Posted on 02/27/2010 6:07:23 PM PST by BykrBayb
MIAMI (WSVN) -- A young mother died when, a lawsuit claims, she was taken off life support without her family's permission.
It was supposed to be a day of joy for the Francois family. Twenty-six-year-old Caroline was giving birth to her third child at a local hospital.
The baby was born fine, but the next day things went terribly wrong for the young mother. "Her blood pressure remained high and continued to remain high," said the family's attorney, Loreen Kreizinger. "As a result of her uncontrolled hypertension, she had a bleed to the brain, which happened the next day after the baby was born."
Caroline was put on life support. "It's terrible," said Kreizinger. "It's probably one of the worst things I've personally ever experienced as an attorney, and I am also a nurse."
According to the lawsuit, after Caroline was put on life support, the local hospital called the University of Miami organ donor program. An employee of the donor program went to the hospital and tried to meet with the family. "Mr. Francois never spoke with them and never gave consent," said the family's attorney.
But despite that, the lawsuit against the University of Miami claims that same employee, who is not a medical doctor wrote physician's orders in Caroline's chart which read: "Patient pronounced brain dead at 16:16 hours," and, "Please discontinue all treatments including the ventilator."
"We have evidence that he physically entered the room and actually turned off the ventilator," said the lawyer.
Court testimony supports that shocking allegation. Caroline's respiratory therapist was asked in a deposition, "Who physically took Caroline off the ventilator?" The therapist replied, "That's a gentleman from organ procurement."
In Caroline's chart, her nurse wrote the employee from UM "turned off vent," referring to the ventilator.
No one is saying why this employee might have pulled the plug, but Caroline's doctor is very clear. In testimony, her doctor was asked, "Did you yourself at anytime make an assessment that Caroline was brain dead?" The answer: "No."
"We have evidence that Caroline began to breathe on her own, both by a computerized respiratory printout and by handwritten notes of the respiratory therapist," said Kreizinger.
Asked if she was implying that Caroline was breathing on her own and still taken off life support, the family's attorney replied, "That's right. That's what we're saying here."
The University of Miami denies the allegations in the lawsuit, saying, "This defendant specifically denies that it, or anyone for whom it could be held legally responsible, caused or contributed to Caroline Francois's death."
"It certainly is the University of Miami's position that there were four determinations of brain death prior to disconnection from ventilator," said University of Miami attorney Helenemarie Blake. "There is an issue of fact as to who disconnected the ventilator, if at all."
In court Thursday, University of Miami attorneys tried to get the judge to strike Caroline's nurse from the witness list. That nurse allegedly witnessed who turned off the ventilator. The attorneys say they have not been able to locate that nurse to depose him. The judge has denied that request.
LOL. Yes. One of the supervisors told me one time, “you know you have all of the staff afraid of you.”
When I asked her why she said, “because you are always writing everything down in your notebook”. I said, well good this is probably a good thing.
I only wrote stuff down, cause I have part - timers. Part of the time I remember stuff, and part of the time I don’t. LOL.
PDF’s are a pain in the butt.
After my computer ground away on it and locked up for a few minutes, I realized why.
If people link to PDF’s, I wish they’d warn us....
It wouldn’t surprise me.
Wow, are you ever out of touch with reality.
What would you expect the hospital to say when accused of murder? * Oh, yeah, that case. Sure, we pulled the plug when we shouldn't have.*?
OF COURSE, they're going to deny it. If you believe them without question, I have some real nice waterfront property in FL to sell you.
You wouldn't happen to work for a hospital, would you?
Good for you!
Here’s what happened to my husband, when he was ill:
He had to spend an overnight in the hospital, after a procedure, and I stayed with him all evening, until midnight, and had talked with all the staff; I had warned them that he had severe night sweats (part of his cancer) and that he’d likely need fresh pajamas (which I provided) and fresh sheets.
They wrote it down, told me to go home and get some rest.
