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The trial to decide whether a Winnipeg man should be taken off life support does not appear as though it will begin for at least another nine months.
Percy Golubchuk and Mariam Geller are fighting to ensure their 84-year-old father Samuel Golubchuk is not taken off life support by staff at the Grace General Hospital.
Samuel Golubchuk, an Orthodox Jew, has been on life support there since early November, but in December doctors advised the family that they wanted to take the man off the system because he showed minimal brain activity, could not communicate, and showed no signs of improvement.
The family fought in court to keep him alive, and last month Justice Perry Schulman granted a temporary injunction allowing Golubchuk to remain on life support until a trial could decide the issue for good. Lawyers for the Golubchuk family and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority were in court this afternoon attempting to hammer down a trial date, but the Golubchuk family lawyer said it's not likely to be for some time.
"We still haven't set a definitive date but it's looking like December," Neil Kravetsky said.
The court calendar is routinely backed up several months, and some trials are already being booked well into 2009.
Kravetsky said the family is happy knowing Golubchuk will remain on life support until the trial, no matter how far off it is.
"Right now he's ok because the order's in effect," he said. "Mr. Golubchuk is doing ok. He's holding on." A spokeswoman for the WRHA declined to comment.
http://winnipegsun.com/News/Winnipeg/2008/03/14/5009466.html
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