Posted on 01/08/2015 10:55:55 AM PST by Morgana
FULL TITLE: Doctors decided this baby’s life wasn’t worth saving. Now a Missouri legislator wants to make sure it never happens again.
Imagine being in a hospital watching your recently born child gasp for air as his or her oxygen levels plummet. Imagine watching in horror as medical professionals stand by doing absolutely nothing, indicating to you through body language and inaction that your son or daughter is not worth saving.
This is exactly what befell Sheryl and Scott Crosier, of St. Louis, Missouri, in December 2010 when they lost their three-month-old son Simon who had the chromosomal abnormality Trisomy 18 that left him with serious physical problems. Weeks after his death, the parents discovered that the hospital had a “futility policy” in effect that allowed doctors to actually place a “Do Not Resuscitate” order on Simon’s medical chart without his parents permission or consultation.
It turns out that the medical staff were following orders as they stood by watching Simon die. Image The Crosier family IMAGE ON LINK
“[With a futility policy] doctors can basically do whatever to expedite — I hate to use the words — the demise of your loved one,” Sheryl told LifeSiteNews in a telephone interview. “Any doctor can do this to your child. You won’t be asked to sign anything. And it is totally fine [legally] if the hospital has this kind of policy.”
The parents were also shocked to discover that doctors had approved the insertion of a nasal feeding tube at the mother’s urgent requests, but had written in the charts “for comfort feeds only,” not for nourishment. They were outraged to learn that the so-called nourishment consisted of drops of sucrose, otherwise known as sugar water. The parents were utterly confounded when they learned their son had been administered drugs that were specifically contraindicated for someone with his condition.
“Every which way we turned, we were blind-sided,” Sheryl said. “We knew that morally and ethically what they were doing was wrong. They violated my rights as a parent.”
Sheryl, now in her mid-forties, has made it her mission to raise awareness about how Trisomy babies are discriminated against by the medical profession. She wrote a book about her experience titled “I’m not a Syndrome: My name is Simon” and has become fearless in telling her son’s story at medical conferences, nursing schools, faith-based communities, and on radio shows.
While speaking at a Right To Life banquet in Kansas City, Missouri, three months ago, she met then Representative-elect Bill Kidd. The pro-life Republican was so moved by Simon’s story that he promised if he was elected his first bill would be to strengthen the rights of parents to be involved in the life-or-death medical treatment received by their children. Image Simon Crosier Courtesy of Sheryl Crosier IMAGE ON LINK
Kidd, a grandfather of six, told LifeSiteNews that after hearing Sheryl tell of Simon’s ordeal he “couldn’t believe” this was happening in hospitals across the country. Most people are not aware that a hospital may have a futility policy that could determine the fate of their loved one, he said, adding that the issue was especially pertinent to him since he had suffered the loss of his wife just three weeks prior to hearing Sheryl’s testimony.
“As a parent, you should be the one that has the final say about what happens to your child, not a detached third party, not a doctor, not a clinician, not a nurse, not a hospital administrator, not an insurance company,” he said.
Kidd, a Christian minister, defeated Democrat incumbent John Mayfield on a pro-life, pro-religious-freedom ticket November 4. He honored his word to Sheryl one month later, on December 3, when he filed House Bill #113, titled “Simon’s law,” with the Missouri House of Representatives to amend the state’s health and welfare statues (RSMo).
The bill explicitly allows parents of a minor to request in writing “any policies relating to a patient or resident or the services a patient or resident may receive involving life-sustaining or nonbeneficial treatment within the health care facility or agency.”
The bill also states that doctors cannot withhold or place any restrictions on “life-sustaining procedures including, but not limited to, food, medication, or nutrition” from any minor patient without the written permission of the minor’s parent or legal guardian. Image Simon Crosier with his brothers Sean (L) and Samuel (R) Courtesy of Sheryl Crosier
The bill was filed on the exact anniversary of Simon’s death four years prior.
Kidd said the bill is not only aimed at involving parents in the welfare of minors with chromosomal abnormalities, but involving them in the outcome of any minor who enters the medical system.
“Theoretically, your child could be six years old and riding down the street on their bicycle, have a wreck, have a brain injury, and [doctors] could do this. There is no law that says a doctor cannot put a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) in the child’s file,” he said.
