The latest on Andrea Clarke--as best I know for now. [View All]

[knitter4democracy]

Here's what I know for now--the situation is changing constantly, so please keep looking for updates further down in this thread when I have them.

Here's the latest Houston Chronicle article link:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3828539.html

Here's what I know from Melanie:
Andrea is quite ill still, but there seem to be signs that she's on a path to getting at least slightly better. Her white cell count is normal for the second day in a row, and that hasn't been true in a long time. Her blood pressure is still too low, a sign that her heart is pretty weak from the infection and all, but her meds have been lowered, which is a good sign. Her lungs are also finally clear for the first time in months. In other words, she's still very ill and in the intensive care unit but doing much better than she was doing even just three days ago.

There's a new doctor in the mix now who is reviewing her case and helping the family know what's going on and how to deal with the hospital. He's of the opinion that Andrea isn't out of the woods yet but doing better than had been reported.

My husband, an internist, looked into getting her up here to Michigan to take her on as a patient, but she's too sick to travel this far. The risk is too great, in his opinion, that she would code on the way, and he doesn't want to put her in any kind of jeopardy. The new doctor apparently agrees with that, so they're looking for new solutions at St. Luke's.

There's going to be a big meeting on Tuesday with the family, the new doctor, another new doctor the hospital has assigned to Andrea's case, and the hospital staff. Lanore, Melanie's sister, is going to be the main one dealing with everyone there, along with the family's lawyer. They're going to ask for the medically futile status to be rescinded and to let their new doctor take over her case. They have a decent chance of that happening, as the hospital is running scared on the bad press and possible liability (many of the current problems stem from her being in the hospital and don't meet the standard of care, i.e. the bedsore, the brain bleed, and the endocarditis).

What we need to do is keep hounding the press. We need to keep e-mailing all of the news people we can think of, calling them if need be, and trying to get the word out there.

You'd think that the press would pick this up, if only because the far left and far right are both on the same side and working for the rights of a very ill patient. Michael Moore's people have been involved since the beginning, as have Right to Life and Terri Schiavo's parents. We need more press, though.

Is Andrea very ill? Yes. Could she die soon? Yes. The issue here is that the hospital and the original physician decided to take her life decision into their own hands and ignore her wishes and the wishes of her family. She is only in her fifties, and she is a widow with a 23 y.o. son. She deserves better than this.


Here's another post from another thread with contact info:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1050023&mesg_id=1055027