This man who is not known by name may become another victim of the death enthusiasts!
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They call him Enrique, but no one knows his real name.
“John Doe,” as he is officially known, was admitted to Lee Memorial Hospital on June 1 with a severe brain injury. Nothing else is known about the Hispanic man, estimated to be in his 30s or 40s.
Now in a “persistent vegetative state,” Enrique, as named by his nurses, lies almost motionless, occasionally blinking, in a hospital room with no family, no friends and the probability he will soon die.
After doctors agreed he will never get better, Lee Memorial Health System recently petitioned a judge to appoint a public guardian who can make the decision on whether the patient should be kept alive through a feeding tube.
“At the end of the day, his condition would be the same whether you know his name or not,” said Robert Lipshutz, the state-appointed Lee County Public Guardian.
Lipshutz would not say whether the man’s feeding tube will be removed soon, but when asked if any end-of-life directives had been ordered, said, “That’s obviously the issue we’re addressing now.”
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The taped interview with the actor and former Tennessee senator airs at 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Bay News 9. Thompson has drawn negative press across the country already because of his vague response when asked about congressional intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo, the woman whose feeding tube was removed after she spent years in a vegetative state.
"For conservatives, it was another in a string of Thompson statements since his entry into the race that may give them pause," Politico's Jonathan Martin wrote Saturday.
Cuban stogie could be too hot for Thompson
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Florida law also determines when a patient can be removed from life support, including ventilators and feeding tubes, McGillicuddy said.A hospital “can’t write an order to discontinue life-prolonging measures without a legal medical basis to do so,” she said.
The law says life support can only be removed in three cases:
• Terminal illness, a condition that would cause death without treatment.
• Persistent vegetative state.
• End-stage condition, a degenerative illness or injury where treatment is ineffective.Two doctors must agree a patient should be removed from life support, she said.
Four doctors agreed on the condition of the Lee Memorial patient, Lipshutz said.
The Nazis required three doctors. At that time in the US, you couldn't find one doctor who would publicly advocate exterminating disabled patients.