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.
Right, right, 34 patients all wanted to die that day.
I have encountered people who have been misinformed about Terri and would have supported her if they had had the correct facts.
Her self-inflicted guilt over spending $80 on a bad hair style caused her to have a car accident, which brought on a massive heart attack, which caused her to develop bulimia, which caused her bones to spontaneously break, at which time she asked her loving husband to sleep around on her, kill her cats, torment her family, steal her money, and torture her to death. He promised he would, and by golly, he kept his promise.
Update from Nick. He's out of the hospital!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1707528/posts?page=533#533
Isn't that what the bone scan showed?
We have a winner!
When Michael said "I kept my promise," he didn't waste a moment! Terri was bulimic, in cardiac arrest and comatose within eighteen (18) hours of getting her hair colored. She also had a broken back, possible rib fractures, injuries to both of her knees, both ankles, and to her neck, a subperiosteal hemorrhage on her right femur, and severe brain damage. That's a lot of promises kept in less than one day. Michael is awesome!
For Terri, spending $80 to get her hair dyed blonde meant, "If I have only eighteen hours to live... "
It showed injuries as severe as a bad auto wreck -- except Terri wasn't in one. The injuries were NOT consistent with being bedridden for a year (Dr. Walker's second answer below).
11/21/2003. Legal examination of Dr. William Campbell Walker, the radiologist who handled Terri's bone scan. The questioner is attorney Patricia Fields Anderson.
Q I realize you can't assign a cause to 20 these injuries that you picked up in this report. 21 But typically in your experience, what would be the 22 causes of this pattern of abnormality? 23 A In somebody her age, an auto accident is 24 by far the most typical cause. 25 Q Assume that she was not in an auto 1 accident but that she had suffered an anoxic or 2 hypoxic encephalopathy type of injury from a cardiac 3 arrest and had been bedridden for a year at this 4 point. What might account for these abnormalities? 5 A In my knowledge, that type of injury 6 would not account for this pattern of abnormalities.
He's so modest about all he's been through. I also had 2 1/2 days in the hospital recently and it was like 9,000 years in purgatory. I got so desperate I actually watched television! {shudder}
Very glad to hear the good news of Nick Danger. Starts the morning right.
BOSTON The biological mother of a 12-year-old girl who allegedly was beaten into a coma by her adoptive mother and stepfather is seeking to resume hospital visits to the girl. The Massachusetts Department of Social Services barred Allison Avrett from seeing the girl in July. Avrett's attorneys say the only reason given was "for the needs of the child."
Mother of brain-injured girl seeks visits
8mm
(Original Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to September 22.)
Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.
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Avrett's lawyers want a judge to order the state to reinstate visitation rights and to provide the mother with medical information about Haleigh.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman yesterday took the requests under advisement and didn't say when she would rule.
Elizabeth M. Clague of Brockton, co-lawyer for Avrett, told the judge that Avrett has a constitutional right to see her child. She said the visits and her relationship with the child are important to the child's recovery.
Citing the child's privacy rights, lawyers for the state unsuccessfully asked the judge to close yesterday's hearing in Suffolk Superior Court. The state Department of Social Services has custody of the child. During brief remarks in open court, Assistant Attorney General Margaret J. Hurley said Avrett lacks legal standing to seek visitation rights or medical information. Hurley said Avrett is not the parent of the child.
Assistant Attorney General Sarah M. Joss said restoring visitation rights should be rejected because Avrett is unlikely to win the lawsuit on the merits of the case. She also said Avrett can't show any "irreparable harm."
8mm
The New York State Legislature once again failed to pass a surrogate decision making bill so family members can make health care decisions for their loved ones without being appointed as their health care agent. This means that New York and Missouri remain the only two states without such a law.
What does this mean for you and your loved ones? It means the only way anyone can make health care decisions for someone over the age of 18, who cannot speak or make those decisions for him or her self, is to be appointed that person's health care agent using the New York State Health Care Proxy form.
On health care issues, who will decide for you?
8mm
Lufkin, Nacogdoches?! Goodness, we do range afield to get our news :-)
Ahem. Ms. Joss, YOUR client, the DSS, tried to kill Avrett's daughter. For all we know, they'll do it again. If that isn't "irreparable harm," what is??
It is hard to imagine what danger Allison Avrett poses to her daughter that is one-tenth as frightening as bureaucratic cannibals trying to kill her and cut her up for her organs.
Slow newsday in Singapore. But we range far and wide from Little Hope to Normal Ind, to Big Bluff, ME.
Hurley is a weirdo. Avrett is, after all, Haleigh's mother! A mother-child relationship is forever. It doesn't end even if bureaucrats get custody and a mean state lawyer says so.
They don't even understand how foolish they sound to normal human beings. Glad Wendy Murphy is back in the fray. That is the kind of Murphy's law I like.
All that may be on the up and up, but I wouldn't bet your life on it.
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For more information about the New York State health care proxy and living will you can attend a presentation on advance care planning at xxx xxxx at Lifelong. Call xxx xxxx to register. Members of the On My Own Terms Coalition are also available to make presentations on advance care planning at your place of work, place of worship, club or community organization. Call Xxx Xssssss at Lifelong (xxx-xxxx) or Xxxx Xxxxxx at Hospicare (xxx xxxx) to schedule a presentation.
Bill Hawley is executive director at Lifelong. Nina Miller is executive director at Hospice Services and Hospicare Residence.
The Ithaca Journal's guest columns on aging are coordinated by the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute in cooperation with the Aging Services Network of Tompkins County. The columns are published on the fourth Wednesday of each month.
And their mantra is frayed...
As you can see, there is a lot to think about regarding the possible future care you may need. Oftentimes, we think that advance care planning is something only older people need to worry about, but that is not true. Both Nancy Cruzan and Terry Schiavo were just 25 years old when they went into their persistent vegetative state. Both families went through years of agony before Nancy and Terry died.
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