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Posted on 01/19/2006 6:53:08 AM PST by ItsOurTimeNow
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Doctors say new tests are needed on a severely beaten 11-year-old girl, who officials said was responding to medical stimuli and breathing on her own a day after Massachusetts' highest court ruled the state had the authority to remove her from life support.
Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Social Services, which has custody of Haleigh Poutre, said doctors will perform more tests "to see what the movements mean."
She would not say how Haleigh was responding or to what tests. The girl has been in a coma for four months and thought to be in an irreversible vegetative state.
"There's a possible change in her condition," Monteiro said Wednesday. "She's having some responses."
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Haleigh's stepfather, Jason Strickland, is charged with beating the girl and could face a murder charge if she dies. He has fought to keep her on life support but lost his appeal Tuesday in the Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts' highest court.
The court ruled that the social services department had the authority to remove the ventilator and feeding tube after doctors said the girl was in an irreversible vegetative state.
On Wednesday afternoon, however, doctors told the social services agency that Haleigh's condition had changed, Monteiro told the Boston Globe in its Thursday editions. She said Haleigh was breathing on her own and the agency had no immediate plans to remove her feeding tube.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
"Irreversible vegetative state", huh?
Choose life.
Moral absolutes PING!
Pro-Life PING!
It's a good thing she wasn't in Florida. She'd be starved to death and the courts would see to that. The precedent has been set.
Prayers for that little girl.
"Breathing on her own" means you gotta feed her.
>>The precedent has been set.<<
Exactly right. Note how quickly they were to write her off.
It makes me want to vomit how flippant Death Doctors are with human life. I'm stunned by this comment:
"Some patients with severe brain stem injuries may partially recover from a persistent vegetative state, but they rarely recover fully enough to communicate, feed themselves and live ordinary lives, Dr. Steve Williams, chief of rehabilitation medicine at Boston Medical Center, told the Globe."
So, just because someone can't feed themselves or communicate they should be executed? WTF is wrong with these people? "Ordinary lives"? According to whose standards? Dr. Mengele's?
Lord help any of us if we find ourselves in such a situation. As one FReeper has in their tagline (paraphrase) "I'm only alive because a judge hasn't decided otherwise."
She said Haleigh was breathing on her own and the agency had no immediate plans to remove her feeding tube.
How generous.
Yepper - everyone is so hell-bent on killing at the first possible moment. About 12 years ago, a friend's son was in a terrible car accident, comatose and definitely brain-damaged. The doctors recommende taking him off support and his father resisted. Two years ago, the young man obtained his Bachelors degree and is supporting himself.
I find it sad that you have to either have a strong advocate (family member, spouse) to petition your right to live, or something written in a will. If not, they'll pull the plug as soon as they get a chance.
Whatever happened to "erring on the side of life"?
Well, yeah, I know "not necessarily." There's just that minor difference between killing her, and letting her die....
These folks at the MA Supreme Court need a serious ass-kicking.
Years ago a friend of ours was in a coma for 4 months. She was bad enough that she was given last rites and her siblings were given power to manage her affairs so they sold all her stuff.
A year ago she just came back from a tour in Iraq.
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Prayers from TX
It is a difficult situation. I believe that if the state says no more life and the family wants more life, then the state does not have to pay any more for the hospital care. If the state votes to live than the state pays the entire thing. This is the most equitable possible situation. As conservatives lives and financial situations are difficult.
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Continuing to pray for Haleigh's recovery. It seems her will to live is stronger than the state's will to finish what her stepfather and mother started.
This is an excellent place for the parable of the good Samaritan.
Wonderful editorial cartoon!
Don't let that fool you. If it was a state school, he may still be comatose...
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