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.
Thread by kristinn...
Press Release: Support the Troops and Their Mission Weekend Sept. 22-23 in Wash., D.C.
8mm
TORONTO, September 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) The March of the Religious Right - Where Does it Lead? was the first major talk offered at the international Challenge in Choice conference of euthanasia advocates held in Toronto September 7th to 10th.
The talk featured Robert Raben, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, and a major figure in the US Democratic party and Jon Eisenberg, an attorney and author of the book, Using Terri.
Raben, a political organizer and strategist for the Democrats, offered insight into the strategy of the Right to Die movement and emphasized that the religious right, particularly the Catholic Church, was their most powerful foe.
8mm
SEMINOLE (BP)-"Life itself was on trial," the attorney who worked to save Terri Schiavo from starvation writes in a new book about the landmark Florida case and the shame it brought upon a nation.
Attorney in Schiavo case cites faulty legal system
8mm
On March 18, 2005, when the feeding tube was removed from Terri Schiavo after years of legal wrangling prompted by her husband's desire to end her tragic life, what did Terri know?
How aware was she that the clock had begun ticking and the withdrawal of food and hydration was for the purpose of ending her life, which would come 13 days later? Was Terri cognizant that her husband, with the compliance of the judicial system and in the wake of the failure of federal and state legislatures and Florida's chief executive to stop him, was seeking to end her life because she had mysteriously and catastrophically suffered severe brain damage 15 years earlier?
What did Terri know?
I've often pondered this question in the 18 months since Terri Schiavo died-quite unnaturally. It's a question that should haunt every person involved in this saga-every citizen, every elected official, every judge, and, not the least of which, Michael Schiavo who today is a celebrity campaigning for politicians who have earned his political action committee's support.
What did Terri know?
8mm
Unlike Bush, Crist stayed out of the Terri Schiavo uproar and even praised the judge who allowed the husband of the brain-damaged woman to remove her feeding tube. He calls himself "pro-life" and says he favors banning abortion except in cases of rape, incest and where the life of the mother is in danger. I doubt he would try to disturb current abortion law in Florida.
Snip...
In case this all sounds a bit confusing, just remember - Charlie Crist is a solid conservative even if he has some differences with the Bush brothers. We should be under no illusions about that.
After Jeb, hopefully a chance to take a breath
8mm
A journalist for the UK Guardian met several patients who emerge from a persistent vegetative state after taking zolpidem. The degree of recovery varies, and lasts only about two and a quarter hours, but some of the recoveries appear remarkable. Papers describing what happens have been published in the journals NeuroRehabilitation and the New England Journal of Medicine and a British company, ReGen Therapeutics, is carrying out clinical trials. Another therapy is electrical stimulation of the brain. An American doctor, Edwin Cooper, claims that people given electrical stimulation emerge from comas more quickly and regain functions more quickly than if they are given only traditional treatment. His work has not attracted much attention in the US and was even denounced by the recently deceased expert witness in the Terri Schiavo case, Ronald Cranford, as "junk science".
Sleeping pills offer wake-up call to vegetative patients Drug could overcome brain shutdown...
8mm
It is beyond sadness that they killed this baby. Oremus.
I didn't know that men suffered from premenstrual syndrome, but I can't think of anything else that explains Ned Lamont.
Hey, I'm down the road. Stop by and say hello :-)
>> He singled out Catholic priest and medical ethicist, Fr. Kevin ORourke for praise, saying the priest had provided the movement with the arguments from Catholic ethics that defused Catholic opposition to the killing of Terri Schiavo.
From which we deduce that Fr. Kevin O'Rourke does not belong to the one opposition group, "regular Mass-attending Catholics."
I don't see how you can be a bioethicker and a Catholic.
It was more than that. It was an act of will. The patient chose to "play tennis" in her mind.
Mutually exclusive in so many ways...
Keen observation. Yes, it was will. Sure confounds the bioethick crowd desperate to build separation between the case and Terri's.
8mm, you are so good and kind to do all that you so tirelessly and generously do. Thank you times infinity.
Crist is a death monger running as a conservative and note the media doesn't call him a social conservative because he isn't one. He looks so much like kevorkian that I mute him and change the channel. governor kevorkian - I hope he loses.
Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was a tag team thing. I'll read it again. I'm so used to being flamed. I will go back... Speed reading is a good thing but not while reading posts. lol
Re: 648. I see where you were coming from now upon the re-read. Your point was that those particular views of mine are not extreme or radical. I'm the real America more times than not. I spose you are too. For example, Hugo Chavez can't get out of town fast enough for me...
I had noticed the resemblence in character, but I hadn't noticed the physical resemblence before. My goodness, he does look like him.
Not fed since September 3rd I see. Where do we get such heroes? /s
She had physical therapy this morning with NO problems. They moved her all over, pulled her legs in and out no changes in facial expressions, no changes in heart rate etc. SHE WAS FINE!
Now what good is physical therapy when they are straving her to death? What am I missing here?
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