Bobby Schindler: Killing More Than Just the Patient

I recently read an article in the London Free Press (March 22nd) about the highly publicized Joseph Maraachli situation titled, Baby Joseph Case Becomes Political Issue in U.S.

As the Executive Director the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, I was personally involved in helping Baby Joseph’s parents keep control of the medical treatment decisions that were being made for their son.

Joseph was diagnosed with a brain condition that doctors believe will eventually cause his untimely death. Joseph's parents, Moe and Sana, understood that their son’s case was terminal. Their only request was for a simple procedure to be performed that would enable Joseph to spend his remaining days at home.

However, attending physicians at the London Health Sciences Centre hospital in Ontario believed they knew what was in the best interest for Baby Joseph. Sadly, but not surprisingly, their decision was to remove Joseph's breathing machine so that he would die at the hospital.

Joseph's parents objected feeling their son deserved better. After much fanfare and wrangling, the one-year old was transferred to a SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis where the parent’s wishes for medical treatment are being respectfully considered.

Subsequent to the Baby Joseph case was the tragic situation of Ms. Rachel Nyirahabiyambere. An Alexandria Circuit Court ruled that Ms. Nyirahabiyambere's medically-assisted food and water was to be removed and that she should subsequently be dehydrated to death against her family's wishes.

An appointed guardian – a complete stranger to Ms. Nyirahabiyambere and her family – decided that she should be receiving only palliative care because she was "profoundly vegetative" and had no chance of recovery.

The family looked to the Catholic hospital (Georgetown University) for support. But much to their disbelief the hospital wiped their hands clean of Ms. Nyirahabiyambere's care. Apparently the case was too costly and she had no insurance. So therefore, this institution based on Catholic principles did nothing to stop the public guardian from carrying out Ms. Nyirahabiyambere dehydration death.

Fortunately, her family fought back and three weeks after Ms. Nyirahabiyambere's feeding tube was removed, a judge ordered that she be given food and water immediately while the legal issues were being weighed.

The cases of Baby Joseph and Rachel Nyirahabiyambere are not isolated situations. Indeed, this is the reason our family established Terri's Life & Hope Network. Following the brutal death of my sister, Terri Schiavo, we intend to keep issues like this at the forefront of thought when it comes to protecting the medically vulnerable. During this time, it has become abundantly clear that the basic right to receive life-sustaining medical care is being eroded more every day.

In fact, it has escalated to the point that physicians, attorneys, hospital administrators and others can make medical decisions that are completely contrary to an individual's wishes – even if this "medical treatment" involves basic and ordinary care such as food and water.

The people pulling the strings are commonly referred to as "ethics committees," people with unilateral power to make life and death decisions regardless of a patient's desires or those of his or her immediate family.

Leading experts on medical ethics like Wesley J. Smith and Rita Marker have been warning us about these committees long before my family has been helping other families fight against them.

Sadly, if you think you are protected from being denied food and water because you are in a Catholic hospital, you might want to think again. Many of the calls for help that we receive are from families that are up against Catholic hospitals and their so-called ethics committees. This is in spite of the fact that the denial of food and water from anyone is contrary to the fundamentals of Catholic teaching.

This is why I and others believe that a type of "death panel" already exists in the form of ethics committees that can subjectively make decisions to end lives.

Some, like Texas attorney Tom Malloy, may argue this point. According to this same March 22nd interview regarding the Baby Joseph case, Malloy (who has been a member on five ethics boards) said that all the dissent over last year's health care reform law and questions of how to treat vulnerable patients like Baby Joseph were simply "an all-out effort to defeat health reform." Malloy stated that decisions by ethics committees "have happened for years and they have nothing to do with Obama-care."

It is important to note that Malloy was instrumental in legislation to ensure that ethics committees have the last word over the removal of life-sustaining medical treatment and has admitted that "some" ethics boards "have ended the life of a patient, even children, over the objections of family."

Well, if these aren't a type of "death panel," then what will we be facing once the government controls our healthcare?

Consider attorney Thaddeus Pope, a professor at the University of Delaware School of Law, who confirmed Malloy's assertion regarding ethics boards. Professor Pope believes that if cases like Baby Joseph were to happen in states like Texas, it wouldn't even be newsworthy. "The mainstream media isn't even covering these [cases] anymore. It's not news." Pope added, "The idea is that it never happens in the U.S. – it happens all the time."

