TX: Baby at center of life support fight dies

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D89SE4B01.html


A terminally ill infant at the center of a life support fight died Wednesday while still receiving full medical treatment.

Six-month-old Knya Dismuke-Howard had leukemia that spread to her brain. Doctors at Memorial Hermann Children's hospital said continued care would be futile and a hospital ethics committee decided last week to remove her from life support Monday, despite objections from her family.

Knya also had multiple-organ failure and a serious bacterial infection and was on morphine to relieve pain. She was diagnosed with leukemia five months ago.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee faxed letters to Memorial Hermann and Texas Children's hospital Monday, asking that Memorial Hermann reconsider or that Texas Children's assume care. About three dozen people protested the hospital's decision on Tuesday. Some held signs that said "euthanasia is not ethical" and "thou shalt not kill." Jackson Lee has said she plans to write legislation that would allow parents to keep a hospital from removing life support from their sick child.

[joeybee12]

1. While I don't agree with the family, it is their decision, not some

"ethics" committee. Oh, and I'm willing to bet the baby was black.

[spooked911]

2. My thoughts exactly.

And why aren't the "culture of life" Republicans all over this case????

Fucking hypocrites.

[joeybee12]

12. Two words: Poor, Black--obviously not their "base" of support.

[rainbow4321]

4. Here she is.....

There is also video her at this site.

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou050503_mh_knya.23af11cb1.html


The 6-month-old infant Kyna Dismuke-Howard passed away at 5:40 a.m. Wednesday morning at Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital. Her parents were with her and she was receiving treatment at the time of her death.
The hospital is denying Quanell X's claim that they now plan to remove the baby from life support on Mother's Day. They say it will happen on Monday.

[joeybee12]

14. Hmmm...she looks a lot more active than Terri Schivao ever did.

[China_cat]

9. Yes, she was.

And I don't for a minute believe she was receiving 'full medical care' when she died. It might have looked that way but I'd bet it wasn't.

[joeybee12]

13. Neither do I...they probably did just some perfunctory care...

...pretty much left her alone.

[Bridget Burke]

15. Prove it, please.

I've got problems with "the law" being discussed, but hospitals do have to be quite serious about the care level given.

[joeybee12]

18. I'm not there--I can't prove it, and never said I could--my experience

with the care in hospitals is that it sucks. You have to have someone (an advocate) pushing for the patient almost full-time in order to get decent treatment.

[Bridget Burke]

19. You assume the baby's parents didn't care?

Were they the "wrong sort" to see their child was cared for?

[Junkdrawer]

3. Hmmm...wonder why this wasn't covered by the MSM 24x7 ???

:think:

[Midnight Rambler]

5. See the above picture

[rainbow4321]

8. Cuz the 24/7 coverage would have included:

"UNDER a state law signed BY Bush, this is the THIRD family in as many months being told they don't get a say in their loved ones life/medical care"...and the media/repukes don't have the cajones to do that.

[Junkdrawer]

10. Ya think? Say..are you suggesting the media is biased?

Cuz that is clearly a ridiculous Conspiracy Theory if you are...

:sarcasm:

[harpo]

6. Where's the outrage from Tom Delay on this one?

[Ian David]

7. See more on George's "Culture of Coverage" Law

Decision hinges on patient's ability to pay, prognosis

March 21, 2005
Sun Hudson, Terri Schiavo Media Politics Rights, Law

Six days ago, a 6-month-old baby boy named Sun Hudson died when Texas Children's Hospital disconnected his life support, against the wishes of his mother, because they decided that further treatment was "futile" and Wanda Hudson, the boy's mother, had no medical insurance. The Houston Chronicle reported:



Sun's death marks the first time a hospital has been allowed by a U.S. judge to discontinue an infant's life-sustaining care against a parent's wishes, according to bioethical experts.

More:
http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2005/03/sun_hudson_terr.htm


See also:
Culture of life clashes with anti-tax movement
http://www.holmencourier.com/articles/2005/04/08/opinion/00edit.txt

Examining the alive, the dead and the line that divides them
http://www.dailycollegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/07/42548b53c8d04

Where was the outrage?
http://www.atmoreadvance.com/articles/2005/04/04/opinion/editorials/col1.txt

O'Reilly Flip-Flops, Defends Texas Law That Allows Baby Sun Hudson to Die

Bill O'Reilly ran a segment yesterday (3/23/05) on the state-sanctioned termination of the life of 5-month-old Sun Hudson over the objections of his mother, Wanda, an indigent African-American resident of Houston, Texas. O'Reilly interviewed William Winslade, Ph. D, a bioethicist at the University of Texas-Galveston and Mario Caballero of Lone Star Legal Aid, who is Ms. Hudson's attorney.
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/03/24/oreilly_flipflops_defends_texas_law_that_allows_baby_sun_hudson_to_die.php


Mother -- has never wanted life support to be taken. With the law, the parents/guardian have 10 days to find another facility to take the patient if doctors want to end life support. No facility wanted Sun. So, on March 15th, life support was ended.

http://cbs11tv.com/localstories/local_story_074205328.html

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/15/lifesupport.baby.ap


... George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday
http://onoekeh.blogspot.com/2005/03/remove-life-support-says-george-w-bush.html


Q: Who signed a Texas law allowing hospitals to cut life support over a family's objections? A: GWB.

