From http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2006/04/more_on_andrea.php#more
More On Andrea Clark - URGENT Action Needed!
"Ethics" committee votes to pull the plug against family's wishes ...
Last night (more here) we posted on the incredible application of a Texas law by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas to use their "ethics" (sic) committee to essentially committ murder. The situation is critical and requires an all-out no-stops media blitz. Until a few days ago, when the physicians decided to increase her pain medication and anesthetize her into unconsciousness, Andrea was fully able to make her own medical decisions and had decided that she wanted life saving treatment until she dies naturally.
Urgent help is needed from bloggers and blog readers. Please, immediately contact the hospital by telephone and email, and advise them of your horror that a faith-based hospital that supposedly respects life would act so irresponsibly as to put dollars before a patients life, etc.... :
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave., Houston, TX 77030Main hospital telephone number - 832-355-1000Email (more to be updated later)Ironically, St Luke's website has the caption "Live More " on their banner and has the following description:
St. Luke's Episcopal Health System has a unique commitment to patient care. As a faith-based, non-profit organization, St. Luke's believes that true healing involves the body, mind and spirit. Our approach goes beyond religion, focusing on the healing aspects of spirituality and based on deeply held trust, love, caring, compassion, and respect for well-being and life.Obviously this is nothing more than a "come-on" just to fool patients into thinking they can be trusted to be compassionate and respect life! Isn't this a rather "sic" use of false advertising?
In light of their history, their lead should be come to St. Luke's and other Texas hospitals to have your life turned off!
While bloggers and readers join in Andrea's plight to survive the death sentence by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital's Ethics Committee, her story is begining to gain more attention. Today at WorldNetDaily is carrying the story:
[...] An ill woman in Houston could die within days because a hospital ethics committee has voted to take her off life support - this despite the fact the 54-year-old is not in a coma, is not brain dead and wants to go on living, her family says.
On April 30, Andrea Clark is scheduled to be on the receiving end of a Texas law that allows a hospital ethics committee to terminate care with 10 days' notice, giving the patient's family that length of time to find a different facility.
"They just say, 'Well she's miserable.' Well, to me that's a quality of life decision that is up to her and her family," Lanore Dixon told KHOU-TV. "That is not a medical decision."
Dixon recently protested at the St. Luke's Hospital on behalf of Clark, her sister, who has been hospitalized there since November.
In January, Clark underwent open-heart surgery and later developed bleeding on the brain. A ventilator, which the committee voted to remove Sunday, helps her breath.
Talking about the Texas law, Dixon told KHOU: ""If their ethics committee makes a decision, it doesn't matter what the patient wants. It doesn't even apparently matter what the patient's condition is, because our sister is not in a coma; she's not brain dead."
Clark's family says though she cannot speak, they are able to communicate with her by moving her lips and blinking her eyes.
Columnist and attorney Wesley J. Smith, who wrote extensively on the Terri Schiavo case in Florida, chimed in on his blog:
"Note that the treatment is apparently being removed because it works, not because it doesn't - which means, in effect, that the hospital ethics committee has declared the patient's life to be futile."
Noting that the family wants Clark to live, Smith noted, "It is as if Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers wanted Terri's care continued but the hospital said no."
(...)Smith described the Texas law as allowing "private decision-making that will result in death without even the right to a public hearing, to cross examine witnesses or a formal appeal."
(...) Some have charged the law is meant to benefit insurance companies who want hospitals to get critical patients "off the books." More to come. Please watch for important updates. This post will be cross posted to BlogsForTerri, ProLifeBlogs, and Freedom's Zone.
Related: Local coverage in Houston (with video).
More at Right Wing News
Hat tip on the WND story: (JackLewis.Net)
Related previous announcement of protest already held: Protest state-approved forced-death of sick woman tomorrow!
Cross posted from Hyscience
Previously:
Andrea Clarke's Struggle for Life
Euthanasia in Texas
Killing Andrea Clark - We are Protesting - Help Us
A Step Beyond the Terri Schiavo Case
Hospital to Terminate Texas Woman
Additional Sources:
The Troubling Case of Andrea Clarke of Houston, TX
Life support battle at St. Luke's
Hospital to 'kill' sick woman?
The Sad Case Of Andrea Clarke
Houston Hospital Votes To End Woman's Life With Bush Law
Watch the news video here.
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From http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2006/04/andre_clarkes_s.php#comments
Euthanasia: April 25, 2006
Andrea Clarke's Struggle for Life
The great state of Texas has apparently adopted euthanasia as a means for controlling its health care costs. I'm told that Andrea Clarke, a woman whose life hangs in the balance, is one of many individuals whose medical treatment is being withdrawn for the express purpose of ending their lives.
Andrea, 54, suffered complications following open heart surgery that left her dependent upon a respirator for survival. Although her motor control faculties were damaged, according to her family, her cognitive abilities were unaffected.
On April 19, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, TX informed Andrea's closest kin that her medical care would be discontinued in 10 days; an ethics committee decided to "pull the plug" in a flagrant act of (passive) euthanasia. Amazingly, the committee included an Episcopalian priest who asserted, "it's wrong to keep Andrea alive, she is suffering," despite having had no contact with her. [as reported by Ree-C Murphey].
Until early last week, Andrea was able to make her own medical decisions and had decided that she wanted life saving treatment until the point of "natural death". However, "the physicians decided to increase her pain medication and anesthetize her into unconsciousness," revealed her sister, Melanie Childers.
In a brief conversation this evening, Melanie explained that before sedation, her sister was very responsive, both recognizing visitors and interacting with them. Although a tracheostomy left her unable to speak, she was able to communicate effectively by mouthing words and sentences.