Terri's case, Baby Joseph and the situation involving Ms. Nyirahabiyambere are only a few of many tragic and controversial cases that have made it into the public spectrum for debate.

However, most people commenting on these situations have never been put in the position of having to fight the "system" in order to protect their loved ones – let alone care for someone with cognitive disabilities.

We chose to advocate for families like Baby Joseph's because our family knows firsthand how devastating it is to experience the needless and inhumane death of a vulnerable child or a loved one.

Though we don't believe people should be arbitrarily kept alive at all costs, cases like Baby Joseph's and Ms. Nyirahabiyambere's clearly illustrate how family and parents should maintain the right to make their own medical decisions.

Regardless, it is always gravely wrong to deny anyone our most basic care – food and water. When that simple right is stripped from a family member or from an individual and placed in the hands of a panel of strangers, nobody wins.

Certainly, no parent or family member should ever have to witness a child or loved one being deliberately put to death. Lawyers fight the causes, judges make the orders and medical staff members carry out the actions. They all return to their jobs and their daily lives while the parents and family members live with the devastation forever.

Or do they? Certainly not in the case of my father – who never recovered emotionally from his daughter’s barbaric death – those who succeeded in ending his daughter’s life, also ended his life as well.

Two vastly different reactions to abortion.

Threads by me.

Pro-choice op-ed: I choose ‘the right to wail myself to sleep’

NEW YORK, May 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Kassi Underwood’s life after abortion is one that no one would envy.

But in an op-ed for the New York Daily News on Monday, Underwood, a writer based in New York, explained how she still refuses to judge abortion despite enduring immense grief after having ended the life of her baby.

In the piece, entitled “Get your politics off my grief after abortion,” Underwood notes that groups such as the American Psychological Association have claimed that post-abortion syndrome does not exist - but this has not stopped her from feeling acutely the loss of her missing baby.

In an account that echoes the documented grief of countless other post-abortive women, such as those at Silent No More Awareness, Underwood says that three years after her abortion she began to have nightmares about babies, and missed her “potential child” while awake. “It was bewildering that I could feel so mournful about a decision that was supposed to buttress the architecture of my identity,” wrote Underwood.

“It felt traitorous to admit that, far from thinking I had expelled a ‘blob of cells,’ I now wondered who that person I aborted would have been.”

Underwood indicated that the experience of immediate “relief” following the abortion procedure promised by pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute’s analysis of the post-abortive experience was not as simple as might appear to the uninitiated.

“It was the kind of relief I have felt after losing someone to a prolonged battle with cancer: grateful the suffering had ended, but sorry my loved one had to go,” she noted.

Seeking refuge in the pro-choice movement offered little help for Underwood: “Emotions, I learned, could be regarded as a chink in the pro-choice armor,” she said. The writer also complained of a political angle at a Catholic Rachel’s Vineyard retreat she eventually attended, accusing directors of turning retreatants into “political instruments” by urging them to tell Congress how abortion had hurt them.

Underwood says she eventually settled in a movement that encourages women to speak about abortion, but without judging whether the procedure is morally right or wrong.

“Here’s a right I’d march for: the right to wail myself to sleep, to yearn for my long gone baby, yet to know that I needed to delay parenthood,” Underwood concluded. “Transcending heartache is possible as long as I keep my story unabridged - and out of the political sphere.”

__________________________________________________

Abby Johnson: ‘I would give my life’ to undo the evil I caused at Planned Parenthood

May 2, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - I never had the honor of talking to Dr. Bernard Nathanson. But someone told me once that he asked Dr. Nathanson about his remorse after performing thousands of abortions. Many of us that have once been in the abortion industry are frequently criticized for our public “lack of remorse.” Dr. Nathanson explained to this man that if he actually allowed himself to feel the depth of his remorse, he wouldn’t be able to live with the pain. I would say that is pretty accurate for most of us who have once lived and walked in those hallways of evil. I’m not sure my heart would take the pain if I really allowed myself to feel what I had done.

