Posted on 02/01/2008 2:51:57 PM PST by Pyro7480
A Delaware woman has become the next Terri Schiavo as her parents engage in a massive legal and philosophical debate about whether to subject her to euthanasia. Richardson is a 23-year-old woman who overdosed on heroin in August 2006 while she was three months pregnant with a baby girl.
Doctors kept Lauren on life support until she delivered her baby in February 2007. Shortly thereafter, her parents began a fight that is reminiscent of the battle over Terri's life and death.
As in the Terri Schiavo case, physicians have been quick to label Lauren as having a persistent vegetative state -- something Terri's family called dehumanizing and medically inaccurate as patients have recovered from it.
Edith Towers, Lauren's mother, wants to remove her feeding tube and starve and dehydrate her to death in the same manner that Michael Schiavo subjected Terri.
Towers claims Lauren would never have wanted to live as a permanently disabled person, but Lauren, as with Terri, did not have a living will or other advance directive spelling out her treatment wishes. She claims Lauren told her during Terri's battle that she would not want to live like her.
On the other side is Randy Richardson, Lauren's father is fighting to save her life and wants to be appointed as her guardian to ensure she receives appropriate medical care and treatment.
"She's committed no crime and doesn't deserve to have this death imposed on her," Richardson told the News Journal newspaper on Wednesday. "We just want to give her a chance."
Lauren no longer uses a ventilator or other breathing apparatus and is not on artificial life support -- something Randy contends is showing progress.
Towers is winning the legal battle in court as she was awarded guardianship of Lauren, but Randy Richardson has filed an appeal.
The News Journal indicates Delaware Court of Chancery Master Sam Glasscock III has put any action taking Lauren's life on hold while the court reviews the guardianship ruling -- a process that could take as much as three months to complete.
Regardless of the decision, an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court is expected.
Randy Richardson also has other concerns about his daughter and says that Towers, his ex-wife, has not allowed Lauren's baby to see her.
Richardson and the Delaware Pro-Life Coalition released a video on Wednesday that shows Lauren at a nursing home reacting to family members and a dog.
The pro-life group also organized a prayer vigil near the Arbors Rehab Center in New Castle.
Thank you, bjs. May T’wit keep us steered right from Above...
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Listen live, Saturday morning, to The Health Insurance Advocate, Cary Hall, as he interviews Bobby Schindler and Suzanne Vitadamo, Terri's brother and sister, for their response to Obama's recent statement that he regrets voting for a bill that attempted to save Terri from death by dehydration and starvation, one he says 'allowed Congress to intrude where it shouldn't have.' This, according to Senator Obama is the biggest mistake he has made as an Illinois state senator.
Kansas City, Missouri (PRWEB) February 29, 2008 -- Listen live this Saturday morning (live stream) at 9 am CST on KCMO Talk Radio 710 AM, when Cary Hall gives Terri Schiavo's family the opportunity to respond to Senator Barack Obama's recent statement that "the biggest regret of his political career was his vote to support the right of the parents of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo" to appeal in a federal court to keep her alive by sustaining her feeding tube.
the biggest regret of his political career was his vote to support the right of the parents of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo |
Find out what Obama's statement means to the American people and Terri's Foundation as it strives to raise awareness about euthanasia, national healthcare, end of life issues, advance directives, hospital ethics committees -- with an update on the Lauren Richardson case in Delaware.
Find out why Obama must continue to push the lie that 47 million Americans are uninsured, why he wants to place profit caps on the commercial health insurance industry and why allowing disabled people like Terri Schiavo to live cannot fit into his National Health Care plan that will be based on "quality of life" while it forces American's to wait in long lines for medical treatment.
The Health Insurance Advocate airs this Saturday on the KCMO 710 AM live web feed at:
The show airs at 9 am CST, 7 am PST, 8 am Mountain and 10 am EST.
Or listen to the program anytime this week by visiting www.thehealthinsuranceadvocate.com.
Contact:
Vicky Bisby
913.385.2224
www.thehealthinsuranceadvocate.com
The Health Insurance Advocate
10540 Marty, Suite 200
Overland Park, KS 66212
Barack Obama's Change Crushes Hope for America's Disabled
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Back to the Marx brothers, but this time Karl, no joke. This evil cloud is just too much to comtemplate without some slicing and dicing to see what the critter really means to do. I refer to The Obama Nation and to his middle name, Hussain. Does he prefer to be the bad case of B.O. of the Democrat party or BHO or maybe HBO so more of us would watch him? His worshippers think it is us who are crazy and it is Barack Hussain. I think he is sane, calculating, intrinsically born of evil intent, and it is working as worshippers swoon in his tracks as worshippers before swooned over his mustached predecessor in Germany many moons ago.
We are conditioned to think this guy is not an Islamist yet any other hapless being who breaks from his roots in Islam grows shorter by a head. Why, oh why are Islamists so forgiving to a subject like Hussain? Of course they say it is ok to lie to us infidels.