I couldn’t sleep. At 3 a.m. I went back to the hospital, straight to his room, and found him cold, wet from head to toe, and shivering violently. I had only been gone three hours.
I put the call light on, and with the help of two other nurses we got him warm, medicated, and cleaned up. I was furious. He begged me, “Let me die at home, this is horrible.” And that was that. No more treatments, no more hospital stays, no more taking chances on care that wasn’t done.
I did get a note of apology from the charge nurse. Fat lot of good that did for my husband. I don’t trust anyone to care for my loved ones.
Amen, sister. No one cares for your own as much as you do.
The body parts industry is all about the money. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
What big money is there? Most kidney transplant patients are on Medicare (end-stage renal coverage), for example, and we know what big money Medicare pays for a procedure. I hope people on this thread don’t discourage legitimate organ donation, as it saves thousands of lives each year and many die who don’t make it long enough to get reached on the list.
Nothing written by a bunch of strangers on the Internet is going to discourage organ donation anywhere near as much as the corruption in the organ procurement industry has. I believe most people would eagerly donate their organs if they had a reasonable belief that the organs wouldn’t be taken while the donors are still using them.
Obviously you didn't read the article. The woman made the stupid mistake of agreeing to be an organ donor at some time in her past, most likely by checking the box on her driver license. She got murdered for doing so.
The Organ Donor Foundation gets electronic feeds of such records automatically. When she checked into a hospital, any hospital, there's a big red flag popping up to say, "this idiot is an organ donor". Her age is x. Her overall health is y. If anything, any little thing, goes wrong, she's an automatic DNR. Slice and dice, package up the parts, and get the commie zombies enroute to pick up the pieces.
Insurance companies pay, the recipients pay, and the family of the murdered patients pay. It is a multi-billion dollar industry.
The Will to Live Project
Good idea...
About ten years ago, I worked on a contract project with a state agency, and had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with some ODF people. The word “ghouls” always reminds me of them. Always will.
Thanks. I thought so too, and it worked.LOL
A person really does need an advocate for their care (almost at all times nowadays - sometimes even at doctor’s appointments) — the stress of being ill (even if it should be relatively minor) really does get in the way of decision making on the part of the patient, IMHO. At the very least that someone is there to remember what you might not.
As you said - someone who cares needs to be there at the patient’s side for them, even if they CAN still talk and make decisions just for the sake of helping them, and just in case they end up not being able to make them.
We were just at a St. Joseph’s Hospital, too — but up here in Marshfield, Wisconsin. My daughter was there for 3 days (infection in her leg, but didn’t know what it was right away). I was thrilled that I was able to stay 24/7 with her, her sister stayed with her one night as she is 18 so they allowed that (they made it a “sleepover”).
We too had a wonderful caring staff, and her doctors I could not recommend more (her pediatrician on duty, and all the specialists). HOWEVER — one can never be too safe, and besides... being in the hospital alone is hard (IMHO). Plus, all patients need an advocate, IMHO. Even if it’s just someone there to help you remember what the doctors said because you may be on medication.
I learned the same a couple weeks ago with my daughter. I hope we never need an ambulance because I don’t want to go to the closer hospital - I’d rather drive the extra 5 mins. the other direction and go to that one!!! Unless I was literally having a heart attack or REALLY couldn’t breathe I would go the extra distance... no kidding.
“It’s time for everyone to remove themselves from any organ donation... totally and completely.”
Yes, I agree. These people are ghouls and until they find a different way to be every road block must be put in their way.
I’m sorry that this means innocent people have to suffer, but that always happens when bad people do bad things.
Don’t think there isn’t money changing hands either.
They said that woman in Florida was brain dead. Having them harvest my organs while I’m still alive isn’t something I would want.
I wasn't able to be there, but according to my family the doctors did everything possible, kept the family fully informed, and didn't pressure them.
He was three weeks from being ninety. He got the care everyone deserves, but few obtain.
He's in heaven looking down now. RIP, Dad.
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