Posted on 01/20/2006 6:17:11 PM PST by Dubya
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- A severely beaten and comatose 11-year-old girl is now breathing on her own, officials said Thursday, two days after Massachusetts' highest court ruled the state had the authority to remove her from life support.
Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services, said doctors have weaned Haleigh Poutre off a ventilator in the past week.
"She can intake air, but she can't swallow on her own," Monteiro said.
Haleigh has been in the agency's custody since she was hospitalized four months ago with a badly damaged brain stem that authorities say resulted from abuse. Thinking that she was in an irreversible vegetative condition, the state had gone to court to seek permission to remove her from life support.
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 this week's high court ruling said he has no say in her medical care.
"This is exactly the point we were trying to make. What's the rush? Just give her a chance," attorney John Egan said. "Medical science is not that certain. We would hope the whole process will slow down, and everyone will step back and end the compulsion to end her life."
Officials first reported changes in Haleigh's condition on Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the agency had the authority to remove her ventilator and feeding tube.
Monteiro said the state now has no immediate plans to remove her feeding tube, and more medical tests will be performed Thursday. She said Haleigh had responded to some testing on Wednesday but would not specify what the tests or responses were.
When Haleigh was hospitalized four months ago, her doctors said she was in a permanent vegetative state and would die within a few days without the feeding tube.
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 Boston Globe in its Thursday editions. But he said recovery is more likely with children than adults.
"There's more plasticity to their brain. There's potentially other areas of the brain that can take over," he said.
Haleigh's aunt and adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, also was charged with assault. But less than two weeks later, she was found dead alongside her grandmother in a possible murder-suicide.
Haleigh's biological mother, Allison Avrett, had supported removing the girl from life support. She said she met with officials and doctors Wednesday but would not comment on reports of her daughter's responses.
Prayers on the way.
Poor baby....
Prayers for her.
I join in prayer for little Haleigh!
BTTT
Because if she dies, he'll be charged with murder.
Carolyn
Carolyn
My spirit groans in prayer for this child. O Lord, hear our voices!
Please, dear Heavenly Father, wrap your loving arms around this precious little girl, Haleigh Poutre. Please bless her, and keep her within Your providential care, so that what is best for her future will be done according to Your blessed Will. In Jesus' Holy name I beg, Amen.
The poor child was surrounded by evil,selfish adults.
Amen.
Thanks for the ping. I've heard snippets on the radio news about this case. Terrible story. It seems unlikely, but I pray that she can recover. Stranger things have happened. I also pray that the monster who put her in this condition will never have freedom again.
prayer bump
I am assuming from the story that she began to breath some on her own and they must have put her back on the respirator and are weaning her of it gradually.
Please explain the relevance of a Florida law in Massachusetts.
I agree with you that we can take a person off the respirator after a while, i.e., after we've tried to help them breathe. But taking away food and water will kill even the healthiest person.
Everyone should be given food and water. Then, if they die, it will be because God allowed it, NOT because we killed them.
They? You mean "he"?
Yeah, no one on the jury will see through that.
Paid for by the state? From each, according to their ability. To each, according to their needs.
I bet you like that phrase.
O Lord, we praise you for your greatness. We lift up to you this little girl. Lord, I know that it broke your heart when her parents brutalized her so. We stand in the place of her parents and lift her little body up to you. We ask that you heal her body, her mind, and her heart.
Lord, we repent on behalf of her parents, and the other adults in her life, who failed her so miserably. Please have mercy and give her a miracle. Please restore her completely so she can enjoy a wonderful life. Please draw loving people to her to surround her and let her know what your love is like. Please knit her back together in the way you made her to be.
We love you, Lord God, and we ask you these things in the name of your precious Son, Jesus. Amen.
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