Kidd criticized futility policies in hospitals that make doctors the arbiters of life and death as “morally and ethically incorrect,” adding that they “should be illegal.”
“The doctor should not be the determining factor when it comes to [the life or death of] your child,” he said. Image Simon Crosier Courtesy of Sheryl Crosier
Sheryl said the bill is for every parent.
“You and your child walk into a hospital with a futility policy, and you have no rights,” she said. “Simon’s Law would have protected us. They would have had to consult us. They would not have been able to put a DNR in his chart without our knowledge. They would have never gotten away with comfort feeds. They would have had to involve us with any of Simon’s life-sustaining decisions.”
The bill is expected to appear before committee in the coming months. Kidd is asking Missouri parents to contact their state representative and senator to ask them to support House Bill #113.
Editor’s note: Simon’s story is set to appear in a new documentary titled “Labeled” which brings to light the stories of parents across America who have watched their children — diagnosed with one syndrome or another — suffer from the denial of even the most basic medical care by professionals.
Brave New World. Disgusting.
But there are no death panels, and everyone should laugh at Sarah Palin for saying there would be.
Hippocratic Oath: Classical Version
I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art—if they desire to learn it—without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.
—Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein. From The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.
If a hospital has and Ethics Board you can safely assume it is so the hospital can hurry along the demise of patients without the messiness of family involvement and legal reproach.
Just wow. How could any doctor with a conscience do that to a child?
“Doctors decided this baby’s life wasn’t worth saving. Now a Missouri legislator....”
When I first read this I was looking for a story about how a baby grew up to be a legislator.
Probably a “Children’s Hospital”. Nazi thugs. Run away.
My wife’s niece and husband had a premature child that had all sorts of problems.
The doctors suggested pulling the plug and allowing the child to die. The parents refused and they had to keep a monitor on the child for several years.
THIRTY YEARS LATER: The child the doctors wanted to kill has become educated, worked on Broadway in NYC, worked for a major talent agency with major stars as her clients.
She is now teaching Theater at a large university in Oklahoma City.
And to think, the doctors wanted her to die.
Read about how Ayelet Waldman dealt with her Trisomy 18 baby...
This is a terminal condition. 10% die in the first week, the other 90% before age 1.
I don’t think anyone should be denied food, even if terminal, but there is no effective treatment for Trisomy 18 that I can find.
I am very pro-life, but there is such a thing as futile treatment. A 90 year-old presenting with massive organ failure might be kept alive for an additional day or two with invasive and painful procedures, but is doing so really serving any rightful purpose?
In this case, I think it is mainly a matter of very poor communication.
It's easy when the doctor is a lying murdering traitor, just like Traitorobama and every demonicrat who voted vor him.
A doctor’s worth is in their ability to heal, not in the power to decide who should and who should not received treatment. Doctors have neither the right nor the qualification to determine who should live and who should die. The moment they change from being the advocates of life to being the arbitrators of life, they will have lost their value to society. Once this happens they will be discarded and treated like physicians are treated in the rest of the world where healthcare has become a worthless “free” benefit. They will become poorly respected and poorly paid civil servants.
Well, that was her choice. She doesn’t get to decide what orher mothers choose.
Who is the Doctor, what is the name or names.
Who are these petty, self appointed Gods?
The world should know their names, actions have consequences.
that hospital should be sued and put out of business. the administrator of it should be brought up on murder charges and the death of every child should be looked into so that if the hospital is guilty of killing other babies because of this policy that charges are brought. I bet you that the family that this happened to was poor and the hospital was looking at having to eat the cost of treatment.
“Some children will be able to be discharged from the hospital with home nursing support for their families. And although less than 10 percent survive to their first birthdays, some children with Trisomy 18 can enjoy many years of life with their families, reaching milestones and being involved with their community. A small number of adults (usually girls) with Trisomy 18 have and are living into their twenties and thirties, although with significant developmental delays that do not allow them to live independantly without assisted caregiving.”
from The Trysomy 18 Foundation:
http://www.trisomy18.org/site/PageServer?pagename=whatisT18_whatis
Oh, I agree.
Thanks for the additional information.
Thanks for the additional information.
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