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.
If you don’t have opinions about anything until a court tells you what opinion to have, maybe you shouldn’t trouble your mind by reading anything other than court decisions.
It’s a pdf file. You should be able to open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Maybe your security settings are blocking pdf files?
I’m using Firefox, and the file wants to open in IE. *sigh* I never use IE. I’ve probably forgotten how.
Another way to open it would be to save it to your computer, and open it with Acrobat.
If you right-click the file, does it give a good menu choice?
If you find anyone posting the hysterical bull crap you mentioned, let me know.
Anyone surprised?
Yes, but the file just will not open, goes back to the “Do you want to open this file?” window.
I can open IE but I’ll have to get to FR on it, and pick up the link again, I think.
I think I’ll give it a pass.
Not really. I’ve been watching the progression long enough to predict the arguments before they start.
You are supposed to have a 'donor' card in your wallet - or have it on your license if you want to so do -Now they want to change that to - if you DON'T have anything saying NO NO NO - they can legally "assume" you wanted too!
And you do NOT want to make out a living will. there are loop holes in it they will jump through.
You need to make out a "Will to Live" -
http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/index.html
I can freepmail you the text if you like.
Yes, thank you very much.
You’re welcome. I just sent it.
I had a baby in that hospital feb 7, 2007. Words fail me.
With all due respect, are you like....14 or some such young age???
“So someone from organ donor took it on himself to disconnect her.
Words fail me....”
Why do I get the feeling that this guy does this all the time?
Yeh, well when the charge nurse is not there, I ask where is she, and when will she be back? I learned to be pretty insistent. Eventually, I came to know a lot of the charge nurses and asst. managers of each floor by name. Always very polite, reasonable, and firm. Always wrote thank you notes to those who helped me.
I also had my cardiologist’s number and my primary care physicians number in my cell phone. Hardly ever had to use them, but they never failed to call me back within 3 minutes when I needed them.
Sometimes people just need time to recover and heal.
They deserve that chance.
That aside, the organ donor guy murdered her. He was in no position to make that decision. He was not trained to nor qualified to. It was not his decision to make.
There’s no way of knowing what may have happened to her given the chance. She very well could have recovered. She may not have.
But she deserved the chance.
Good idea. Your insistence puts everyone on notice that you are there to protect your loved one.
I had my dad’s advance directive etc in my purse, and never let any one see them. I also had his general and durable power of attorney which I gave them a copy of.
I told him he was full code (ie all possible measures to keep him alive)until I said otherwise. No way would I give them a paper and let them interpret it to suit them.
When they asked about living will etc. I just told them, don’t worry I have everything I need to do anything that may need to be done - so just ask me if you have a question.
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