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.
This stuff is so scary. It could happen to you or me or one of our kids or a sister, brother, parent, etc.
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This is what happens when respect for life is viewed as an extremist position.
You betcha! We’ve been on the way down for many, many years now.
A premonition of Obamacare.
"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.
This is MURDER.
Were her organs “harvested”? Kidneys, heart, lungs, bones, skin?
Yes it is murder. This is the scary new world we live in.
Somebody needs to wake up some night to find a gun in their mouth and hear a voice saying, “You’ve got till the count of three to say your prayers...”.
Yeah, and I have a relative that always says that someone always needs to be with a patient in the hospital “just in case” (and obviously, this was one of those situations where that was so...).
I believe that too... that someone should always be there with a patient in the hospital and be up on what is going on, at all times...
Were her organs “harvested”? Kidneys, heart, lungs, bones, skin?
It's time for everyone to remove themselves from any organ donation... totally and completely. Otherwise, you're "fair game" for those harvesters...
We are worth more dead than alive these days -
Make sure you're not worth more than the paltry chemicals resident in your body... then... and totally remove yourself from any organ donations...
When my dad got pneumonia and went on life support, I had a little rat faced intern in my face within 2 minutes telling me I needed to pull the plug now, that he had zero chance. (Truth be known Dad was probably approaching the limit on his medicare critical days).
I told rat-face that he didn’t know that, since he was not God, and it was too soon to tell. Furthermore, I would not be pulling the plug until my Dad had at least had a chance to see if the anibiotics worked.
Then I stayed 24/7 in his room to make sure no one tried to hastened him on his way. Intensive Care is not what it used to be. It’s disgusting the disregard for life some people have.
Maybe the hospital didn’t realize that Obamacare hasn’t passed yet and just figured cutting the life support would be just fine with the regional death panel.
I forgot corneas.
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