DSS sought permission to let brain injured girl die eight days after hospitalization

WFSB Eyewitness News 3 ^ | February 6, 2006

[beaversmom]

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The state Department of Social Services wanted permission to remove Haleigh Poutre from life support eight days after the 11-year-old girl was hospitalized with severe brain injuries allegedly caused by her adoptive mother and stepfather.

According to court documents released Monday by the state's Supreme Judicial Court, DSS officials won temporary custody of Haleigh on Sept. 13, two days after the comatose girl was brought to Baystate Medical Center. Six days later, DSS asked a Juvenile Court judge to allow the agency to let Haleigh die.

The information was made public following the efforts of two newspapers _The Republican of Springfield and The Boston Globe _ to unseal a legal brief that DSS filed with the high court.

DSS Spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said the agency sought court approval to remove Haleigh's life support so they could have "options" in handling her case.

"Just because you get permission to remove life support doesn't mean you're going to do it," she said, adding that other options included taking a "wait and see" approach to Haleigh's condition.

The state's request to remove Haleigh's feeding tube and ventilator sparked a legal battle between DSS and the girl's stepfather, Jason Strickland.

Strickland, who could face a murder charge if Haleigh dies, argued that he should have a say in his stepdaughter's medical care. After a Juvenile Court judge ruled Strickland had no standing in Haleigh's case, he appealed the decision to the SJC.

The SJC last month upheld the Juvenile Court judge's finding. But a day after the high court's ruling, Haleigh began showing signs of improvement and DSS dropped plans to remove her from life support and placed her in a rehabilitation hospital.

When she was first hospitalized, Haleigh's doctors said she would never recover from her vegetative state.

According to the DSS brief, Strickland's lawyers asked for an independent medical evaluation in October, but one was never allowed.

"The government should not be seeking orders that will result in the death of its wards secretly," said John Egan, one of Strickland's lawyers.

[beaversmom]

Thanks to lunarbicep for the FR mail on this story.

[beaversmom]

ping

[Jeff Head]

DSS Spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said the agency sought court approval to remove Haleigh's life support so they could have "options" in handling her case. "Just because you get permission to remove life support doesn't mean you're going to do it," she said, adding that other options included taking a "wait and see" approach to Haleigh's condition.

Can you say...poppeycock and CYA?

The SJC last month upheld the Juvenile Court judge's finding. But a day after the high court's ruling, Haleigh began showing signs of improvement and DSS dropped plans to remove her from life support and placed her in a rehabilitation hospital. When she was first hospitalized, Haleigh's doctors said she would never recover from her vegetative state.

Hmmm...reminds me of another person in a so-called persistant vegetative state. Never recover indeed.

[cgk]

ACTION ALERT! SEND HALEIGH A CARD OR LETTER!

the Boston Globe article :

EXCERPT:

Haleigh Poutre was discharged Thursday from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and admitted to the Franciscan Hospital for Children. She has been hospitalized since September, when authorities say she was beaten into a coma.

A statement issued by the Franciscan Hospital said: "It is our hope that her stay at Franciscan will afford her the opportunity to maximize her potential for gains in her recovery."

The hospital advertises itself as the largest pediatric rehabilitation facility in New England.

CONTACT INFO FOR FRANCISCAN HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN:

Franciscan Hospital for Children
Attention: Miss Haleigh Poutre
30 Warren Street
Boston, MA 02135
phone: 617-254-3800
fax: 617-779-1119

Message to a Patient

Message To Patient

Franciscan Hospital for Children provides a secure and confidential way for family and friends of our inpatients to send a message over the Internet using this document.  Between Monday and Friday, your message will be printed and confidentially delivered to the patient, usually within 24 hours.  Messages received on the weekend are delivered to the patient the following business day.

ACTION ALERT! SEND HALEIGH A CARD OR LETTER!

the Boston Globe article :

EXCERPT:

Haleigh Poutre was discharged Thursday from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and admitted to the Franciscan Hospital for Children. She has been hospitalized since September, when authorities say she was beaten into a coma.

A statement issued by the Franciscan Hospital said: "It is our hope that her stay at Franciscan will afford her the opportunity to maximize her potential for gains in her recovery."