Have you ever watched one of those crime shows where they interview a prisoner who murdered someone? I recently saw one about a man who had killed a young woman. He had since become a Christian while in prison and the remorse for the life he had taken was so evident. He could hardly even talk about her. It was difficult for him to maintain his composure. Well, imagine that type of remorse times thousands and thousands. We were serial killers of the worst kind … we killed children.

Then one day, after years of living in foolishness and evil, we turn it around. We swallow our pride and admit we were wrong. We lose our friends, we are called names, we start over … but we know it is worth it. It is not easy, but it is right. We repent from our sin and we feel a sense of peace and joy that has never been in our heart before … but there is brokenness, too … and a stinging feeling of remorse that won’t leave. I remember wondering if the brokenness and remorse would ever lessen. Would it ever leave? It doesn’t. It is a constant reminder of who you were and what you have done. But now, I am thankful for the reminder … it keeps me focused, passionate, and most of all, praying.

For some of us, we go on to have normal 9-5 jobs and live our lives in the privacy of family and friends. Some of us live our lives in the public. I know I am called to work full time in the fight. I didn’t know that at first, but God revealed that to me in a pretty big way … thanks to Planned Parenthood’s media release. For those of us whose conversions are public, many look at us as heroes. But we are not … I am not. How could we be? We look around us and see people who have been fighting in this movement for years; they are heroes. We are criminals. We deserve punishment, not awards. We deserve to be cast out, not accepted. We don’t deserve forgiveness, but we seem to get it anyway.

Every day of my life I think about the women I took from. I took away their motherhood, I devalued them, I broke their confidence, I betrayed them. How I wish I could look into every one of their faces and tell them how sorry I am. If I could restore some of what I took from them, I would give my life to make it happen. I wish I could be there to wipe their tears when they mourn for their lost child. To know that you committed a terrible wrong that you can’t make right is one of the most desperate feelings in the world. And as desperate as I feel, I can’t make those wishes come true. But I do my best everyday to make it up to those women and their children. I failed them once, but I won’t do it again. I know they haven’t forgotten their children, and I haven’t either.

For the lives I have taken, ‘I’m sorry’ just seems hollow to even say. How do you apologize for killing thousands of children and wounding thousands of families? I’m not sure I have an answer. But I am sorry. I am sorry to the women I coerced into abortion. I am sorry to every woman who has ever had an abortion; you may never hear those words from the person who performed your abortion, but I want you to hear it from me on behalf of that doctor or clinic worker. I am sorry they betrayed you. I am sorry they broke your spirit and your trust. I am sorry they hurt you. I am sorry they didn’t have the courage to stand up for you and what you really deserved…a chance to be a mother to your child. We abused and disrespected you in the worst possible way. I am sorry. So many people probably disappointed you…your friends, your family, your church community, your coworkers, maybe others. I apologize on behalf of them, as well. I am guilty of selling abortion to my family, friends, coworkers, and even people I worship with. We should have stood up for you and your child. I am so sorry we let you down in the worst possible way. You deserved better than what we gave you.

The extent of my remorse, sorrow and grief runs very deep. I could never even begin to share it all with you on a blog. I’m not even sure I am aware of how deep it runs. But it is there … reminding me of the life I once had and how hard I must now work.

I am only able to handle the pain of my past with the help of Christ. I couldn’t do any of this without His grace and His steady hand guiding me every day. He has never given me more than I can bear. I have never felt overwhelmed. I see His love and compassion for me every day. It is the most amazing feeling of peace and wholeness. I don’t have to wonder if He’s with me … I know He is guiding my every step.

I am a BIG sinner. I am far from a perfect pro-lifer. I would say I am a mediocre Christian. I am definitely not the best wife and no one has nominated me for “Mother of the Year.” I always fail at having a perfect day, but I keep trying. I guess I want you to know that I am working so hard to make things right. I can’t take away the pain I have caused. But I can promise to dedicate my life and my heart to this movement. I won’t ever give up on these children. My heart is here and it is healing.

Reprinted from AbbyJohnson.org

The truth must come out.

Thread by Diago.

