Posted on 02/01/2006 7:29:10 AM PST by Ohioan from Florida
In the court (and courts) of life and death, a little 11-year-old Massachusetts girl named Haleigh Poutre could be the next Terri Schiavo. For those who have not heard the tragic story, Haleigh was beaten nearly to death last September, allegedly by her adoptive mother and stepfather. The beating left her unconscious and barely clinging to life.
Within a week or so of the beating, her doctors had written her off. They apparently told Haleigh's court-appointed guardian, Harry Spence, that she was "virtually brain dead." Even though he had never visited her, Spence quickly went to court seeking permission to remove her respirator and feeding tube. The court agreed, a decision affirmed recently by the supreme court of Massachusetts.
And so, no doubt with the best of intentions, a little girl who had already suffered so much was stripped by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of even the chance to fight to stay alive. If she didn't stop breathing when the respirator was removed, which doctors expected, she would slowly dehydrate to death.
Close Call
Then came the unexpected:
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Veronica is a beautiful name. You're so blessed to be able to know her. My kids still talk about my dad, their Grandpa. He died of cancer, and unfortunately the youngest was two, and has no memories of him. She knew her Nanna though.
Hopefully, the investigation will uncover this. I've wondered about it, too.
Yeah, but who is doing the investigating? I sure hope everything comes to light, and little Haleigh recovers.
It is a beautiful name, and I am very blessed to have known her. Pretty much anyone who knew her thought of my Grandma as a saint, she was WONDERFUL! When I was pregnant with our first son, I wanted the middle name to be Veronica if the baby had been a girl. Oh well! By the time we had our daughter two years later, many had convinced me that Veronica would just be too much to handle with our last name, so we chose my mother's name instead (who is also a saint in my eyes). The neat part of it is that when our daughter was confirmed, without any suggestion on my part, she chose Veronica! It was very much a blessing.
I have one cousin who was born a few months after Grandma died. She is the only cousin out of 26 who didn't ever get to meet Grandma, and the next closest in age were five, so they probably remember a little bit of her. I think some of us have always felt badly for our one cousin (or sister to some), because Grandma was so special to each of us. (sigh)
Didn't the governor appoint some special team to investigate. I hope it isn't one of those sham types of investigation like Jeb seems to put together. Prayers for Haleigh!
No. Months after her stroke, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and she went to Mexico in search of alternative cancer treatments. She wasn't "sent," she went voluntarily. Good grief.
Gee whiz, when you come to these threads, it is never with a smile or any friendliness.
I was "sent" to Canada to get some stuff one time. Yes, I went voluntarily and gladly, but somebody told me that is where I could find what I was looking for so I went. You read darkness into everything said by FV.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Ha ha ha. He keeps returning to the threads.
I think he just likes to argue with FV. It's sport to him.
Of course, I could be all wrong.
I know how you feel. I've had to reject a few names because they didn't go with the last name. How wonderful that your girl chose her Grandma's name for confirmation : )
Your cousin missed out, and it's sad when people talk about a departed loved one, and you feel a little out the loop. I'm sure your Grandma looks out over each and every one of you, though. 26 cousins? Are you Irish? I have 27 first cousins : )
No, Czech. LOL. Yes, I'm sure she does look after each of us. I am one of six and have 20 first cousins on that side of the family alone. I don't even know how many I have on my Dad's side, he was adopted. He found the rest of his family after I had already married and had my own, but I think it is a lot. He had 5 full siblings, and 12 half-siblings (same father, 3 mothers, the original dead-beat dad). God bless my Dad. He passed away 3 years ago in a few days.
The problem is that it can be very difficult for internal investigations to be completely impartial. No one wants to lose their jobs.
A couple of years ago, I stumbled on a couple of websites devoted to detailing abuses by Social Services. They might be able to provide some help, should that prove necessary.
Oh my goodness, what a big family! Has there been an attempt to hold a family reunion? Hahahaha, mine were bad enough, can you imagine if your entire family was able to make the trip? You all would have to rent a national park. Big families are great though, and modern families are missing out on something special. I'm an only child, but have 4 of my own.
Each side seems to host their own reunions. It is pretty hard to get everyone together at the same time, as you can imagine. Weddings and funerals are pretty well attended, but there is always somebody missing.
I had to laugh at your comment about reserving a National Park spot. Can you just imagine? LOL!! You would definitely need a lot of space. Think about how much food you would need, too. Ahhh, my head hurts!!! LOL.
The terminology used in Terri's autopsy report is anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. It is very similar to, but more severe than, the hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy discussed in syriacus's post. Hypoxia = serious loss of oxygen. Anoxia = total loss of oxygen. Worse!
Just for the record, since Terri did not have a heart attack, we cannot attribute this oxygen deprivation in her brain to her "cardiac arrest." It is the other way around. It was the loss of oxygen to her brain that caused her to go into cardiac arrest.
Also for the record -- cc: Columbo -- Terri's blood tests showed lactic acidosis. This is a condition brought on by violent exertion in the absence of oxygen. The obvious explanation is that she was fighting desperately for life and breath while being asphyxiated -- probably by some sort of choke hold that cut the arterial blood flow in her carotids. That would be consistent with the brain damage. Nobody can say for sure that this is what happened, but I don't know of any hypothesis that fits the facts nearly as well as this one does.
Good! Same here. The incident was so frustrating that another member of the family ripped up her living will. It was on my in-law's side, so I had no input into the decisions. It was a bitter pill all around.
If frogs had wings and if Michael Schiavo were honest...
The lawsuit was fraudulent. It stands to reason that Michael knew it was fraudulent since there wasn't an ounce of evidence anywhere that Terri was bulimic (he denied it himself at first until he figured out it was his only alibi). As I recall, he demanded $20 million (!) at first. SURE he was going to devote his life to caring for Terri.
Step this way, folks, I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.
I remember the movie. Dorothy says, "You must be a very good man." The little man replies, "Oh, no, my dear, I'm very bad man and absolutely hopeless as a wizard."
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