The hospital advertises itself as the largest pediatric rehabilitation facility in New England.

CONTACT INFO FOR FRANCISCAN HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN:

Franciscan Hospital for Children
Attention: Miss Haleigh Poutre
30 Warren Street
Boston, MA 02135
phone: 617-254-3800
fax: 617-779-1119

Message to a Patient

Message To Patient

Franciscan Hospital for Children provides a secure and confidential way for family and friends of our inpatients to send a message over the Internet using this document.  Between Monday and Friday, your message will be printed and confidentially delivered to the patient, usually within 24 hours.  Messages received on the weekend are delivered to the patient the following business day.

[beaversmom]

I was just going to ping you--you're fast.

[jess35]

Too bad no one cared about this kid until she became an "issue".

[cgk]

To those who do not know (except perhaps from reading it in this article), Michelle Malkin has been covering this extensively. From one of her pieces here: Save Haleigh

As state officials prepared to remove Haleigh's life support, the supposedly impossible happened. She began breathing on her own, responding to stimuli, and showing signs of emerging from what the medical establishment had deemed her hopeless condition. Everyone had given up on Haleigh — except Haleigh. ''There has been a change in her condition," announced a DSS spokeswoman, Denise Monteiro. ''The vegetative state may not be a total vegetative state."

Unbelievably, the state had weaned Haleigh off her breathing tube before the state supreme court had made its ruling — but the government failed to inform the court of the development. Haleigh's medical records and the social service agency's brief remain sealed.

[cgk]

Thanks! I knew who it was about as soon as I saw the title of the thread. :-).

I'm hoping enough people send cards to Haleigh to brighten her day, as well as let DSS and TPTB know people care about this girl and are thinking of her.

We know she has been interacting even with the chief of DSS, Spence, using a Curious George and a yellow block the first day he saw her. However, they've tentatively given her "1 year" to determine improvement - as they haven't yet "decided" whether to remove her feeding tube.

[mkjessup]

Hey it's Massachusetts, DSS gave the little girl eight days, Teddy Kennedy gave Mary Jo Kopechne less than an hour in his Oldsmobile.

Some would call that progress.

/sarcasm off

[beaversmom]

Wow! To be honest I haven't followed this case much. Sounds like they are itching to finish the job. I hope she continues to improve.

[cgk]

Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping!

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping list...

[Nathan Zachary]

That "other person" who was PVS Is not simular, even remotely, to this case. Not yet.


She's not your new Terry- yet. She will be if her brain (thus what makes a person a person) dies and decays.

[AlbionGirl]

That was pretty good.

I'd give a year's salary to be able to stand in the well of the Senate and call that fat bastard out. Head the size of a dumpster, heart the size of the head of a pin. I can't stand looking at him.

The picture of this little girl is heart breaking. What a blessing decent parents are, and how many children are out there who were born to reprobates? Merciful Lord, protect them!

You know there's a charity, a very good charity called the Smile Train. This organization trains doctors to go into non-industrialized or poor countries and perform surgery on kids with cleft palates. The parents of these kids will walk miles, brave the weather and probably many other dangers to get their kids this help.

"And the greatest of these is love."

[pickyourpoison]

ping

[labette]

"That "other person" who was PVS Is not simular, even remotely, to this case. Not yet. "

You sound disappointed.

[Nathan Zachary]

"I hope she continues to improve."

That would be the ideal situation that everyone hopes for, isn't it.

Plus we have better, more advanced equipment. We can better "see" if Delivery of oxygen and glucose to the brain was interupted to the point of no return. What they will look for is to what degree delivery of oxygen and glucose to the brain was interrupted, and whether it was global or localized.

Under normal circumstances, the brain uses only glucose for fuel. Oxygen is needed for its metabolism. Ventilation and circulation are required to perfuse the brain. This means that dysfunction of other systems, such as the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems can result in brain injury or death.

Within certain limits, regardless of mean arterial pressure, cerebral blood flow is maintained at a constant level. This is known as cerebral autoregulation. The average cerebral blood flow (CBF) is 50ml/100gm/minute, but gray matter has greater blood flow than white matter. This means that, in most circumstances, gray matter is more vulnerable to interruption of blood flow than white matter.

