at UAB to deny him, his sister Lonnie Ruth, or his nephew Kenneth Mullinax, 45, of Birmingham, permission to visit their sister and aunt.
Moreover, the hospital staff is forbidden to give them any information about Magouirk's condition. Even her physician, cardiologist Dr. Raed Aqel, who is also treating Ruth Mullinax's aortic dissection and is McLeod's physician as well, cannot reveal how their sister is faring since her admission to UAB.
WorldNetDaily attempted numerous times to reach Gaddy, but she changed her telephone to a non-listed number. Her attorney, Danny Daniel, told WND through his secretary that he was not prepared to comment on the case. Messages left on his voicemail were not returned.
The Birmingham News and the Atlanta Constitution reported that they too had been unsuccessful in reaching Gaddy, her brother or their lawyer.
Judge Boyd told the Birmingham News that Gaddy would be within her rights as guardian to prevent visitors from seeing Magouirk. "If she thought it would upset Mrs. Magouirk, she had every right," Boyd said.
As WND reported, Magouirk was not terminally ill, comatose, nor in a persistent vegetative state when Hospice-Lagrange accepted her as a patient upon Gaddy's request.
At a hearing held April 4, Gaddy told Judge Boyd she believed that since she held a general power of attorney for her grandmother she was entitled to make medical decisions on the older woman's behalf. When Magouirk suffered an aorta dissection in mid-March and required hospitalization, Gaddy – after eight days – ordered her grandmother transferred from the local hospital in LaGrange to the hospice.
According to documents filed with the court, Gaddy was very explicit in her reasons for wanting Magouirk placed in a hospice. In a petition objecting to Gaddy's April 1 request for full guardianship, McLeod quoted remarks Gaddy allegedly made to him and Kenneth Mullinax when Magouirk was in the intensive care unit at the hospital, before her transfer to hospice on March 22. Gaddy said, according to McLeod in his court petition:
(a) "Uncle Buddy, before you and Kenny try to get Grandmamma to UAB to get well, I want you to know that I am in charge now, it's totally up to me because I hold the medical power of attorney and Grandmamma has suffered to [sic] much and I want her to stay here in LaGrange."
(b) "I don't care if they are the best doctors in the whole world. I have prayed about this and God has told me that Grandmamma is ready to go home with Jesus and Granddaddy. Since I hold the medical power to do this, it is my decision and I want her to go to hospice. Her heart is now bad and she has glaucoma and blood clots. Grandmamma told me she wants to go home and I feel that means that she wants to die so I want her to go to Hospice. I promise y'all I won't withhold anything Grandmamma needs."
(c) "Grandmamma is ready to go to heaven and Jesus has told her this so Grandmamma will stay here at the Hospice and I will make sure she gets good heart medicine and care here and that she is given food and water."
Going home
"That was an eyeball-to-eyeball, face-to-face conversation," McLeod said. In his view, Magouirk's remark about wanting to "go home" did not signal a wish to die.
"To me, when she says she wants to go home, she wants to go to her house," he explained. "But Beth interpreted that [to mean] she wants to go home to be with Charlie – that's her husband that passed away a number of years ago."
Until her recent hospitalization, Magouirk lived on her own in the same house she and her late husband had lived in for over 50 years. Since developing glaucoma, she has had a woman come each day to do chores and drive her to appointments. Gaddy, an elementary school teacher, does not live with Magouirk but helps with shopping and running errands.
McLeod said he opposed his sister being placed in a hospice, but this was done despite his objections.
"I was definitely against that from the very beginning, because hospice was not going to do anything to keep her alive," he explained. "I made that clear to Beth, and she let me know right quick that she was in charge and she would make the decisions, and the next thing I knew [Magouirk] was in hospice."
According to Kenneth Mullinax, on March 31 during a telephone conversation a nurse at the hospice informed him that, per Gaddy's orders, Magouirk was being denied adequate hydration and nourishment in an apparent effort to hasten her death.