‘Defund “Klanned” Parenthood’ campaign will cover Planned Parenthood with white sheets

"will cover the entire lawn of Planned Parenthood with white sheets, a longtime symbol of the KKK"

In a press conference held on Saturday, Christian Defense Coalition Director Rev. Patrick Mahoney — the anti-abortion activist behind last month’s KKK-invoking rally in front of House Speaker Rep. John Boehner’s office — announced that he is starting a national campaign called “Defund ‘Klanned’ Parenthood.” #

A press release circulated by Mahoney last week says the group will also stage a protest outside a Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C., and “as part of their public witness against the racist roots of Planned Parenthood, they will cover the entire lawn of Planned Parenthood with white sheets, a longtime symbol of the KKK.” #

Pro-choice groups, such as NARAL, have called rhetoric that links race to abortion rates “racist.” #

Ironically, Mahoney said in a statement that the anti-abortion movement should work to have Congress defund Planned Parenthood because Planned Parenthood’s “roots are racist, bigoted and extremist”: #

We are launching ‘Defund ‘Klanned’ Parenthood’ to expose the reality that Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger, was a racist who supported the agenda of the Ku Klux Klan, spoke at their events and wanted to reduce the number of African-Americans. #

Our tax dollars should be given to groups that have embraced human rights, equality and justice for all. They should not be given to organizations founded by racists who embraced the agenda and philosophy of the KKK. #

This push among in the anti-abortion movement linking race to abortion rates is seeing a rise in popularity. #

Anti-abortion messaging on billboards aimed at the black community, which state that “the most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb,” have been seen all over the country and have even made their way to Florida. The movement now includes influential anti-abortion groups, like the Family Research Council. #

Just last week, a Florida representative made reference to this movement during debate over the “Parental Notification for Abortion” bill on the house floor. State Rep. John Julien, D-North Miami Beach, urged the legislature to acknowledge that “abortion is a genocide of the unborn.”

Isn't rat poison already available over the counter?

Thread by me.

Suicide drugs over the counter if assisted dying is legalised (UK)

Suicide drugs could be available over the counter in chemists if assisted suicide is legalised, two of Britain’s top legal and medical experts have warned.

Weakening the law could open the way for nurses and pharmacists to prescribe drugs to help people kill themselves, according to a report by Lord Carlile QC and Baroness Finlay.

The report, commissioned by think-tank Living and Dying Well, also warned that legalising assisted suicide could lead to state agencies being set up to decide whether or not people should be helped to die.

Doctor shopping

Lord Carlile, the Government-appointed independent assessor of terror legislation, and Baroness Finlay, Professor of Palliative Care at Cardiff University, are co-chairs of Living and Dying Well.

The report cautions that assisted suicide rules currently being pushed by campaigners would lead to “doctor shopping”, where patients wanting to die or facing pressure to die would go from doctor to doctor in a bid to find one willing to help.

It also warns that if doctors were given legal powers to provide drugs to help patients die, such powers would also be extended to nurses and pharmacists.

Warning

“There is no reason why, if assisted dying were ever to be legalised, lethal drugs could not be prescribed by a physician, nurse or pharmacist, acting outside the parameters of health care.”

The report states that prescriptions might be written by those “under contract to an official assessment agency”.

It warned: “Embedding ‘assisted dying’ in health care could easily encourage patients who are less than wholehearted about the project to suppose that it is like any other medical treatment, that it is being offered for their good and that, notwithstanding any reservations they may feel about it, it is probably for the best – otherwise why would any doctor agree to proceed with it?”

Vulnerable

In October a report from a leading think-tank warned that the weakest members of society will be most at risk if the law on assisted suicide is changed.

Cristina Odone’s report for the Centre for Policy Studies cautioned that such a change could lead some of society’s most defenceless members to feel that they have an obligation to end their lives.

The report cautioned: “As assisted suicide becomes embedded in our culture, investing resources in caring for these vulnerable groups will be seen as a waste: they’ll be gone."

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

The disabled in the UK have good reason to be afraid.

Threads by GonzoII and me.

British Survey: Disabled Opposes Legalizing Assisted Suicide

A new national survey in England finds disabled Britons are opposed to the national government legalizing the practice of assisted suicide, and one pro-life group is welcoming the results.

