Terri Schiavo's Sister Says Hospital Wrong to Deny Emilio Gonzales Care

Life News ^ | 4/9/07 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- The sister of Terri Schiavo is weighing in on the case of Emilio Gonzales, a baby plagued by Leigh's disease who has been the center of a battle in Texas over a futile care law. The law allows hospitals that no longer want to care for a patient to only give their families 10 days to find another facility that will.

Last week, a federal judge refused to grant a temporary restraining order to require the Brackenridge Children's Hospital to provide lifesaving medical treatment. The medical center says it will stop treating Emilio tomorrow.

Emilio has been diagnosed with the disease, which is an incurable disorder that causes the breakdown of the central nervous system. Without the treatments, Emilio will die in a matter of hours.

The doctors' decision last month to remove Emilio from life support and discontinue his medical treatments left his mother, 23 year-old single mom Catarina, with little hope.

"This is so sad," Terri's sister Suzanne Vitadamo said in a statement LifeNews.com received.

"That a hospital 'ethics' committee would vote to end the life of a child against his mother's wishes is unbelievable, especially since Emilio's condition has actually shown some improvement over the past several weeks," Vitadamo explained.

The Schindler family has created the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation and worked in the two years since Terri's death to assist disabled patients in getting appropriate medical care.

Because of the foundation's work, Vitadamo spoke recently with a mother from Madison, Wisconsin, whose seven-year-old daughter has a mitochondrial disease similar to the one Emilio is suspected of having.

"This little girl was diagnosed as being in a so-called persistent vegetative state for the first three years of her life," Vitadamo says.

"Her mother researched the disease and learned that hyperbaric oxygen treatment had shown some success in treating the condition," Terri's sister said. "Today the once fragile little girl now attends school, against all odds and much to the amazement of doctors who said she would not even live past the age of three."

Although there is no guarantee that similar treatment would produce such results in Emilio's case, there is hope, Vitadamo says.

"We are hoping that the hospital will grant an additional extension in Emilio's case," Vitadamo said.

"We encourage them to continue treating this little boy, making every effort to sustain his life for as long as is needed, while we pursue a facility for transfer and possibly even treatment that could save him."

Related web sites:
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation - http://www.terrisfight.org

[Hildy]

Unfortunately, in 2007 America, when someone else is paying the bill, the choice is not 100% yours. That’s the fact. I have a friend who has late stage lung cancer. Her insurance will not pay for an expensive new treatment that MIGHT lengthen her life. THESE DECISIONS ARE MADE EVERY SINGLE DAY. If insurance, or the government paid for every chance to keep the body alive, you know our country would be broke. That’s the downside of modern medicine.

[Triggerhippie]

Why wouldn’t the insurance companies pay up? They certainly cashed all the checks that paid for the policy./naive

The federal government should, IMO, get involved in mandating payment for insurance claims. Anything less seems, to me, to be fraud on the part of the insurance company/ies.

My condolences/best wishes to your friend.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“It would seem to me that as long as his family is paying for his treatment that they should continue to work to save his life.”

Funny. That was also true in Terri’s case because her parents wanted to assume all medical bills for her and yet...

The Culture of Death marches on. :(

[sunvalley]

Well, Hildy, one person on here agrees with you. I work with sick and dying children every day. Currently we are caring for a child with a degenerative neurological disease that can only lead to any early death. All of this childs muscles are slowly wasting away. When it became impossible for the child to eat, she was subjected to surgery to place a gastric tube. Now she is losing control of muscles that coordinate breathing and swallowing. The next step is to place a tracheostomy. The family has consistently been unable to care for her at home. She recently spent over three months at the hospital only because there were issues regarding who would care for here when she leaves. She has no control over her body at all. She has no purposeful movements. She has no hope for a “recovery”. This condition will only get worse, and she will eventually die. The staff members have tried to explain this to the family (the ones who leave her alone at a hospital for months at a time because they don’t want to care for her - and, yes, she is on Medicaid) to no avail. They want us to continue to provide care for her forever. Once she is trached, she will probably never go home, and will be one of the numerous kids that live at the hospital because we have no place to send them. Now, we can keep kids like this alive indefinitely, but should we?

[Hildy]

Oh my gosh. Is the child in pain? I find it impossible to believe that people think this is the humane thing to do...should we, just because we can?

[LaineyDee]

I've worked with disabled children for over 10 years... in facility and in the home setting. I wish I knew more about the specifics of the case to have a better opinion... but from the looks of this one....it brings to mind a "typical" scenario I've seen over and over.