When he learned of this, Mullinax protested to the hospice administration. In a telephone conversation that afternoon with hospice attorney Carol Todd, he says he learned that Gaddy did not hold a medical power of attorney, and that under Georgia law Magouirk's siblings were entitled to make decisions regarding their sister's care. The mistake was originally made when she was admitted to the hospital and perpetuated during her stay at Hospice.
Ruth Mullinax told Todd she wanted her sister provided immediately with fluids through an IV and a nasal feeding tube inserted so she could receive nourishment.
Todd said that hydration through an IV could be started, but their signatures were required for a nasal feeding tube. However, if this were done Magouirk would not qualify for hospice care and could no longer be a patient at Hospice-LaGrange.
McLeod and his nephew made arrangements to have Magouirk admitted to the UAB Medical Center, and the following morning drove from Birmingham to LaGrange to sign the papers authorizing the transfer, only to find themselves stalled by personnel.
"You know, when we found out [Gaddy] didn't have medical durable power of attorney, and we found out they weren't giving my sister any nourishment or water, we went there and were going to move her because we though we could," McLeod recalled. "We thought we could. We thought that Georgia law allowed us to."
However, Gaddy and her brother, Michael Shane Magouirk, moved swiftly, and on April 1 – as McLeod and Ken Mullinax were meeting with hospice personnel – sought an emergency injunction from Troup County Probate Judge Donald Boyd blocking Magouirk's removal from the hospice.
In a handwritten petition, Gaddy stated simply she believed "irreparable harm will occur to the proposed ward [Magouirk] if she is removed from Hospice." Boyd granted the petition, and with the signed order in hand Gaddy drove to the hospice.
'She’s not leaving'
McLeod and Mullinax sensed the staff was trying to delay them, but couldn't figure out why. They learned soon enough.
"While they stalled us at Hospice, she got a court order from the LaGrange Probate Court making her temporary guardian, and all she did was hand that to the nurse at the hospice, and the nurse just handed us a copy of it and said, 'She’s not leaving,'" McLeod said.
The order gave Gaddy "authority to make all medical decisions concerning the medical care of the ward until further order of the court."
McLeod and Lonnie Ruth protested the guardianship, and at a hearing April 4 Boyd signed a second order that formalized an agreement between the two Magouirk grandchildren and their grandmother's brother and sister.
Under its terms, Gaddy would continue as Magouirk's temporary guardian, but a formal attached letter stated her powers were limited. One of the conditions of her guardianship was "To see that the ward [Magouirk] is adequately fed, clothed, sheltered and cared for, and receives all necessary medical attention, including placement in a nursing home, if appropriate."
Also, the order required evaluation of Magouirk's condition by three cardiologists, to decide whether she would benefit from treatment, and if so, where the treatment should take place. On Friday, the physicians agreed her aorta dissection was treatable and Magouirk was airlifted to UAB Saturday morning.
As soon as they learned their aunt was at the medical center, Ken Mullinax and his younger brother, Jonathan, drove to the medical center where the charge nurse informed them about the order. She demanded that they leave and had them escorted from the hospital by three armed security agents.
McLeod, himself, tried again the following day, Sunday, and like his nephews was asked to leave.
"It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my life," he said.
Ping
My hope for people who act like this to relatives during times of crisis is that they themselves die long, lingering, helpless, lonely, painful deaths some day.
Very sad situation.
**************
These poor people. How cruel to keep them from seeing their sister.
Three armed security guards at the hospital.. These laws are so good that we must enforce them with cops. Nice touch.
"My family is going through a similar situtation with my brother-in-law and his family regarding my sister, who fell down the basements steps and has been in a coma for over six months."
I would wonder what the brother-in-law is hiding. Did he give her a push down those stairs.
What a disgusting ________. You fill in the blank. I can not believe this woman. How and why would you deny close relatives the right to see their sister, etc...?
He actually drove us away about five or six years ago. We recently learned that was about the time he was fired from his job for impregnating a coworker.
His mother is the worst of all. She has been so vicious to my sisters. She helped drive my family away so she could be the center of the universe to my two nieces.
Another case of follow the money. It is just not right that her family is not allowed to see her. Seems the granddaughter has learned from Michael Schiavo. Keep your ward isolated until you can figure out a way to kill her. It makes me rejoice that judgement day is coming.