"When her son comes in she smiles," Melanie explained. "She told [him], 'You need to get married'."
Lanore Dixon, another of Andrea's sisters, told KHOU,
"If their ethics committee makes a decision, it doesn't matter what the patient wants. It doesn't even apparently matter what the patient's condition is, because our sister is not in a coma, she's not brain dead. She's sick, but she's been sick before and she's proven doctors wrong lots of times.Andrea's family sees her sedation as the hospital preparing them for the inevitable. "It is not easy, we want to say good-bye but she is drugged up," Melanie told me, her voice quivering with emotion.
Last Saturday Andrea's family called for a protest outside St. Luke's Hospital. To their surprise, the demonstration was well attended by families who had previously lost a loved one to the hospital's compulsory euthanasia program.
John Hawkings (RightWingNews) contacted the hospital, asking for their side of the story. Similar to other media outlets, he received the following statement:
"Ms. Andrea Clarke was admitted to St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital on November 20, 2005. Due to St. Luke's confidentiality policy regarding patient privacy, it is precluded from commenting on her care unless the family provides written consent to the hospital.
St. Luke's treatment of Ms. Clarke has been and continues to be consistent with its mission of providing ethical, compassionate and quality care to all its patients." We would certainly like to hear more from St. Luke's Hospital.
Andrea's sister disagrees that the institution is providing ethical and compassionate care:
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, in my opinion, is heartless and cold, and only concerned about the bottom line. But the insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, is also a party to this kind of thing. That's where the pressure needs to be applied. I am sure Blue Cross Blue Shield is suffering no negative publicity in this battle. But they should.
Most people don't know how this system works. And I wouldn't have known, either, had I not been faced with this horrible situation. Poor Andrea, knowing that her health was delicate, bought supplemental insurance policies right and left--most of which do not cover this type of situation at all (she didn't know--she was just doing her best, to protect herself). The sad thing is that Andrea spent large pieces of her limited income in order to avoid just such a situation, and here she is faced with it anyway. Melanie and the rest of her family do not know what will happen to Andrea, "It's in God's hands," she said. However, they are committed to fight for her life and need the help of others.
The deadline for Andrea Clarke is Sunday, April 30th. Although her attorney, Jerri Ward, is exploring "all legal avenues", state law apparently gives the hospital a surprising advantage over their patients.
In the meantime, Melanie has asked that those concerned about her sister contact the hospital:
Andrea Clarke is at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, TX. St. Luke's is located at: 6720 Bertner Avenue, Houston, TX. Their phone number is: 832-355-1000. Here's the website, and a general email address
Previously:
Euthanasia in Texas
Killing Andrea Clark - We are Protesting - Help Us
A Step Beyond the Terri Schiavo Case
Hospital to Terminate Texas Woman
Additional Sources:
The Troubling Case of Andrea Clarke of Houston, TX
Life support battle at St. Luke's
Hospital to 'kill' sick woman?
The Sad Case Of Andrea Clarke
Houston Hospital Votes To End Woman's Life With Bush Law
Photo: Watch the video here.
Posted by plb at April 25, 2006 01:04 AM
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http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2006/04/killing_andrea.php#more
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From http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2006/04/euthanasia_in_t_1.php#comments
Euthanasia: April 24, 2006 Euthanasia in Texas
The Texas Advance Directives Act of 1999 (signed by then Gov. George W. Bush) appears to give health care providers broad power over the lives of their patients:
§ 166.046. PROCEDURE IF NOT EFFECTUATING A DIRECTIVE OR TREATMENT DECISION. (a) If an attending physician refuses to honor a patient's advance directive or a health care or treatment decision made by or on behalf of a patient, the physician's refusal shall be reviewed by an ethics or medical committee. The attending physician may not be a member of that committee. The patient shall be given life-sustaining treatment during the review.(b) The patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the individual who has made the decision regarding the directive or treatment decision:(1) may be given a written description of the ethics or medical committee review process and any other policies and procedures related to this section adopted by the health care facility;(2) shall be informed of the committee review process not less than 48 hours before the meeting called to discuss the patient's directive, unless the time period is waived by mutual agreement;
Wesley Smith write's:
Texas has a terrible law that permits an unelected, self-appointed, anonymous ethics committee to forcibly remove care. Once that happens, the patient has 10 days to find another hospital. These are closed proceedings. I am unaware of any records kept of the evidence presented at the hearings or the deliberations.
These are life and death decisions and it seems to me that there may be a significant constitutional issue here of immense importance. A law permits private decision-making that will result in death without even the right to a public hearing, to cross examine witnesses, or a formal appeal. Someday, someone is going to attack this statute and its constitutional implementation frontally in federal court. I have already urged some attorneys in private that they do just that. Let us hope that fairness and simple justice prevail. Meanwhile, hospitals in Texas will continue to assemble unaccountable and private "independent committees" of staff members who will recommend the termination of their patients, such as Andrea Clarke.
Posted by plb at April 24, 2006 11:25 PM
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Prior Articles:
Killing Andrea Clark - We are Protesting - Help Us - Apr 24, 2006
Mitt Romney: Act in the Haleigh Poutre Case! - Apr 24, 2006
A Step Beyond the Terri Schiavo Case - Apr 24, 2006
Ethics Committee Hospital to Terminate Texas Woman - Apr 23, 2006
Endorsing Death-Oriented Politicians - Apr 13, 2006
When should your living will be rejected? - Apr 13, 2006
Killing Disabled Babies - Mar 28, 2006
Killing Babies, Compassionately - Mar 27, 2006
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