Posted on 06/09/2014 11:22:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Casey Kasem’s eldest daughter broke down in tears Monday over news her estranged stepmother won a court order to restore feeding and hydration to her dying dad.
Kerri Kasem has been with the “American Top 40” star at a hospital in Washington State for nine days and said the decision to stop her dad's nutrition and fluids was the hardest one she's ever had to make.
“We have tried everything to keep him alive. We did put him back on fluids, but we had to take him off again because his lungs were filling up. It sounded like he was drowning. It was excruciating to watch,” Kerri, 41, told the Daily New Monday. “The feeding was backing up because he can’t digest,” she said, her voice choking with emotion. “This is breaking my heart. We’re been trying for nine days to keep him alive. There’s nothing we want more than for our dad to be here with us.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Judge Daniel S. Murphy made his surprise order Monday morning after Jean, 59, traveled from Washington State to make a personal appearance in court. Before the hearing, Kerri along with her brother Mike, 40, and sister Julie, 38, released a statement saying they’ve been keeping vigil at the radio icon’s hospital bed since June 1 and wanted Jean to join them.
They urged Jean to return to St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor so all the relatives could be together for their beloved dad’s “last moments.”
“It’s very important to set everything aside and focus on my dad,” Kerri told The News last Friday. “We will set aside our differences to be with my father, all of us, because if he opens his eyes and sees us standing there together, I know it will give him so much peace. I pray to God we can do this.”
In his order, Judge Murphy said the broadcasting personality should be placed back on pro-active nutrition and hydration while a court-appointed attorney travels up to see him in person and meet with his doctors.
The judge set a follow-up hearing for Friday.
Casey Kasem, the voice of Shaggy on the TV cartoon “Scooby Doo” is in the late stages of Lewy Body Disease, a progressive form of dementia that robs many patients of the ability to walk and talk.
He was admitted into intensive care June 1 in critical condition with an infection related to a “serious” bed sore, the hospital said in a statement last week.
"Only God knows when to take someone," Jean said in court Monday, according to the Associated Press.
She expressed a desire to regain her role as her celebrity husband’s caretaker and dropped to her knees in a courtroom hallway wailing over and over, “Please don’t kill my husband,” according to NBC News.
A judge granted Kerri a temporary conservatorship over her dad last month upon learning that Jean left the state with her sick husband of 34 years without any warning to the court or his three kids from a previous marriage.
Before arriving at a friend’s home in the Seattle area, the couple were on a strenuous road trip that made stops in Nevada and Arizona, Kerri said outside a Washington State courtroom last week.
Jean denied the travel claim Monday.
Upon learning her dad was outside California, Kerri filed a missing persons report and challened Jean's claim her dad was on a voluntary vacation.
Kerri arrived at a private Washington State residence to transport her dad to a hospital via ambulance June 1. In a bizarre twist, Jean threw a pound of raw meat at Kerri while quoting scripture.
“He was in that house for three weeks with no pain medication. When we got to him, he had severe leg contractures. The doctor said the pain is like having your legs broken all over. The bedsore on his back was infected and huge, bigger than my hand," Kerri told The News on Friday.
“This ‘vacation’ was torture for my father,” she said.
This is cruel. When a persons body is shutting down, feedings and fluids will just back up into the lungs. This judge should not be making medical decisions. He’s going to die a horrible death of drowning and possibly pneumonia.
Starving someone to death is cruel. I’ve seen this stuff firsthand.
Why are people so quick to want to euthanize the elderly. Is money that important?
If you are dying, and your organs are shutting down, pushing fluids via IV or feedings through a tube is cruel. Its not starving them to death. You are putting them into fluid overload and they will drown.
I’m not talking about withholding nutrition and causing death. This is regarding someone who is already dying.That is what his daughter is describing.
You are being dramatic. Read the article again. The daughter stated they were trying to give him tube feedings but his body will not digest it.
I’ve seen it first hand. There’s always an excuse. The daughter is so concerned for his $$$$.
The “loving” daughter denied this man quality of life for his end times by barging in this way. Imho. She wanted the money sooner and denied the wife of 30+ years the opportunity to have a quality end of life experience with her husband by injecting such ugliness into the mix. Judges. Media. All that shows judgement on stepmom but no love for the father. Disgusting. $80 million? Always about the money.
And now, back to the countdown.
I would suggest you read the case... The daughter inherits nothing, but cares for her Dad...wife took him on a trip to Washington from California to control him! Assessment in Washington gave control to daughter from looney wife! Bedsore infection a major issue!
He is passing on, daughter accepts and sees to his comfort... Wife is an imbecile.
If his wife says it’s cruel to deny him the feeding tube, it’s not your call to say otherwise. I suspect the daughter wants dad’s dough.
It sounds to me like his body is shutting down, not like a case where he is still in relatively good condition and someone wants to hasten his end by starving him.
Hopefully, the doctors caring for him will be able to accurately explain the situation to the judge. And then whatever needs to be done so that Casey Kasem can pass in peace will be done.
That has always stayed with me, and is worth thinking about in all of these cases. Sometimes we should, sometimes we shouldn't. It's not easy and is a decision that should never be taken lightly.
This Kasey Kasem case has become clear.
His wife, of decades, is trying to keep him alive.
Kids want to euthanize him.
It would be interesting to know when he changed his will. The last wife often likes to screw the kids over. It’s always hard for me to understand why men let this happen. Of course, it also happens with a mother but it seems not so often.
“I’m not talking about withholding nutrition and causing death.”
Yes you are.
Who are you, Satan’s Little Helper?
It wasn’t clear before what was happening in this case.
It is now. Daughter is a piece of work.
That picture of the wife as imbecile was definitely painted the the drive by media.
And her former roles probably prejudice people to think of her in that way, as a ditz.
But it is clear now, you are wrong.
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