Posted on 04/10/2005 6:26:38 PM PDT by schmelvin
Ken: Im the nephew of Mae Magouirk in LaGrange, Georgia. My family lives in Alabama. Theyre from Addiston, Alabama and I live in Birmingham, Alabama and we love my aunt Mae very much and we cant believe that, uh, she is being withheld substantial nourishment
Glenn: Ken, tell me this, tell me the situation, uh, be, because your grandma has, your grandma had, or your aunt has a, um, a living will!
Ken: Yeah, she has a living will and the living will is not being obeyed. As a matter of fact her attending physician, Doctor Stadde of LaGrange, Georgia, said in probate court that even though Mae Magouriks living will says tha, uh, that her nourishment and fluids should only be pulled if shes comatose or vegetative, that he feels her life is such that it should be pulled regardless.
(snip)
Ken: And those of your listeners that are sitting by, complacent, thinking oh, poor Terri Schindler-Schiavo. And I was one of them last week. I said, Oh its terrible, but its just a freak, its an anomaly. It couldnt happen to us.
The next day, it happened to us...
(snip)
Glenn: Let me ask you this Ken, let me ask you this. How did your, um, uh, how did your aunts uh, granddaughter get control of the situation?
Ken: How did she what?
Glenn: How did she get control. How did this happ
Ken: Well Ill tell you what. First of all she bluffed us. Uh, we went to the hospital in LaGrange when my aunt was first sick and Beth told my uncle, she said, Uncle Buddy, dont even start with me. Ive got the medical durable power of attorney. Im making the decisions. And I said, Beth, you know, were right here in front of your grandmother. Even though shes on morphine, we shouldnt talk about this. We should go out in the hall.
We went out in the hall and we explained my mothers in uh, shes had a great quality of life for the last two years even though she was in a coma. [Ken's mother was only in a coma for 3 months, she is now living a normal, active life.] We can treat it without surgery. And she said, Listen, she said, she started crying, she said, Ive been praying about this and, and Ive been praying to Jesus. Jesus has told me its time that grandmother went home to Jesus. Shes got glaucoma. Now shes got a dissected aorta and her quality of life is just terrible and we just think she should just go to hospice. And I said, Beth, hospice is a synonym for death. Weve got doctors who are ready to take care of her today.
She goes, no, Ive got the medical power of attorney and thats it. So we thought our hands were tied, Glenn. A week goes by. Last Thursday my uncle and my mother independently started thinking, this is wrong. Since I used to be on Capitol Hill as a senior staff guy in Washington, I know my way around, so they said, Kenny, get involved see what you can find out, we want to bring May to UAB hospital. So I call hospice, I say to Frita the hospice nurse. I said, what are my aunts vital stats at. She said, well today, her blood pressure is 160/88 with a pulse of 84. I said, well thats not so bad. I said, my aunts going to make it, isnt she. She says, Oh no, your aunts not going to make it because we have withheld nourishment per geth Beth Gaddy since March 28th. She said, Ive been off the past few days. Im surprised your aunts still alive. I said, What!
Next time, I, she says, call the hospice attorney. I called Carol Todd, hospice attorney, ug, said were going to be litigious. She said, let me check into it. Heard nothing all day, last Thursday, March 31st until 4 in the afternoon. Carol Todd called me up, Oh my God, we made a mistake. I said, What are you talking about, mistake? She said, Beth has power of attorney, but its only financial, not medical durable power of attorney. And guess what? Your aunt has a living will and it says only should fluids and nourishment be withheld if shes comatose or vegetative, shes neither.
I said, Guess what, Mother, get on the phone. Mom got on the phone. She said, start IV fluids immediately. They said, we can do that. She said, start a temporary feeding tube just in the nose to give her nourishment and get her electrolytes back up so she can start feeding herself. They said, We cant do that, youve gotta come in and sign the papers. So, uh, Mom stayed here because shes a little sick. My uncle Buddy, Aunt Mays brother and I went, the three hours from our homes to LaGrange, Georgia from our homes in Alabama. Hospice attorney Carol Todd was to meet us at 10 oclock. She didnt show up and the hospice head nurse talked to us, oh, she needs to die. You know, the lifes over, no quality of life.
And finally, we listened to this for about an hour and a half, and I said, This is B.S. We want my aunt out of here now. I have world-class doctor Raed Agel of UABs cardiovascular unit arranging life-saver helicopter. They kept inching us on out, Glenn, until Carol Todd the hospice attorney showed up and gave us a piece of paper. Turns out hospice had told Beth Gaddy the granddaughter that we were coming over, that she no longer had durable power of attorney and she went before the probate judge that morning and got a temporary emergency guardianship.