Example: Mom is illegal and Dad stays away so that she can get Medicaid/Welfare. Anchor baby has Medicaid entitlements and they also pay for Mom to stay with the baby as long as he's in the facility. (I think it's $30/day...over and above her usual stipend. She's probably afraid also... that if the baby is let go....she'll be deported.

I'm not saying she doesn't care about the child...because most of the Hispanic families I have dealt with are truly compassionate with their kids.

Anyway.....no other hospital is going to touch this with a 10-ft pole. There are legalities in which they risk the liability of getting stuck with indefinite treatments because they accepted him in the first place.

[sunvalley]

I am sure that is she uncomfortable. She constantly has pneumonia and her frequent illnesses and seizure have cost her plenty of unpleasant procedures. I don’t think she is in any pain from the condition itself, but from the things we do to keep her alive.

There are many children like this, unfortunately. I have taken care of many infants born with underdeveloped brains that we keep alive. In some cases, the child isn’t able to “think” because of severe brain damage. If a child can’t think, can’t eat, can’t control his own body temperature, can’t breath on his own, is it fair to keep him alive for the sake of the parents? I think not. I believe it is inhumane to deny food and water to a person to hasten his/her death, as we are in the business of providing comfort. But in nearly all of these cases, just ceasing to use extraordinary measures and turning to hospice or other types of comfort care, the child will pass on with dignity and with little or no pain.

[org.whodat]

Where did you see this?

This is not the first story of this woman posted here. Do a search!

[Hildy]

I hope everyone reads your posts. Thank you for sharing your experiences. Caring for sick children must be the saddest of professions.

[sunvalley]

Sometimes the saddest, but also the most rewarding.

Thanks for your kind comments.

[org.whodat]

Do you have a link that establishes that he is in the US illegally?

Since you have a computer, I assume you can read. Now look at my post again, you will see that I read on a post here, that she was here illegally. That is the mother!

[Popocatapetl]

Actually, it’s two criteria for medical care, and it has been used successfully before. The idea is to compile a long list of medical procedures. At the top of the list are the least expensive and most successful procedures, for example, cleft palate surgery. Easy, cheap and remarkably improves the life of its recipient.

At the bottom of the list are egregiously expensive procedures that never, or only very rarely, work. And even then their outcomes as likely as not just prolong suffering.

It was found out that by eliminating just a few of these useless efforts that consumed vast amounts of resources, the quality of medical care jumps for everyone else.

And while people truly enjoy rooting for “lost causes”, in this case you have to ask yourself, is trying to save someone’s forfeit life through “Deux ex machina” (God from a machine) worth impairing, tormenting, and killing a hundred other people?

Today, with all that we can do with modern medicine, one in four pregnancies still ends in a natural miscarriage. The agonizing grief felt by countless women and their husbands in this is indescribable. But we are generally powerless to stop it, and can only rationalize it by saying that the fetus was just not meant to live, as it did not have the ability to sustain itself into birth.

But as this death is accepted, so also we need to learn that at a particular point death will win; and though struggle against it we must, if the only way to cling to life is to increase anguish, suffering and death in others, it is too high a price to pay.

This is not to exalt the disposability of life, nor is it just the recognition that death, as well as life, needs dignity. It is the recognition that we are part of humanity, and sustaining our own lives at the expense of the lives of others is not just ghoulish, but it defies life itself.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Agreed.

Suffice (and sad) to say, I believe we may already have...

[Lesforlife]

Emilio’s mom is not an illegal alien.

Her great-grandfather fought in WWI and
uncles in WWII and Korea:

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[wagglebee]

I have yet to see proof that Emilio or his mother are here illegally. I am not saying I don’t believe you, I just haven’t been shown proof.

[wagglebee]

I understand you read on a post that she was here illegally. However, google comes up with nothing to substantiate this and you are unable to provide a link.

[wagglebee]

Thank you for clearing it up.

Sadly, the culture of death will latch onto anything to kill another innocent person. The irony is that none of these people give a damn about illegal immigration any other time.

[LaineyDee]

I'm not sure if they are either......which is why I would have to have more info on the case. The example I gave is a typical scenario I'm used to working with.

I'm very sensitive on right-to-life issues as well....as in the TS case. We were lied to (in the press) about what her functions were and didn't know her viability until her parents came forth with video. The media made it sound as if she were laying in a bed with no brain waves and wasn't functioning in any capacity. So, I'll reserve my take on this until we find out the full scope of what is happening. :)

[RGSpincich]

Let us know when one of the Schindlers actually contribute something besides lip service to a cause. Donations at their website benefit only their personal lifestyles.