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.
just don't drive any dark cars....
or fly in your black helicopter....
"Should you abhor such a label, consider your company."
I have no company. I have one question for you? You posted this thread originally, then pinged your Terri Legacy ping list? Does that make a thread exclusive? I have not seen a rule like that on Free Republic.
You might want to consider posting such threads in one of the less-visited topics, like Chat. That way, they'll be unlikely to be seen by most Freepers.
I take the point of view that any thread posted in the News/Activism topic is an open thread, accessible by any Freeper. I don't think I'm wrong about that.
Don't lump me with any group. I don't fit. I am in this thread, as I said, because it is talking about organ donation. That subject interests me, since I am a donor.
You may have wanted this thread to be a closed thread, not subject to discussion outside of your Terri Legacy list, but you can't control that, I'm afraid.
In the Religion topic, for example, some threads are relatively closed and no negative discussion is allowed. That's just not true in News/Activism, as far as I know.
For me, this thread is about organ transplantation. That's the only part of it I'm involved with. I stay away from Terri threads, and have done so for some time now. I don't stay away from organ transplantation threads, and don't plan to start staying away from them anytime soon.
Post in Chat or Religion, and you won't have the "hoi polloi" of Free Republic in your threads. Post in News/Activism, and you'll attract all sorts of posts.
If the point of this thread was only Terri Schiavo and how she somehow relates to the unfortunate subject of the thread, I would not have been involved with it. I has mostly, however, been about the whole organ thing. I don't remember who started that, but that's where I came in.
Terri Schiavo is dead. It's a sad business that she died, but it has been a long time now. I'm not longer interested in her case. The young person who is the subject of this thread is alive and, apparently improving. That's a good thing.
Thanks; just so freepers can see I didn't post anything obscene.
I also am glad to see the pulled posts restored...whenever I see a post deleted, I wonder and wonder what was said...chalk it up to my nosiness....now with posts restored, things clear up...
Yes, it does...thanks...
Well, I'm going to go watch the Redskins get beat up by the Cowboys. My husband is in such a bad mood from that game I came into the study to hide out for a while. LOL. And if the 'Skins keep losing, I'll be back :-)
Ah, hubbys and their football..I understand completely...
I agree, I had no idea this was supposed to be some memorial thread until I got yelled at somewhere ages into the thread. Now that I go back I see a list was pinged, but I've been to threads where two or three ping lists were called in. Pinging to a news thread does not make that thread privately owned. The Religion forum would be a really good spot for this, lots of protection, but also in Chat more explicitly labelled as an agenda thread would work as well. Those who weren't invested in the Schiavo tragedy wouldn't even post. In News leading in with a news article, the odds are not so good.
When Aldrich awoke in April, doctors still had little hope for her. ''They told me I was going to be a vegetable," she said. ''They said I was going to be blind."
----snip----
''I can't wait to go back to Montreal," to the hospital, she said. ''That way they won't give up on anybody else."
----snip----
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2005/05/01/woman_fights_back_from_near_fatal_coma/
LOL, you're welcome.
Mineral Man..I also an interested in Organ Donation, as both my husband and myself are organ donors, and have been so for many years...tho, I suspect we are both now too old to be donors, both of us being over 60yrs old...however our younger son is also an organ donor, and has been ever since he has been able to declare himself so...
Also I happen to know an extremely wonderful young man, whose life was saved, due to an heart-lung transplant...and contrary to what some on this thread want to insinuate, no live body was carved up, to give this young man back his life...another young man died of head injuries in a motorcycle accident, and his parents saw fit to donate his organs....and they were dang sure that he was dead, before they were going to donate his organs...
So, many of us are on here for different reasons...to lump all of us together is just plain silly, and convenient for some to believe this...
"Brain Death"—The Hoax That Won't Die
by Earl E. Appleby, Jr.
Whether you are classified as dead or alive depends upon your attending physician's understanding of the concept of death. The radical departure from the traditional cardiorespiratory standard of death inherent in "brain death" has, in Capron and Kass's words, brought "extramedical concepts to the forefront of concern." Moreover, "medical judgments," as Lamb reminds us "are informed by philosophical presuppositions, whether or not the latter are explicitly formulated." The following article explicates the "philosophical presuppositions" underlying the "extramedical concepts" of brain death as articulated by its proponents.
If as propagandist par excellence, Joseph Goebbels maintained, a lie repeated often enough is soon believed, the brainwashed public's blind faith in "brain death" is telling testimony to the pervasive power of the big lie. Regrettably, while the medical myth of brain death won't die, its victims do.
Brain death, a prominent proponent attests, is "a creation of prevailing medical technologies." Ironically, these "technologies" have nothing to do with the ability to determine death and everything to do with the ability to sustain life.
http://www.vitalsignsministries.org/vsmBeyondBrainDeath.html
Moral of the story? Always be a vigilant advocate for your loved ones. You are their voice.
I think you have a fine point...most people dont go to the Terri Memorial threads, except for, as you say, those who are invested in such a thread...but who had the idea that this thread we are on now, was supposed to be such a memorial thread, when there was already a thread set up for that purpose?
Organ donations, living wills, end of life decisions, all of these are important issues, and all points of view should be welcomed...
Holy cow, you want to go back to clinical death (cardiopulmonary)? You know a patient who is brain dead cannot be kept alive long-term on a heart and lung machine? Brain death is cardiopulmonary death plus the extra mile.
That would seem to leave Terri Schiavo out of your equation.
? She wasn't brain dead. Perhaps you should research the definitions.
My older son was declared brain dead, after a massive cerebral hemorrhage, due to his low platelette count, due to his leukemia...
They made absolutely sure that he was brain dead, conducting a myriad of very specific tests geared specifically for this purpose...then and only then, did they approach us about disconnecting him from the ventilator....
And still, I have had people, who knew nothing at all about medicine, nor about my sons case or his care, actually tell me that I killed him...how gracious of them...
Yes, be vigilant at all times, when you or your loved ones are sick, in the hospital, or incapacitated...but spreading unwarranted fear, such as 'Run for you lives, the docs are out to carve you up for your organs', is quite a pathetic attempt to spread fear...be vigilant, absolutely, yes...spread unwarranted fear...absolutely not...there is a difference between these two tactics...
Perhaps you should just research your previous post.
Perhaps if you think there's something incorrect about my post you could say what it is.
I don't think that all doctors are out to get you, but some are, and some are incompetent. All I ask for family members to do is get other opinions.
My mom saved my dad's life by disagreeing with the doctor and listening to her own common sense.
I avoided major surgery ten years ago by getting a 2nd and 3rd opinion, and even the original doctor (not a specialist in the field) later admitted that I was right.
Anyway, we both agree to be vigilant.
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