I slam Islam
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What's really behind the vehement protests against the mention of Barack Obama's middle name and the arrogant advice of some Democrats NOT to oppose him in certain ways (as though they really want to be helpful to those who DON'T want Barack to become the President of the United States)?
Answer: Grave concern that the Barack bubble will burst, if he's closely inspected.
The middle name of the candidate of hope and change (and supporter of infanticide and euthanasia as well as abortion) is Hussein. When it's mentioned, some folks go insane..................
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Pro-life groups are condemning Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama for saying that his biggest regret in his political career was supporting the right of the parents of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo to appeal in a federal court to keep her alive by sustaining her feeding tube.
The comment came during a debate Tuesday night when MSNBC moderator Tim Russert asked Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton whether there was any word or vote that youd like to take back in your careers in public service. Clinton had responded that she regretted her vote authorizing the war in Iraq, while Obama wanted to take back his 2005 vote regarding the Terry Schiavo case...........
Obama Under Fire for Terri Schiavo Remark
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Critics say the ultrasound bill injects fear into doctor-patient relationships and pushes government into micromanaging medical care, as lawmakers did in the Terri Schiavo case, where a feeding tube was removed from a woman in a vegetative state........
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I am so sorry T'wit missed this. He had hoped Wendy Murphy could somehow take control and help Haleigh and that Haleigh would finally have her day. T'wit, it is happening.
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An attorney for the biological mother of the Westfield teen who was beaten into a coma says she believes the brave little girl has improved so much she’ll be able to testify against the man accused in her beating.
“Haleigh will sometime very soon tell all of us what happened,” said Wendy Murphy, an attorney for Haleigh Poutre’s biological mom, speaking on 680 AM (WRKO) this morning on Tom Finneran’s radio show.
The 2005 beating case, which drew national attention and ignited right-to-die debates, made headlines again this week after court documents revealed that Haleigh, who was once in a vegetative state, is now communicating information to police about her abuse...................
HaleighÂs attorney: SheÂll tell all
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Once again from the Boston Herald, more info!
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Brain-damaged and battered Haleigh Poutre has become a modern medical miracle, but her future could not be more clouded as the brave little girl faces new legal battles, with no real family and a lifetime of special care ahead of her.
Just two years after Poutre was nearly removed from life support, she’s found the will to live and is likely the driving force behind a push to testify against her alleged abuser, said a source well-informed on the case.
“She is leading the way,” the source said. “I suspect she’s indicated a desire to do this.”
For the past two years, Poutre has been at Franciscan Hospital for Children, the largest pediatric rehabilitation center in New England, where she goes to a school for special needs kids. The expressive 14-year-old eats, communicates with a keyboard and can hold limited conversations, the source said.
“She’s aware of her surroundings. She clearly connects to people. She’s cognitive and capable of attention and understanding attention,” the source said.
“This child has held onto life unbelievably.”.................................
PoutreÂs future unclear as trial looms
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Haleigh Poutre pulled herself back from death for a reason.
Doctors can only say it had something to do with her young brain’s wondrous ability to absorb horrific trauma and keep on functioning. While that may be an answer, it’s hardly a reason.
Others, who’ve been privileged to see this child, believe one reason Haleigh has survived the alleged battering and abuse by her stepfather and aunt may lie deep in her “extraordinarily courageous little soul.”
Simply put, Haleigh wants to be loved.
“Clearly, she was not ready to abandon her search for a loving home,” said one source with knowledge of this incendiary case. “Perhaps somewhere, deep in the core of her being, beyond the memory of pain and torment, she holds fast to the expectation of a life shared with adults who are trustworthy and compassionate.”
Such a home would have to be a special place, one where Haleigh would be embraced by foster parents skilled enough to compensate for all the havoc she suffered at the hands of her first family, the one she was tied to by blood and circumstance.
In a perfect world, Haleigh Poutre, now 14, would be graced with a second chance. Her “extraordinarily courageous little soul” would be allowed to complete its journey toward a sanctuary of love and safety.
Sadly, we live in a world of lawsuits and 51As. We find ourselves at a time and place where Jason Strickland, the stepfather accused of beating Haleigh to the very edge of brain death, has his defense lawyer primed and ready to abuse this little girl all over again with legal challenges to her “mental competence.”
In pulling herself back from death, Haleigh Poutre has now begun to piece together fragments of the nightmare that was her life. The story has emerged in court documents that do not paint Jason Strickland as a trustworthy or compassionate stepdad.
This is not good news for the accused child batterer who went to court to block the state’s request to have his comatose and “brain dead” stepdaughter removed from life support. Keeping Haleigh on life support, you see, kept Strickland further away from a murder charge.
But what Jason never imagined, let alone counted on, was that the child that he and his wife, Holli, had “rescued” from her sister, Allison, would recover enough of her memory to begin describing what few of us dare to imagine.