The survey, commissioned by disability group Scope, found 70% of disabled people are “concerned about pressure being placed on other disabled people to end their lives prematurely” “if there were a change in the law on assisted suicide.” The survey also found that most young adults share the concerns of older generations about the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide.

The survey found 77% of disabled people aged 18-24 and 71% of disabled people aged 25-34 expressed those concerns.

Anthony Ozimic, the communications manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), responded to the poll, saying, “We welcome this survey and take encouragement from its findings. Scope, which commissioned the survey, is not part of the pro-life movement and there is no suggestion of it being partisan.”

“The survey’s questions were worded fairly, unlike recent general public opinion polls which use the pro-euthanasia lobby’s euphemisms, such as ‘assisted dying’. Disabled people, including young adults, are increasingly alarmed by the celebrity-driven push for legalizing assisted suicide. Disabled people want help to live well and die naturally, not lethal injections or poison-pills,” he added.

This year, assisted suicide backers in England have been pressing again for legalization of the practice and, in January, they went further by trashing disabled people in the process.

In the British Medical Journal, Tony Delamothe wrote a column titled “One and a Half Truths About Assisted Dying,” in which he disparaged the disabled.

“Sixteen months ago I argued that the debate on assisted dying had been hijacked by disabled people who wanted to live and that it should be reclaimed for terminally ill people who wanted to die,” he said.

But American bioethicist Wesley J. Smith, in a blog post, called him on the carpet.

“Thanks to the spread of suicide tourism, the UK is going through another in a series of pushes to legalize assisted suicide. As with the last time, when a bill was introduced in the House of Lords, a commission is studying the issue. And advocates are pretending that their goal is what it clearly is not,’ he writes.

Smith says the pro-assisted suicide activism in the United Kingdom “has explicitly not been limited to the terminally ill” and writes the example of the bill in the Scottish Parliament to legalize the practice, saying MSP Margo MacDonald is referenced by Delamothe.

“Yet, it specifically would have permitted assisted suicide for people with non terminal disabilities,” he notes.

_______________________________________________

70% of disabled fear pressure to die if assisted suicide legalized: UK poll

LONDON, May 13, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A survey conducted recently of disabled people in Britain, commissioned by the disability group Scope, found that 70 percent are “concerned about pressure being placed on other disabled people to end their lives prematurely” “if there were a change in the law on assisted suicide.” More than a third were worried they would personally experience such pressure.

Concerns about the dangers of legalized assisted suicide were shared equally by young people and those in older age groups.

Fifty-six percent of respondents believed any relaxation of the law would be “detrimental to the way that disabled people are viewed by society as a whole.”

Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of Scope, said, “Our survey findings confirm that concerns about legalizing assisted suicide are not just held by a minority, but by a substantial majority of those this law would affect.

“Disabled people are already worried about people assuming their life isn’t worth living or seeing them as a burden, and are genuinely concerned that a change in the law could increase pressure on them to end their life.”

The news comes as legal experts from a government-appointed think tank have issued a report warning that should assisted suicide become legal in Britain, lethal drugs could become easily available over the counter.

As pressure builds in Britain’s parliament to legalize assisted suicide, and with the Director of Public Prosecutions refusing to prosecute cases of assisted suicide, concerns are growing among the disabled community that their lives are seen as less valuable by the legal and medical communities.

Alison Davis of the disability rights group No Less Human welcomed the survey, saying it “disproves the constant claim by the misnamed ‘Dignity In Dying’ lobby that most disabled people support assisted suicide.”

(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...

How many times were we told that Terri would never recover.

Two threads by me.

‘Brain dead’ woman recovers after husband refuses to withdraw life support

NORTHERN TERRITORY, Australia, May 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Australian woman who was declared “brain dead” regained consciousness after weeks of fighting doctor recommendations that her ventilator be shut off, according to a report in the Northern Territory News yesterday.

Fifty-six-year-old Gloria Cruz was rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital in the Northern Territory of Australia on March 7, after having a stroke in her sleep.

When a CAT scan revealed that Cruz was most likely suffering from a brain tumor, she underwent surgery in what initially appeared to be an unsuccessful attempt to save her life.

