Posted on 06/28/2007 3:58:52 PM PDT by wagglebee
CHANDLER, Arizona, June 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Written off by doctors as a hopeless “vegetable”, an Arizona man would not now be on his way to recovery from an accident caused by a marital quarrel if not for his family’s unrelenting struggle for his life.
The Arizona Republic reports that on Wednesday, Jesse Ramirez, awoke from his nearly month long persistent vegetative state (PVS) and now “can hug and kiss, nod his head, answer yes and no questions, give a thumbs-up sign and sit in a chair.”
If not for the past few weeks’ legal battles that ended Tuesday with a favorable settlement for him and his family, Jesse Ramirez, who depended on feeding tubes for food and water, would certainly have died in circumstances very similar to the tragic 2005 death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
On May 30, Jesse Ramirez and his wife Rebecca Ramirez were quarreling in their SUV when he lost control and crashed into a pottery market, ejecting them both from the vehicle. Ramirez suffered a broken neck and major head-trauma, while his wife had only minor injuries.
Just before the accident, Rebecca had attempted to jump from the moving vehicle saying she was afraid of her husband, who accused her of marital infidelity. Police have yet to determine what exactly led Ramirez to lose control of the wheel.
Ten days after the accident and Ramirez’s PVS diagnosis, Rebecca ordered the hospice where he was staying to remove his feeding tubes on June 8. Ramirez family then began pleading with her to let them try and save his life.
“I'm asking you for the biggest favor of my life,” Jesse’s father told her. “Can you give my son another chance?” Jesse Ramirez Sr. told the Arizona Republic she then hung up on him.
In desperation, the family turned to the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defense Fund, which challenged the prudence of allowing Rebecca to arbitrate her husband’s fate, considering their recent marital strife.
“We've got to make sure the decision-maker is the very best and most capable one,” senior counsel Gary McCaleb told the Arizona Republic. “She said she was in fear of her life. Ten days later, she's going to say whether he lives or dies? Frankly, it's too much to ask of the wife.”
Maricopa County Superior Court judge Paul Katz agreed and ordered the tubes reconnected while an independent attorney mediated between Rebecca Ramirez and Jesse’s family and talked to Jesse's doctors. Then Tuesday Katz ruled that a court-appointed guardian would make decisions for Ramirez while the court continued to investigate his health.
“As we have discussed here previously, PVS is often misdiagnosed. More importantly, it can't be done accurately after only a few weeks post trauma. So, why the rush in this case to write the man off?” commented bioethics expert and author Wesley J. Smith on his blog. “This much is sure: But for parents willing to fight for his life, Ramirez would be dead today rather than entering the rehabilitation unit.”
Pro-Life Ping
AMAZING News Ping!
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Terri was not sick; she was healthy. Her Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, and the entire pro life world community wanted her to live.
I will never forget what happened. Never.
Not only will I never forget what was done to Terri, I will never stop reminding those who supported her execution.
Have you changed your own state law?
he woke up on Wednesday, following a favorable settlement on Tuesday?
c’mon, ya gotta at least wonder :)
This is wonderful news. It didn’t take Jesse long to recover enough to start rehab. Now is the time for Rebecca to slip quietly out of his life. It looks like they both have a lot of healing to do, and would both heal quicker away from the other.
One of many similar cases.
Unless she somehow caused the accident, in which case the only quiet slip away she needs to do is to prison, for attempted manslaughter (or whatever charge would apply).
Could you explain to me how I can single-handedly change my state law? If so, I’ll do it first thing tomorrow morning.
This is true. I wonder if there’s any evidence of such.
The favorable settlement was “Then Tuesday Katz ruled that a court-appointed guardian would make decisions for Ramirez while the court continued to investigate his health.”
This removed the wife’s ability to kill her husband before he woke up. Quite a favorable settlement, IMO.
Better yet, this judge has now had his pro-life decision proved correct by circumstance and this will encourage other judges to err on the side of life and hope.
I was thinking that the police were delicately hinting here that maybe the would-be grieving widow did something to cause the crash-maybe not. But the fact that she was so eager to watch her beloved lifemate (/s )starve slowly to death has to raise at least fleeting suspicion...
Well, clearly you can’t. Maybe you can get the feds to redefine marriage. No same problem. I know, get the federal courts to make law, that only takes one judge to redefine marriage.
>> I wonder how the culture of death FRiberals will try to explain this away.
They’ll dig to differentiate the two cases ultimately to validate their support for the killing.
They don’t exactly follow my orders. I’m not all-powerful. That doesn’t stop me from doing what I can.
She told them that she was attempting to jump out of the vehicle, and he lost control when he tried to prevent her from jumping. For the police to say they haven’t determined what caused him to lose control of the car, suggests to me that they don’t buy her version. I suppose they’ll know more, when and if Jesse begins communicating clearly, if he can remember the event.
Wow!
18 posts and no pro-death trolls yet!
Must be a new record for these threads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.