Local CBF is coupled to metabolism so that brain areas that are electrically active have more blood flow than areas that are relatively quiescent and have lower electrical and metabolic activity. This is known as local autoregulation.

Ischemia- Ischemia is lack of blood flow.
Global ischemia can affect the entire brain. It is usually due to a process occurring outside the brain, for example, in cardiac dysfunction. Focal ischemia affects only a limited geographic region of brain. Ischemia can cause necrosis, either selective necrosis of neurons only or infarction, which is death of all of the elements in the region of tissue. Neurons are more vulnerable to ischemia than glia.

Effects of ischemia-
Glucose and Oxygen are not delivered. Metabolic waste is not removed. Nitric oxide, produced by neurons, glial and inflammatory cells responding to ischemic injury, contributes to neuronal damage by acting as a free radical. Excessive production of glutamate and/or aspartate can result in excitotoxicity.
The effects of ischemia are modulated by a number of factors, including:

duration of ischemia- Under usual conditions, neurons can survive 4 minutes when perfusion ceases; consciousness is lost in 10 seconds.

degree of ischemia
brain temperature - Hypothermia is protective (decreases metabolic demands, decreases free radicals).
blood glucose level - Hypoglycemia is protective, while hyperglycemia results in excess lactate and acidosis. Experiments in which glycolysis is blocked show decreased damage from ischemia.

This girl will undergo many tests before her state is determined, and the whole Terry issue rekindles. And it will be the same uneducated people making the same acusations.

[Nathan Zachary]

So in the mean time, she has hope. Pray for her.

[Nathan Zachary]

Do you have any details of the crime and circumstances surrounding it?

[cgk]

Do you have any details of the crime and circumstances surrounding it?

Brief summation: Haleigh was given by her birth mother to her sister, Haleigh's aunt, to adopt at age 6, or 7, who was Haleigh's aunt. This was apparently at the encouragement of DSS.

She, the aunt and now adopted mother, physically abused Haleigh along with her husband, Haleigh's stepfather, enough that they had several charges being looked at by DSS. Most of those investigations were closed under "self-inflicted". The adopted mother had a degree in childhood education, and ran a home day care center. She told relatives Haleigh was unstable, and pulled her from school 2 years previous. No reports that I've seen involving the other child - the couple's son.

There have been witnesses to Haleigh's beatings with various objects including baseball bats, and being pushed down stairs. When the couple brought Haleigh to the hospital as unresponsive last September 11, and it was determined she had suffered a massive beating, they were arrested. Someone bailed out the adopted mother, who apparently went home and killed herself and her own mother. The stepdad is still in jail. The birth mom is "deciding" whether to request guardianship again.

The doctors determined Haleigh's brain stem had been "sheared" and there was no chance of recovery. Her stepfather was trying to petition for guardianship, most believe it's so he could avoid a death penalty charge if the state had removed her life support (ventilator) and she died.

However, she started breathing on her own, before the state SC decision, and the head of DSS, Spence, went to visit her. A social worker showed him how she could interact using play toys, and following simple commands. Now they're saying they'll allow 1 year to determine if she truly has recovered.

Well... mostly brief. ;) This is from various media sources who have covered her case from the beginning. I hope it helps.

[Nathan Zachary]

You are what, a judge?
You are judging me?

What did I type that gives you such a thought?

I hold out hope for her, because it sounds, on what limited information I have so far, that she suffered brain trauma, which may be localized, not global. This means a large part of her brain still may be intact, unlike TS, who's brain was absent, and what remained, dead. There are some people who can't deal with that FACT.

Because I read the bible, I also know what God's plan is, and what he told us to do.
He wouldn't make anyone suffer. He tells me that the body is only a vessel, which serves the brain, which contains your concious, your being, your soul, what makes you-you, a person. Keeping the vessel alive after the soul has departed
serves no perpose.

What we have to be careful of is obvious. only He can take the soul. What we do with the vessel doesn't concern him after the soul has departed.