“The moment I saw my wife in the ICU I thought I’d collapse,” Gloria’s husband, Tani Cruz said, according to Northern Territory News. “I couldn’t believe that I was looking at the woman I have loved for 27 years. She was not my wife. Her face was swollen. Her hair was gone. Tubes were inserted in her mouth. There was a tube in the top of her head. Another in her hands. And she was lying almost lifelessly.”

Doctors told Mr. Cruz that his wife would die within 48 hours, calling her situation “hopeless.” They recommended that the ventilator that was keeping her breathing be removed.

While Cruz stalled the decision, he was contacted by a social worker and a “patient advocate” who urged him to remove the ventilator and allow his wife to die.

“I told him that God knows how much I love her - that I don’t want her to suffer but I don’t want her to leave us,” Cruz said. “I’m a Catholic – I believe in miracles.”

After two weeks, he allowed them to shut off the ventilator, but insisted that a breathing tube be inserted in her mouth so that she could continue breathing on her own.

Three days later, Gloria Cruz defied the medical experts and woke from her coma. According to her husband, she is now alert, mobile, and on her way to recovery.

“We have a strong faith and always believed that God would help us,” said Cruz.

An increasing number of experts have begun calling into question the “brain death” criteria for determining death. They argue that brain death is an arbitrary set of criteria developed largely to ensure the usability of organs harvested from such patients, as well as to decrease the medical costs involved in keeping “brain dead” patients alive on life support.

A number of incidents have seemed to confirm this view, including one particularly chilling case in which a young man declared “brain dead” actually heard doctors discussing harvesting his organs. Minutes before being wheeled into the operating room to have his organs removed, he woke up.

_________________________________________________

Wesley J. Smith: Futile Care Theory: The Dangers of Rushing to End Treatment

An Australian “brain dead” woman (clearly a misnomer, about which more below) was ordered removed from life support only a few weeks after suffering brain injury. But thanks to the efforts of her family, she is now recovering. From the story:

A TERRITORIAN has woken from the dead. Gloria Cruz was diagnosed as being “brain dead” by a team of doctors after suffering a massive stroke. But her distraught husband Tani begged them not to switch off her ventilator. “I’m a Catholic – I believe in miracles,” he told them…
Ms Cruz had a stroke in her sleep on March 7 and was rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital. After a CAT scan, a doctor said she probably had a brain tumour. Mr Cruz, 51, who works as a forecaster at the Darwin Met Bureau, said: “The doctor didn’t elaborate. He just said I should prepare myself.” His wife underwent brain surgery immediately…Doctors said the case was “hopeless” and she would probably die within 48 hours.
When a doctor recommended that the ventilator be removed and Mrs Cruz be allowed to die, her husband told them: “A miracle could still happen. I told him that God knows how much I love her – that I don’t want her to suffer but I don’t want her to leave us.” Mr Cruz asked for a 48-hour respite. A doctor, social worker and patient advocate later rang him and again asked him to agree to have the ventilator turned off. After two weeks, a breathing tube was inserted in Mrs Cruz’s mouth and the ventilator was turn off. Hospital staff were stunned when she woke from her coma three days later.

This story illustrates many of the problems we see in medicine today:
1. There is a tendency to give up way too early on patients who have serious brain trauma. I think that is in part to the bioethical meme that rejects human exceptionalism, accepts the so-called “quality of life” ethic that presumes people with catastrophic cognitive traumas have lower moral worth, and indeed as some hold, are mere human “non persons.”
2. “Brain death” is a badly misused term. If Cruz breathed on her own after the ventilator was turned off, by definition, she wasn’t dead, but in a coma, as the story stated later. Media and medical communicators have to watch their lexicon. An unconscious patient is a living patient.
3. Diagnosis of persistent consciousness can’t usually be done reliably in days, or even weeks. It takes months, and even then, there is a 40% misdiagnosis rate. It would appear that a hasty prognosis might have been made in this case that could have had tragic results. What if the family hadn’t fought for her life? She might not have recovered to the point that she was able to breathe unassisted.
4. Doctors should not have the unchecked power to unilaterally “pull the plug.” Decisions that wanted further treatment is “futile” should not be made by the doctors or hospital bioethicists or social workers. Rather, they require strong checks and balances and decision by rule of law. If the wanted treatment is clearly so burdensome to the patient (not the medical team or hospital finances) that it should be stopped, that is a decision to be made in open courts with rights of cross examination and appeal.
5. Occasionally, “miracles” do happen.

