Posted on 04/14/2005 3:32:36 PM PDT by FR_addict
It appears there will be a happy ending to the story of Ora Mae Magouirk, the 81-year-old Georgia widow whose family has been at loggerheads over her medical care, visitation privileges and whether she should be "allowed to die" but now is reaching agreements on key issues.
Today, attorneys on both sides agreed Magouirk's brother and sister, A.B. McLeod, 64, of Anniston, Ala., and Lonnie Ruth Mullinax, 74, of Birmingham, will be allowed to visit their sister during regular visiting hours at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center in Birmingham, where she is receiving treatment for an aortic dissection.
Moreover, Jack Kirby, attorney for McLeod and Mullinax, told WorldNetDaily that under terms of the agreement, his clients will be allowed to talk directly to Magouirk's doctors about her condition, as opposed to having such information "filtered through third parties."
As reported by WND, when Magouirk was airlifted and admitted to UAB Medical Center on Saturday, her granddaughter and legal guardian, Beth Gaddy, 36, of LaGrange, Ga., left an oral order barring Magouirk's siblings and her nephew, Ken Mullinax, 45, of Birmingham, from visiting the patient in the critical care unit.
Ruth Mullinax has been a patient at UAB for the same condition, brought on, says her son, by the stress she's suffered worrying about her sister.
Kirby said he talked to Ruth Mullinax yesterday, and "she's doing very well." He did not comment on her sister's condition.
However, relatives say it appears Magouirk is pulling through, despite her aortic dissection and the starvation and dehydration she endured from March 28 to April 6 at Hospice La-Grange, where she was placed by her granddaughter.
McLeod told WND the two women visited yesterday in Magouirk's room, and "Ora Mae recognized [Ruth Mullinax} and they laughed and chatted briefly together. etc..."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
But why isn't Gaddy in trouble for misrepresenting herself and
encroaching on the next of kins' rights?
As a practical matter, the wheels of justice turn slowly.
As a family matter, all involved may prefer to turn the other cheek and be content with limiting her participation in serious decision making, etc. Mae may love her granddaughter. I think she does. There are effective ways to manage human imperfection that are short of "throwing the book" at the offender.
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