(snip)
Glenn: Oh, I gotta tell you, you can go to all the law schools, you say everybody on the Supreme Court, everybody on the 11th circuit court, everybody down in Florida, they all passed the bar and I gotta tell you man. Just because you went to school and, and passed the bar and you are an attorney and then you become a judge, doesnt mean that you have common sense. Im sick of these judges, man, sick to death of these judges. So let me ask you, did they put, did they, so they didnt put the feeding tube back in. Was she, did, uh, did, how long has she been without food and water?
Ken: No, but they did have an IV in that we ordered on last Thursday and it was in her Friday, April 1st. But when the hospice person gave us this emergency decree from the probate judge, they took the IV liquids out right in front of us.
(snip)
Glenn: But, how much, how much time does she have?
Ken: Thats why I couldnt wait on this compromise. It was supposed to be 24 hours from Monday. I waited all the way till Thursday. But how much time does she have? I dont know. Because shes 81 and the worst thing about it, you know, its bad that shes not getting adequate nourishment or adequate fluids, but this is a little thing that, that may not mean anything to anybody but me or my aunt. But she, she has glaucoma. She cant produce tears. She has to take drops to keep her eyes lubricated. She hasnt had those drops in the last two weeks. Shes blind practically now. Opening her eyes is, is a terrible pain. And they wont give her the drops.
(snip)
You can read the entire interview here:
http://www.aclearvoice.org/archives/2005/04/transcript_of_g.php
Your democrat neighbours admit they are not imortal? No, seriously, this issue of hospice death culture touches us all, it's way beyong polictics IMO.
Hi smartA, better not to get into all the turmoil again, huh?
I hope she is at UAB because it is a wonderful hospital. The whole situation is terrible but why were they withdrawing eye drops from her? How horrible. The people in hospices act as if it is bothersome to have to care for anyone. I know not all are this way but lately everything you hear about them makes you believe they would not want to have to take care of anyone.
LOL, no need, I was already off and looking at javascript sites!!
http://www.hopsicepatients.org/terri-schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html (snip)
A very complete overview of undertakers posing as physicians.
Yes, the death culture is reaching for us all and not by the means that God has planned for us.
The fact that there is no dissenting opinion among more than a half dozen households causes me to wonder if it's because the democrat households are just nominally liberal (being deep in red state territory.) Something I find sorta plausible, they all at least profess to be Christian, though some don't have a clue what that involves as I know it.
But, also, this is a "middle class" working neighborhood. Some of us are financially secure, others struggle from paycheck to paycheck. If the question were brought out in the open I think we'd all have to say we'd be on a hospice death list if physical circumstances took a turn for the worse. So, maybe your immortality question has some meat in it.
All of us except one couple have been in situations where we have had to care for dying relatives also. Because we've been there we fail to grasp the motives (we agree on money being the motive) of the families who promote death.
On the west side of me is an older couple. The man has a serious heart problem. I think they are actually "living" in a similar situation now to that Mae is in. I'm thinkin' that man's wife or either of his kids would kill somebody that tried to dehydrate and starve Chuck. (They are conservatives not liberals anyway)
See, I wasn't kidding, this afternoon's conversation and lack of disagreement from *anyone* along my alleyway have really made me think. I hope this bodes as something that could turn to momentum for LIFE. I just can't give up hope. This at least seemed positive though I can only speculate as to the root of our agreement.
LOLOL, maybe that's why you couldn't 'see' my webpages, I have lots of javascript and Dynamic HTML which doesn't show up on some browsers!!
I don't know personally about UAB but Kenneth's mother, Mae's sister has been successfully treated non-surgically for the same condition Mae has for some years now. Kenneth said that his mom's doctor immediatly said he would also treat Mae. Sounds like it's a reliable place at least when they've kept the sister alive for 5? (I think) years when the Georgia hospice gave Mae no hope.
I heard Rush Limbaugh say something to the effect that his medical/legal papers say that no one who benefits by his death gets to make the decision to withdraw life support.
Your web page didn't show on my computer! I have MS-XP, IE version 6, a gig of ram, all the security junko turned on, and it's still a no-go. Gotta chat with Bill Gates next time I see him.
And that's an excellent way to keep the feeding tube in him and the daggers out of him.
Yes, that puzzles me too. I'm going to have to send all my page urls to some of my friends and ask them what they get. I know I overload them with .gifs!!
This is great news, I've seen some posts about this case and I am glad to hear that morals and common sense prevailed...then again, it wasn't in Florida.
God bless and keep Mae...
My mom is a rabid Democrat. I was almost afraid to ask her what she thought about Terri Schiavo's death, but I asked anyway.
It turns out my mom was very upset about what they did to Terri, and she was horrified when I told her about what Mae went through.
I would really like to hear Mae tell her side of the story someday. I would be very interested to hear what she has to say about the way she was treated.
A must read interview!
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