Posted on 04/10/2005 6:26:38 PM PDT by schmelvin
Ken: I’m the nephew of Mae Magouirk in LaGrange, Georgia. My family lives in Alabama. They’re from Addiston, Alabama and I live in Birmingham, Alabama and we love my aunt Mae very much and we can’t 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 Magourik’s living will says tha, uh, that her nourishment and fluids should only be pulled if she’s 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 it’s terrible, but it’s just a freak, it’s an anomaly. It couldn’t 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 aunt’s uh, granddaughter get control of the situation?
Ken: How did she what?
Glenn: How did she get control. How did this happ…
Ken: Well I’ll 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, don’t even start with me. I’ve got the medical durable power of attorney. I’m making the decisions.” And I said, “Beth, you know, we’re right here in front of your grandmother. Even though she’s on morphine, we shouldn’t talk about this. We should go out in the hall.”
We went out in the hall and we explained my mother’s in uh, she’s 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, “I’ve been praying about this and, and I’ve been praying to Jesus. Jesus has told me it’s time that grandmother went home to Jesus. She’s got glaucoma. Now she’s 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. We’ve got doctors who are ready to take care of her today.”
She goes, “no, I’ve got the medical power of attorney and that’s 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 aunt’s vital stats at. She said, “well today, her blood pressure is 160/88 with a pulse of 84.” I said, “well that’s not so bad.” I said, “my aunt’s going to make it, isn’t she.” She says, “Oh no, your aunt’s not going to make it because we have withheld nourishment per geth…Beth Gaddy since March 28th.” She said, “I’ve been off the past few days. I’m surprised your aunt’s still alive.” I said, “What!”
Next time, I, she says, “call the hospice attorney.” I called Carol Todd, hospice attorney, ug, said “we’re 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 it’s 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 she’s comatose or vegetative, she’s 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 can’t do that, you’ve gotta come in and sign the papers.” So, uh, Mom stayed here because she’s a little sick. My uncle Buddy, Aunt May’s 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 o’clock. She didn’t show up and the hospice head nurse talked to us, “oh, she needs to die. You know, the life’s 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 UAB’s 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, doesn’t mean that you have common sense. I’m sick of these judges, man, sick to death of these judges. So let me ask you, did they put, did they, so they didn’t 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: That’s why I couldn’t 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 don’t know. Because she’s 81 and the worst thing about it, you know, it’s bad that she’s 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 can’t produce tears. She has to take drops to keep her eyes lubricated. She hasn’t had those drops in the last two weeks. She’s blind practically now. Opening her eyes is, is a terrible pain. And they won’t give her the drops.
(snip)
You can read the entire interview here:
http://www.aclearvoice.org/archives/2005/04/transcript_of_g.php
why don't you call her up and ask her? We'll wait till you get back to us...
Not me. I've seen enough evil for one lifetime. You look at her. I'll lend you a pair of welder's goggles, to make it easier on your eyes.
ROFLLL!!
I just woke up my kids laughing so hard!!
actually-- I will be giving you HER side tomorrow-- at least she says she will give it... og course-- she is being advised on it per the JUDGE BOYD-- so not sure how forthcoming she will be...
Sad. To condone the death of another human being by starvation and dehydration as a form of self-defence...and those who felt the most guilt, shouted the loudest.
I hope you aren't holding your breath waiting for Gaddy to say anything. Unless you think, "no comment" is a good enough explanation.
I also don't remember them using the term "COMPLETELY WITHOUT"
I do remember them saying that she received fluids on Fri for a short time-- I also note that they did refuse her eyedrops for her eyes! While hse has Glaucoma-- (CRUEL)
AND I note that Kenneth specifically told me that the LaGrange News article was GOOD ON THE FACTS and that article covered her measely ice chips and pudding...\
but- if you have to mis quote to hold onto your "beliefs" NOT MY ISSUE!
OK, now this WILL be interesting. So far she has not been able to be reached for comment.
Don't forget to ping everybody!
Why don't you have a little practice run now? Ping two or three of us...just to say hi!
LOL!!
Yes it SHOULD!!!!
psssst...don't think you meant that one for me?
OH MY GOSH!
I will try this.. JUST FOR YOU!
Per request, from my blog:
| The Entrenchment of Evil |
When I was a liberal, I used to believe many things that today seem absurd. One very dangerous belief could be expressed asThe more people do a wrong thing, the less wrong it becomesTo any reasonable person, such a statement is absurd on its face, but the principles embodied therein underly a liberal's belief system. This tendency manifests itself in the way people react when they do discover, after doing something, that it was wrong. Liberals have an inherent belief that they can alleviate their guilt by convincing themselves and others that what they did was somehow okay. They believe that if they can convince enough people that what they did was morally okay, that will somehow make it so. This provides some short-term relief, but the guilt returns with a vengeance, compelling people to go further and further in their efforts to pretend that what they did was okay, even though they know it wasn't. The irony, of course, is that sinners can be forgiven of their sins if, and only if, they admit that what they did was wrong. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of what liberalism compels them to do. Rather than trying to prevent others from making the same mistakes, liberals try to encourage them to do so. Liberals believe that if enough people make the same mistake, the punishment will be lessened. They also believe that one who says "Do as I say, not as I did" is a hypocrite, even though the true hypocrite is someone who tells others to do as he did while declining to inform them of the consequences. I am reminded of a scene from The Adventures of Hucklyberry Finn. I don't remember the details perfectly, but Huck FInn et al. staged a play that was, to put it bluntly, a scam. Before the audience could attack him, however, he suggested that if the audience attacked him everyone in the audience would have to admit to their neighbors that they were dumb enough to get scammed. Better to instead rave about the show, so the neighbors will get scammed too. That way nobody will be able to laugh at anyone else (excluding Finn et al. who could laugh at everyone). People need to realize that almost any sin committed out of naïveté--even murder--can be forgiven if one is sufficiently contrite and seeks atonement. The greater the sin, and the greater the degree of knowledge when the sin was committed, the greater the required level of contrition. To achieve forgiveness, whether from God or from oneself, however, one must not try to convince others that what one did was right, but one must admit instead that it was wrong. If people could grasp that simple fact--that forgiveness comes through contrition and repentence--many of the evils of the world would fade away. Unfortunately, many people's eyes are still blind to the truth. |
She did it! I'll have you posting pictures next!
LOL!!
actually I did-- I was speaking to you- and acting as if the "other" one wasn't in the room!!
LOL!!
LOL!!!!
LOL!!!
I need all the help I can get!!
"..if they admit that what they did was wrong..."
And there you have it.
YOU DO ROCK!!
YOU KNOW THAT!!!
Now I get it! OK, you're not supposed to do that, LOL! It's not FReeper etiquette, but I understand!
you will have mail in a few minutes
not FReeper etiquette
wooops!
sorry, my apologies to the "other guy"-- what was his name?
I am spoiled on the click on reply button and didn't try and memorize the nic name...
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