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I'm sure this case will have George Felos salivating.

Thread by me.

Horseheads woman battling for guardianship of vegetative husband

It's a custody battle that rages on in Horseheads. Sara Harvey is fighting to be the guardian of her husband, Gary, who has been in a vegetative state since 2006. But a judge has ruled she is unfit to take care of him properly. Our Vince Slomsky tells us just some of this complex story and what might happen next.

HORSEHEADS, N.Y. -- Sara and Gary Harvey met at work. They married each other in 1998.

“We had a beautiful relationship. Just loving," said Sara Harvey.

Gary was a relatively healthy person, until January 21st, 2006. He had a heart attack inside their home in Horseheads and fell down these stairs suffering a severe brain injury. From that day on, he's been in a vegetative state relying on others to keep him alive. The majority of his time has been spent in the Chemung County Nursing Facility, but Sara says they do not provide him with the care he needs.

"I feel that he gets inadequate care. I mean with over four dozen ER trips, how would you think," said Sara.

But Sara is actually not even her husband's guardian, the county of Chemung is. A judge ruled she was unfit to care for her husband in 2007, and she says it all stems from an incident on September 16th, 2006. She said her husband's tracheotomy tube was defective, but the nurse at the nursing facility would not replace it.

"I cut it, and I used their scissors, and I told her I was going to do that and she didn't stop me. I wasn't trying to harm him in any way, I was trying to bring the matter to attention," she said.

A few hours later, the tube was replaced. But Chemung County Attorney Bryan Maggs says there were other incidents as well, such as wheeling him outside and placing flavors in his mouth.

“There were other instances where she was acting completely inappropriately, in a, well I'll just leave it at that, in an inappropriate way trying to do things with her husband that he was obviously incapable of doing physically," he said.

Sara says on May 29th of this year, the county and the ethics committee at St. Josephs Hospital decided to end Gary's life by removing his feeding tube.

"The doctors consulted and discussed what his medical needs were and what course of procedure would be most appropriate given his very severe needs and they came out with a course of action," said Maggs.

Sara says she was able to get the decision overturned but fears that it may happen again. She wants to care for Gary herself at their home and she has everything he needs to do so.

"I want my husband home for the holidays. He's a veteran. He's fought for freedom and he's denied his freedom," she said.

It is a matter likely headed back to the courts. The county attorney tells us they never wanted to be the guardians but after Sara was found unfit no other family members stepped forward. He also says Gary's condition is so severe that she would never be able to provide the care he needs.

Both sides are anticipating a court hearing soon on the guardianship battle.

"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."

Wife’s Visitation in Jeopardy: The Isolation of Gary Harvey

Gary Harvey is the brain injured man from New York, who seems to have his own private “death panel” determined to kill him off and to make his and his wife’s life as miserable as possible, until the sentence is carried out. One might think it could get no worse than it has been. One should never think such thoughts, lest one (or more) be shown that — for however bad — things can actually get worse!

Though it wasn’t Sara sitting on the so-called ethics committee that determined Gary should be starved and dehydrated to death — the Guardian and County (who actually were involved in the attempted death of an innocent person) — have suggested she is a danger to her husband.

Huh? Did I miss something there?

Hasn’t a DNR been placed on Gary? If something does go wrong — that’s it, isn’t it? Those in charge have made it clear they have no intention of lifting a finger to save his life, but yet, it is Gary’s wife, Sara, that is considered the danger to him?

The Twilight Zone has competition!

Let’s see…

It is the Guardian, County, and So-Called Ethics Committee that decided Gary should die, but Sara needs to be supervised when visiting him? So, what do they think she is going to do to Gary that they need to protect him from?

Certainly can’t be death!

Certainly can’t be torturing him to death by starvation and dehydration!

So just what are the supervised visits suppose to be accomplishing? What protection are they allegedly providing? What are they supposedly preventing?

I’m with you — I don’t know either!

I did get word though, that the bills for these questionable supervised visits are being charged to Gary and he is either out of money or running out of money to pay for them. What does this mean? No more visits with his wife? And this is in Gary’s best interest how?

I don’t know who these people are that think they are looking out for Gary Harvey’s best interests, but I certainly wouldn’t want them in charge of looking out for my best interests under any circumstances.

Isolation is a form of torture. It causes failure to thrive. So now, when those in control of Gary didn’t get him starved and dehydrated to death, and have not been able to implement the DNR — they are going to deny him his wife’s visits? Who are they trying to punish? Gary for being disabled or Sara for fighting to bring her husband home?

One can only wonder!

Author’s Note: Brief interviews with Sara Harvey can be found at WENY-TV (Dying With Dignity, Emma Wright June 3, 2009) and at Family Life (”FLN News/The Gary Harvey Story” , Sarah Harnisch – July 9, 2009) and (”FLN News/The Gary Harvey Story: An Update” , Sarah Harnisch — October 28, 2009) as well as articles by The Corning Leader’s John Zick and Star Gazette’s Ray Finger and ongoing coverage by National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse (NASGA).