Now, Strickland’s defense lawyer must find a way to prevent Haleigh’s memories from becoming witness testimony. The only way to do that is to challenge her competence, to argue that the brain-damaged girl is not able to provide key testimony against the very man charged with damaging her brain.
That is just one of the many sad and tragic ironies of this awful case. Holli Strickland, who took custody of Haleigh from her sister, Allison, no longer has to worry about the girl’s recollection. Holli committed suicide shortly after the case exploded into public view.
Some three years ago, the doctors who surveyed the damage done to Haleigh Poutre’s brain gave the little Westfield girl no chance of survival. Sometime in the near future, these confounded practitioners will find themselves on the witness stand, asked under the pains and penalties of perjury, to offer their best guestimates on the “viability” of one extraordinarily courageous little soul and her ability to recall the horror she survived.
Will the legal system wind up abusing Haleigh Poutre all over again?
Maybe the reason Haleigh pulled herself back from death was to journey toward a place where she might one day discover the kind of love she never knew. Unfortunately, before she can make it all the way home, it looks like she will have to take on the family that nearly destroyed her and confront a cast of court-appointed strangers in suits and ties, who will claim that they are seeking nothing more than the truth, the whole miserable truth.
She just wants to be loved... HaleighÃÂs courageous fight
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Haleigh
"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."
I hope Haleigh Poutre gets a good family with tons of love - she deserves it!
Prayers for Haleigh, so she has a wonderful life!
“Pray for Dorothy.”
Absolutely!
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LARGO - Dorothy Palinchik, the 42-year-old waitress whose family alleges she did not receive adequate health care at Pinellas County Jail, died Thursday at Largo Medical Center, according to her live-in boyfriend.
Dorothy Palinchik
Her diagnosis was a combination of pneumonia and a type of staph infection that is resistant to antibiotics, family members said. Her time of death was 4:14 p.m., according to the hospital and family members.
The day before Valentine's Day, Palinchik was booked into Pinellas County Jail on charges she had stolen a $9.20 Philly steak sandwich from a Publix supermarket, said Palinchik's mother, whose name also is Dorothy.
Nine days later, she left the jail in an ambulance.
Palinchik's family and boyfriend think she got sick at the jail and that the staff there is responsible for her condition.
"They didn't give her proper medical care," said her mother. "I just don't think they wanted to deal with it."
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the jail, has a detention investigative unit that has started looking into the matter, said sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha. Such probes are launched whenever someone leaves the jail in a deteriorating health condition, Pasha said.
Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats said it was too early to tell whether his staff did anything inappropriate, but he defended the quality of health care at the jail and the conditions there in general. The budget for inmate health care is $21 million, with roughly $2 million for pharmaceuticals, he said.
"A lot of these inmates, they've had little or no health care maintenance in their lives," Coats said. "We don't know what ailments they may or may not have and a lot of time we have to rely on what they tell us, or don't tell us."
Palinchik was accused of ordering the sandwich at the Publix in downtown St. Petersburg at dinnertime, and of walking out without paying for it, according to an arrest affidavit. She was charged with petty theft, with bail set at $250.
Palinchik's boyfriend, Michael Mullican, said he was out of town working as a truck driver in the Miami area when she was jailed. When he visited her at the jail's video visitation center Feb. 21, eight days after she was booked, she looked terrible, he said.
"The next time I saw her was Saturday afternoon on a ventilator at Largo Medical Center," Mullican said.
Pasha, the sheriff's spokeswoman, said Palinchik was transferred from a regular wing at the jail to a medical wing Feb. 21, the same day Mullican visited her, and the next evening she was transported by ambulance to Largo Medical Center...................
Family Blames Pinellas Jail For Female Inmate's Death
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This is so sad, and all because of a stinkin’ sandwich.
There is so much evil in Pinellas County.
Prayers for all.
You sure know how to make my screen go blurry!
I admire both of those men, one since I was a child. Thank you for sharing your wonderful tribute to them.
Oh that Terri would have had this opportunity!!
Might explain the rush to end her life and Michael’s
policy to deny her rehab and keep her completely isolated.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” Isaiah 5:20
You know who you are.
Dorothy's dead at 42. Terri didn't quite make it to 42.
There is going to be an autopsy. WHO'S GOING TO BELIEVE THE AUTOPSY REPORT? If it says Dorothy was sick before she got to the jail, it's a bold faced lie.
Enter Florida at your own risk.
It was “2” at your place? That’s incomprehensible!
Do they call ANTIFREEZE antifreeze in Floriduh?
I call antifreeze “the green stuff” that’s not supposed to come out.
FLORIDA R.I.P.: Terri Schindler, Jimmy Chambers, Martin Anderson, Dorothy Panichik and all the children killed by sexual predators: Jessica Lunsford, Carlie Brucia, et al.
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