This part of the story raised my eyebrow:

A doctor was so amazed, he said: “It’s a miracle.” And then he turned to Mr Cruz and said: “I am happy that my prognosis was wrong.”

Well, that’s nice. But I hope the doctor learned something from this experience. Sometimes prognoses are wrong. The one in one hundred chance comes up one in one hundred times. Hope should not be too quickly abandoned.

Gary Harvey hasn't been in the news for over a year, but his story demonstrates all of the dangers of death panels.

Thread by me.

My husband is a medical hostage for profit (Gary Harvey)

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - Where does one turn when you become disabled, vulnerable or old and become unlawfully a victim of the system? There are no kind words for the injustice that Chemung County New York has visited upon my husband, Gary Harvey and me.

Gary at work.

My husband a veteran who served his country and fought for our freedom is being denied his.

Until January 2006, my husband was leading a normal life. I am telling this story on behalf of a “Person”.

Not a corporation, not a piece of “Human Capital” and definitely not a legal instrumentality for quasi-corporate monetary gain. I am talking about a man named Gary Harvey.

Although Gary Harvey is still a living person, he has not been treated as such since 2006 when he fell down a flight of stairs and sustained traumatic brain injury.

Sometime later, his prognosis worsened into a vegetative condition, but this would only be the beginning of his nightmare.

Gary was placed in Chemung County Nursing Facility - and a familiar battle began.

I started complaining about the quality of care - or lack thereof.

Gary Harvey today

After pushing their own allegations, the facility was successful [in 2007] in having I deemed "unsuitable” as my husband's guardian, severely limiting contact and removing any right to make decisions on his behalf.

The County Department did not file for an Adult Protective Services (APS) guardianship, but the county attorney shows up unannounced at a purely civil/family court proceeding, and secures the commissioner of department of social services(DSS) as his guardian and she administratively designates Adult Protective Services.

They turned the article 81 guardianship into an adult protective service proceeding.

From that point forward, I have been struggling against all odds to save my husband from what I fear could be the same fate that confronted the Schindler family’s beloved Terri Schindler Schiavo.

After my husband’s constant trips to the ER over the years from negligent care, on May 16th 2009 his fate was never to return to Chemung County Nursing Facility after unknown, unexplained occurrences that destined him confined to St. Joseph hospital where in conjunction with his court appointed “protectors” attempted to end his life by dehydrating and starving him to death and were successful in attaching an unlawful DNR (Do not resuscitate) on him while my husband’s court appointed attorney coached the “protectors” how to do it, and his knowledge of my husband’s wishes.

Gary during his service to his nation, in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He is circled at the top right of the photograph in the back row.

Sara and Gary Harvey in happier days

Can you believe that Adult Protective Services of Chemung County New York who is suppose to “Protect”, a community guardian of and for Gary since March 2007 ... they actually petitioned the county court for permission to kill their ward?

An adult protective services unit, a public guardian, a charitable non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, sought court permission to kill their ward.

Although I got wind of a meeting, I was not permitted to attend, have any input nor know the results of said meeting until a week later.

In fact, prior to my official notice from the Ethics Committee, the Ethics Committee had already arranged and conducted meetings with Gary’s estranged children, his mother, and unbelievably – even his ex wife!

He is denied second opinions, Why? He is a veteran and the VA is denied to evaluate Why? What is it they are trying to hide? The law was written to protect and preserve the ward. Many cases out there this is not so.

My husband has been kidnapped and is being held against his will as what I believe a medical hostage for the profits and purely private interests of persons and entities who have no legal authority or business being his court appointed guardian.

New York law clearly prohibits the public guardian from attaining guardianship, and serving as guardian, in the manner so attained and within the plain and obvious conflicts of interests as do in fact exist in this sad situation.

The County nursing home where Gary resided for 2 years --- is assured a resident and payment, and when the community hospital became the residence for Gary nearly two years ago, the same county attorney who, from his part-time private practice is counsel for the hospital, counsel for the guardian, counsel for the county, and counsel for the public guardian, and the ole "Robed One" thinks we are all stupid and do not recognize the obvious, who also worked for the same law firm.

