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Lawsuit seeks to bar removal from life support
A lawsuit has just been filed in the County Court of Bowie County, Texas, asking the court to prevent Regency Hospital of North Dallas from removing 61-year-old Ruthie Webster from life-sustaining dialysis treatments.
“We were appalled at the amount of power given to health care providers,” says Allen Reaves of Gilmer, counsel for Mrs. Webster. “This statute enables a doctor to ignore the wishes of the patient and the family and substitute their own judgment as to who lives and dies.”
Section 166.046 of the Health and Safety Code was enacted by the Legislature in 1999, but has rarely been an issue on appeal.
“Usually when a situation like this develops an injunction is sought and the patient is transferred to another facility,” said Robert Bennett of Gilmer, co-counsel with Reaves. “When the transfer occurs, the suit is dismissed. In this case, we are asking the Court to declare the statute unconstitutional and against public policy, because there are no procedural avenues to allow oversight of the doctor’s decisions. We won’t be dismissing the case.”
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is also named in the suit.
“Texas Law requires us to name the Attorney General if we are trying to get a statute declared unconstitutional,” says Bennett. “This doesn’t mean that AG Abbott disagrees with our position on a moral level.”
“Ruthie Webster went into a comatose condition following a botched dialysis treatment,” Reaves added. “But it has only been a few months and she deserves a chance to try and heal.”
Lawyer and State Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) also feels strongly about this statute.
“This should not be the law in Texas,” Hughes said. “It’s one thing for a doctor or a hospital to make a medical decision as to whether continued treatment will prolong the patient’s life. But when the question is one of quality of life — that is, whether the patient’s life is worth living — that decision belongs to the patient and the patient’s family. The medical people can and should give advice, but the final decision is not theirs.”
Bennett said that the Webster family found the Bennett law firm through an internet search. He said that he does many seminars, and that publicity for one of them was what attracted the family to his firm.