Posted on 09/05/2006 4:45:45 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed via euthanasia when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma. Now Poutre, once termed "brain dead" by doctors, continues to improve and is speaking a few words, her grandmother says.
Sandra Sudyka, the girl's biological grandmother, is no longer allowed to visit her granddaughter and now says she is ready to speak to the media about Poutre's condition.
She told The Republican newspaper that she last saw Poutre on July 18 but indicated she was "doing well."
"She was bright-eyed and smiling. She is always responsive to us," Sudyka explained.
Department of Social Services had asked Sudyka not to talk with reporters about Haleigh, but since they will no longer allow her and Haleigh's biological mother, Allison Avrett, to visit the 12 year-old, she said she's going to talk to the media.
"I decided since they broke the deal, I am going to talk. People should know how well she is doing," Sudyka told the newspaper.
"They don't want people to know how she is doing after they wanted to pull the plug," Sudyka said.
DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro declined an interview with The Republican but said that the visiting privileges have been suspended, not terminated.
Haleigh first began speaking in June, her grandmother told the newspaper.
"I was saying to her 'I love you,' and she was trying to say 'love' and it came out as a vibration...'ove,'" Sudyka said.
Sudyka, who is working with an attorney to adopt the girl, said she has said hello, responds to comments and questions, speaks nonverbally and is able to write her name. Haleigh can't walk and is confined to a wheelchair.
Avrett, Poutre's biological mother, lost custody of her daughter after physically abusing her. Poutre was put into a foster home where her adoptive parents also abused her. Her adopted mother committed suicide after abusing Poutre so much she had to be hospitalized.
DSS took Poutre into custody and when she appeared to slip into a coma, the agency asked the state Supreme Court for permission to take her life. That's when Poutre began responding.
Poutre has been receiving physical, speech and occupational therapy since January 26 at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton.
Gov. Mitt Romney appointed a commission to look into how the state failed to properly handle the girl's case.
That first photo is clearly Bob and Mary Schindler visiting Scott.
As I noted when the book came out, Hirsch got played for a fool. It's easy to do that to liberals on a mission. They have such tunnel vision, a six-year-old could bamboozle them.
Maybe the federal judge never heard of the First Amendment. That happens with judges who went to publik skules.
Maybe he got it confused with First Aid or Red Cross or similar.
So slip him a piece of krytonite. It will render him helpless.
And about time, too.
"I am so proud my FIL did not run away. He stayed true to his duty -- even though it meant my kids never got to meet their grandpa."
You have every right to be proud of him.
Yoohoo, Mr. Hirsh, speaking of lies...
"People still insist on calling Michael a murderer. Any notion that Terri was able to communicate is absurd."
She could communicate quite a lot, with gestures and monosyllabic sounds, even with a word or two now and then. From 1990 to 2003, she was documented as saying "stop" to nurses during uncomfortable procedures. She could tell them when she had been incontinent and when she felt pain from menstrual cramps. The nurses understood and treated her with pain-killers. It's all in her medical records. Didn't you look at her medical records, Mr. Author, in writing a book about her? Some researcher you are.
Now for another whopper:
>> Terri was believed to be bulimic, which caused her to go into respiratory and cardiac arrest in 1990.
The autopsy laid that nonsense to rest, in case you didn't read it (even though you said you did). Another place to look is Dr. Baden's interview with Greta von Susteren. He called it extremely rare for a healthy young woman to collapse from hypokalemia and opined that Terri was the victim of trauma. (I'd go further: there's no evidence that she DID "collapse.") There were several sound medical reasons to attribute the one hypokalemic blood test to the desperate efforts to resuscitate Terri or to other events that morning, and to dismiss as utterly unfounded the theory that Terri had suffered from bulimia. For one thing, the low potassium was a one-time thing, treated and completely normalized within fourteen hours, never to return. That does NOT fit the damage done by chronic dietary abuse. For another, Terri was never seen purging and is known NOT to have purged that Saturday night. She hadn't had a weight problem for years. Even Michael denied that Terri had bulimia -- until a sharp lawyer told him how he could use it for a malpractice suit.
>> She remained in a coma for 10 weeks. Within three years, she was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state.
"three years" -- Convenient timing, eh, Mr. Hirsh? You wait until after the malpractice settlement. But when Michael's lawyers were appealing for $12-16 million in medical care costs for Terri, you'd better believe they denied to the jury that Terri was PVS. And Michael himself was tearfully telling the jury he loved Terri and would take care of her the rest of her life. As soon as he got the money, he suddenly lost all hope for her, cut off her therapy, stuck a DNR on her charts and counted the days until he inherited her insurance money. You bit like a bluegill, Mr. Hand Grenades.
>> In 1998, her husband petitioned the courts to remove her gastric feeding tube. Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, tried to fight the order. The courts found that Terri was brain dead and she should not be kept alive.
Another flagrant lie. No doctor ever diagnosed her as brain dead, for the simple reason that she wasn't. The court did not find her brain dead either. Nor are courts authorized to "find" that she "should not be kept alive." She wasn't dying, you know. She was quite healthy, had a strong heart, and could expect to live at least ten more years. That's in the autopsy report too. She had to be put to death by legal subterfuge. That's why so many called it murder. It was wrongful death even though a court did it. Nat Hentoff at the Village Voice called it judicial execution. Fr. Pavlone, who had attended Terri at her bedside, called it murder.
So, Mr. Hirsh, I'll give you another turn at bat and ask you what I've asked all concerned for a year. How did a healthy young woman (surely asleep at that hour) end up face-down on the floor, in respiratory-cardiac arrest and nearly dead, shortly after her husband came home, late that Saturday night?
Thank you. I was thinking about your father's B-17 missions. Boy, that was hazardous duty. Those guys had guts. You can be just as proud.
"I was thinking about your father's B-17 missions. Boy, that was hazardous duty. Those guys had guts. "
Terri is on the way to sainthood. It may take years and years but she's on her way.
Thank you for the link. I don't recall that we've seen that story posted here before. I'm delighted this school is creating a Terri Schindler-Schiavo scholarship (even if it means saying three words in a row that start with SCH :-) ).
The bad facilities can neglect and abuse someone in the span of about a month causing death or serious illness. The good ones have a better track record. It takes time to sort the good out from the bad. The bad facilities are under staffed, thus, patients are dying of neglect that leads to malnourishment and dehydration.
There are good hospices and bad hospices. Hostage Woodside is the worst.
Florida Murder Rate up 25% while Crist serves as Fla AG. He is a lousy ag and would make a lousy governor. Florida is going to suffer for the next four years no matter who wins. Maybe somebody with intellect and common sense will run for governor in four years.
Did I mention Crist? I don't think I did. Maybe you are answering the wrong post.
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