Why does the media not discuss this Hypocrisy. Is this supposed to be a state secret or is it just more of our RW GOP controlled media?

In 1999 then governor Bush signed a law which allowed hospitals to withdraw life support from patients, over the objections of the family, if they consider the treatment to be nonbeneficial.

Hospitals can end life support
Decision hinges on patient's ability to pay, prognosis
By LEIGH HOPPER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3073295

Hospital ends life support of baby
1st U.S. case of its kind is against mom's wish, in accordance with law
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/healthscience/stories/031605dntexbaby.bc467.html

Terminally Ill 6-Month-Old On Life Support Dies
OUSTON -- A terminally ill 6-month-old baby, who a Houston hospital wanted to remove from life support, died Wednesday morning, Local 2 reported.

Officials with Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital released the following statement Wednesday morning:

"The staff of Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital, particularly those who have cared for Knya, are saddened at her death from leukemia at 5:40 a.m. today. Knya's struggle with cancer began when she was just five weeks old. In the months that followed, she received ongoing treatment for both the leukemia and a related life-threatening bacterial infection. Her family was with her at the time of her death and full medical treatment was being provided. Our hearts go out to Knya's family in their time of grief."

http://www.click2houston.com/news/4447471/detail.html


A San Antonio hospital has decided to withdraw life support from the Friendswood invalid whose family successfully fought a Houston facility with the same plans last month.

snip:
Spiro Nikolouzos' case attracted significant attention in Houston in March, the same time the Terri Schiavo drama reached its climax. It shone a light on a seldom-used Texas law that allows hospitals to remove a patient from life support 10 days after notifying family of its intentions. The family has that time to find an alternative facility.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3157837

[joeybee12]

11. The photo of that baby is heart-breaking!

[Hamsta1]

17. Heartbreaking, Indeed.

This must be that slippery slope I've been hearing so much about. As time goes on, we're probably going to see more egregious examples of this ghoulish law ending poor people's lives against family members' wishes. The beauty of the slippery slope argument is how often it conjoins two disparate realities and tries to show one causing the other. The right Loooooves this type of argument because it doesn't involve logic and you can plug in your own worst case scenario. Like when I say that this law is ultimately going to lead to our welfare rolls being turned into one big hit list. As if the deck isn't stacked against our working poor enough already.

[rebecca_herman]

16. Poor baby

I felt terrible for that poor baby. I'm glad her suffering is over. I think her parents were being very selfish. She was in such bad pain they had her on constant morphine.

[bluestateguy]

20. "I don't care about this. What about the white runaway bride?"

Sincerely,

A typical American.

[NNguyenMD]

21. hmm...what do you think maintaining life support would have accomplished

she was in multiple organ failure, had an infection, and was in the acute phase of a very aggressive form of Leukemia.

The error here could probably be attributed to the health professionals who did not effectively communicate to the parents what her chances were, or take more time in understanding why these parents wanted to maintain life support despite such a hopeless situation.

If you think what I'm saying sounds cold and cruel, I think you'll discover that our more compassionate compatriots in Europe and Canada who offer Universal Healthcare adhere to a policy not unlike the one that this Texas hospital followed.

This post is going to really get me flamed, but health professionals are trained to treat patients, not their families. If a patient can not speak for themselves, then yes the parents have the first say in teh direction of their child's care. But if the parent's choices are not in the best interest of the child, then the doctor can override the parent's as healthcare proxy.

Just set aside your anger and frustrations with doctors and hospitals for a moment and imagine what you think would have been in the best interest for this child, do you really believe it was suffering the slow death of opportunistic infections (the worst kind), organ failure, and brain damage?

I'd like to know more as to why her parents were convinced that their child would make it through.

I'm not a doctor, just a med student but I've witnessed a similar situation of a 12 year old boy had been in remission from a brain tumor one year previous, relapsed in his spinal cord, and within a week's work of time was a quadripelegic below the neck as this tumor kept growing.

The physician and nurses handling this patient informed the parents of exactly what was going on, and what were the availiable options. The parents eventually decided to put the boy on hospice care where he died at home, in his own bed during the night 6 weeks later.


Just to throw another cog int eh wheels, do you think its right for doctors to intervene in cases where parents refuse to put their children on life saving therapy because of relgious beliefs? Because its the same principle behind why a doctor would override the parents, they serve in the best interest of the patient not the family.

[johnaries]

22. I think most of the anger and frustration here is not because of the

actions of hospital, but because of the hypocrisy of the people who campaigned so hard to continue life support for Terri Schiavo but simply don't care about cases like this one.

You may get a few flames, but I think many here would agree with your assessment.

[msanthrope]

23. No flames from me--your post speaks of good, common sense

and a sense of care and compassion for the medical patient.

This particular baby was in terrible pain and had leukemia in her BRAIN. Game over.