When every attorney involved works for the same law firm Senator O'Mara's law firm. How do I Sara Harvey who has no attorney, fighting alone ever get a fair hearing and/or trial?

Gary attending a meeting

Perhaps, lets evaluate this a bit. Chemung county law department a public agency that is suppose to protect the people in our community, the vulnerable, elder and disabled.

A few of those attorneys from their public office are also private practice associates with Davidson & O’Mara P.C. Lets see, St. Joseph Hospital, not his choice doctor, his appointed guardian CCDSS, his designated guardian APS and his assigned case worker APS and all have the same theme in common Davidson & O'Mara attorneys.

St. Joseph Hospital billed my private insurance $932K last year, out of those submitted claims $800.00 were for therapy. Sounds like good care right? Davidson & O’Mara’s client has a lot to lose if my husband were permitted to return home or placed elsewhere. Ironically, I am the only one who sees the very obvious motive.

My husband has suffered abuse, neglect and pure isolation from his court appointed protectors. You go to them and complain and they are not going to admit they are abusing and exploiting my husband.. Routinely he has surgery, like clockwork.

Anyone can see the pattern and fail to protect him from unnecessary surgical procedures because of negligence. I strongly feel that my private insurance should not have pay for their negligence.

I have no say in the matter, the county uses HIPAA as their shield for protection. I report it to the district attorney who sees no crime and guess what, his trail goes back to Davidson & O’Mara and the judges husband is an assistant district attorney who also worked for Davidson & O’Mara.

I report it to his court appointed attorney from MHLS and unbelievable the trail goes back to Chemung County Law Department via. Davidson & O'Mara.

Let’s further examine this, the appointed case worker, who works for APS and part time employee of St. Joseph hospital who in turn approve these routinely surgical procedures that are being billed to my private property insurance policy…no prejudice here.

End result who’s interest and benefit are they really protecting, while my husband remains as a “cash cow” for them? Gary has no adequate remedy of law in this county.

Perhaps there are those in New York such as the NY Law Commission who define a “Person” as a corporation, “public” corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, joint venture, governmental subdivision, agency or a instrumentality of any other legal or commercial entity, but in the real world with real “Persons”, we in society commonly refer and know a “person” to be a “Human Being”.

I don’t consider your spouse, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, grandparents or friends as anything other than that of a “Human Being” to be honored and dignified with natural and constitutional rights as provided under God’s Law as well as mans law entitled to rights established by our forefathers in the “The Constitution of the United States”.

Gary Harvey has been institutionalized for more than 5 years and isolated from the love and compassion of his wife. Gary deserves the love and companionship of his wife, the comfort of his home and friends.

Not only is it inhumane to continually deny him quality care, treatment and testing but cruel to continue restricting his wife's visits. I am not the one who tried to kill him, his guardian—Chemung County, and St Joseph Hospital are. Death Panels do exist.

The crime against disabled, vulnerable and elders is growing. This is a new wave of income for the crooked lawyers, judges and appointed guardians. The law is designed to steal and they all know the tricks. Watch out baby boomers you are next and my husband is one of them.

What happens when state government breaks its own laws? They make new ones. AOLTC --- AnOpenLetterToCongress.info. Gary is on page 4 titled DNR as Punishment for Wife’s “Interference”.

You have no rights... not even if you are legally married.

The marriage vows mean nothing in this county. Marriage is an advance directive from my husband when we said our vows to each other and before God, family and friends.

If I had not taken my plight to the media... I would be a widow. They tried to end his life and these people are still in control and managed to attach an unlawful DNR to him. How sick does that get?

The wards/victims and family members can only sit and helplessly watch while the spider comes for his meal, sometimes being spoon fed by judges that are also players in this extremely unbalanced game.

The meal is comprised of the persons life, liberty and property and is enabled the promulgated purpose, powers and objectives set forth in the Facilities Development Corporation Act (per the pleasure and convenience) encompassed in the FDA statutes.

Sharon and others who share her views, are featured in this recently published video by Press TV in Washington D.C.

YouTube Video: Elder abuse, neglect rampant in US