Meanwhile, the North Country Gazette is coming up with more and more.
In February 1990, Terri Schiavo collapsed from causes that are still unknown 15 years after the fact.
What is known is her oxygen was cut off long enough to leave her severely brain damaged, she had no living will or written directive, and she lived with a feeding tube for 15 years before the Greer Court ordered her execution.
How appropriate that Florida's Sixth Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer was right in the middle of attorneys for alleged pedophiles and murderers this week when he appeared as a panelist at a two-day workshop in Reno, Nevada hosted by the National Center for Courts and Media whose topic was the judiciary's blackout of public information in high profile cases.
8mm
Gotta admit I didn't (want to) watch it.
8mm
October 11, 2005
Infant off ventilator breathing on his own
By Kevin Corcoran
kevin.corcoran@indystar.com
A 5-month-old boy removed from life support under a judge's order was breathing on his own Monday, but there's still little hope of recovery.
"He's breathing like a champ," said Marion Superior Court Judge Marilyn A. Moores, who issued the order ending life support at the request of Indiana's Department of Child Services.
Officials in the department's Marion County office on Friday sought Hamad Elijah Sanda's removal from a ventilator. The agency had taken custody of the baby Sept. 26, four days after he was brought to Methodist Hospital's emergency room with a fractured skull and severe, irreversible brain injuries.
Police still were investigating Monday and had not yet delivered their report to the Marion County prosecutor's office, said Roger Rayl, a spokesman for Prosecutor Carl Brizzi.
The next move could be up to hospital officials. A spokesman for Clarian Health Partners, which runs the hospital, declined to talk about the boy's condition.
Moores has issued a "do-not-resuscitate" order that takes effect if Hamad stops breathing. But the hospital must continue to provide the boy with artificial food and hydration through a tube unless caseworkers go back to court.
The boy's mother, Tiwanna Sanda, appeared in Marion Superior Court's Juvenile Division on Friday to object to the removal of life support. Sanda, 30, who is pregnant with another child, declined comment after the judge's ruling and could not be reached Monday.
Sanda took her son to the emergency room but did not offer any explanation for his injuries, investigators have said. She showed up there more than two hours after calling a nursing hotline to say her son had been injured, Moores said.
Much of Hamad's irreversible brain damage appears to have resulted from a delay in seeking medical attention, she said Monday after conferring with hospital personnel.
Dr. David Westenkirchner, director of the pediatric critical care unit at Methodist, testified Friday that no one knows how long the boy can survive off of the ventilator.
In her ruling, Moores wrote that the medical experts had assured her that "he will never be able to eat by mouth. . . . He would likely be blind and deaf. He will never sit, stand, roll over, crawl, talk, smile, laugh or in any way interact meaningfully with his environment."
Court records show Sanda was convicted in 2003 of battery in connection with an assault on another of her children. Sanda has a history with Child Protection Services, and three of her children are living with relatives in another county.
The boy's father, Hamadou Sanda, was said to be out of state seeking work, according to court documents. He could not be reached to participate in Friday's hearing.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051011/NEWS01/510110461/1006/NEWS01
Prayers for Hamad!