I will pray for your sister and your family. What a tragedy. It leads to speculation of what really happened to your sister since he won't let her family in. What a cruel man.
Birmingham Bump!
Makes sense to me. And Gaddy's actions fuel that kind of speculation.
Terri/Mae ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
I am so sorry to hear that things are not getting better for your sister and your family. Tears that it has gotten to this point for you personally. :-(
Another Micheal Schiavo.
The court orders her to take proper care of 'Grandmama' so she uses her power of attorney to make sure the rest of the family can't see whether it's being done or not.
Email Message From Ken Mullinax on current situation of Mae Magouirk (http://www.blogsforterri.com/)
A blogger from blogsforterri wrote the following message:
Several bloggers received an email from Ken Mullinax tonight. After receiving the email, I later had two lengthy conversations with Ken, in order to be sure that I would be posting the very latest information about the current situation and about his intentions. The following message is from the updated email that Ken sent subsequent to our last telephone conversation at 11 PM ET.
- Email received from Ken Mullinax at 11:10 PM ET
My uncle and Mother are beside themselves about not being able to see Mae. Since we were the ones that advocated for Mae's life, we are amazed that we are now shut out of her care by the very person that sought to have her have quite a different outcome by being placed in a hospice. So I called our Ga. Attorney, Jack Kirby, and asked him to approach the court and Beth's lawyer, Danny Daniel, and see what their official reasoning for Beth's position is and to offer that if they would only allow Buddy and Mom to see Mae, I would be willing be denied access to Mae, although I failed to understand why Beth would wish to do so.
On the other hand, there is Beth's compromise for visitation:
Attorney Daniels, speaking for Beth Gaddy, told our attorney, Jack Kirby yesterday that Beth would be willing to allow us access to Mae Magouirk, if and only if, "Kenny would not give another media interview or speak to another blogger or do anything, either passive or proactive, which will give information or shed public attention to the case of Mae Magouirk."
Although I originally desired to get some input and suggestions on whether or not to accept Beth's offer, I have since decided late tonight that to accept Beth's offer would hinder my ability to be an advocate for Mae's life, and so must reject any such restrictions or conditions. Since we have signed over to Beth's side of the family - all financial rights regarding Mae, we feel that having no conflicts of interest of any kind in the matter, we should be included in Mae's medical care consultations, as family. Were we the ones with the guardianship position, a position that Beth now holds by agreement but the spirit of which she has since violated, we would be including Beth as an important participant in our family decision-making process. I intend to work toward an equitable solution with these issues in mind, with the sole objective being that my Aunt Mae receive the proper medical and loving care that she deserves from ALL of her family - together.
UPDATE: I wish to remind readers that BlogsForTerri has offered Beth Gaddy an opportunity to provide her side of these matters, for posting on BlogsForTerri. This message was given to Judge Boyd twice via telephone, with Judge Boyd agreeing to delever the message to Beth Gaddy. That offer is still open, but has not been met by Beth Gaddy.
This type of thing is apparently quite common. I was unaware of it two years ago when my father died. The hospital asked us if there were any visitor restrictions, and we told them no, not realizing that this is very commonplace. Anyone who wanted to see our father while he was ill was more than welcome to visit. We wanted him to know how loved he was by not just his family, but by his friends over the years as well.
Soon after Dad passed away, we found out that the father of one of our close friend's was in the hospital and was near death as well, only in his situation, his step-mother wouldn't allow him or his brother to visit until hours before their father's death was imminent. She was afraid they would interfere with his "death process"!! (Remind anyone of George Felos speaking?) She allowed them only at the hospital and then the hospice IF they brought his grandchildren to visit, and they still weren't allowed in the room, just the grandchildren were! They weren't even having any quarrel that they knew of before his hospitalization, but it sure put ill feelings between them at that point.
I don't understand why people want to not get along at such an important time. Is it dignified to refuse someone to be with a loved one at their death? Must family members resort to begging to see their loved one? I do not recognize the world I am living in. God help us! We must turn this around!
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