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A new judge will decide if a Texas hospital can take 10-month-old Tinslee Lewis off life support. A hearing for Lewis’ case has been scheduled at 9 a.m. Thursday in the 48th District Court in Fort Worth, Tinslee’s family’s attorney Joe Nixon confirmed Tuesday.
A temporary restraining order stopping Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth from removing life-sustaining treatment for Lewis was set to expire Tuesday. But after the removal last week of Tarrant County Juvenile Court Judge Alex Kim, a new hearing on the family’s request for a temporary injunction will now be held Thursday in Fort Worth.
Cook Children’s spokeswoman Wini King said the situation is “hard all the way around.”
“We would love nothing more than to be able to make her better and walk her out of here. … But there comes a point, there comes a time when we have to say: we can’t do any more, it’s not making it any better.”
Doctors say further care is futile and they believe she’s suffering. Her family is seeking another facility to treat the girl.
Doctors had planned to remove Tinslee from life support Nov. 10 after invoking Texas’ “10-day rule,” which can be employed when a family disagrees with doctors who say life-sustaining treatment should be stopped. The law stipulates if the hospital’s ethics committee agrees with doctors, treatment can be withdrawn after 10 days if a new provider can’t be found to take the patient.
“I believe the statute is facially unconstitutional — we will be making that argument in court,” Nixon said.
Under the current 10-Day-Law, enacted in 1999, a partial hospital committee has the power to decide to withdraw treatment for any reason, including the subjective assessment of “quality of life.” The hospital can then remove treatment, even life-sustaining treatment (ventilator, dialysis, etc.), and the patient cannot appeal the decision. Even if the patient is conscious, coherent, and actively requesting the continuation of life-sustaining treatment, the 10-Day-Law gives the hospital the power to overrule the patient’s wishes.
Judge Kim, who issued the temporary restraining order on Nov. 10, was removed from the case Dec. 4 after the hospital filed a motion questioning his…
… impartiality and how he’d gotten the case. The hospital said that after taking the case, Kim spoke about it at an event hosted by a group that opposes the “10-day rule.” The hospital also said Kim bypassed the rules regarding random assignment when he designated himself to oversee the case.
Tinslee has been at Cook Children’s since her premature birth. The hospital said she has a rare heart defect and suffers from chronic lung disease and severe chronic high blood pressure. The hospital said she hasn’t been off a ventilator since going into respiratory arrest early July and requires full respiratory and cardiac support, deep sedation and to be medically paralyzed. The hospital said doctors believe she’s suffering.
Cook Children’s said hospital officials have been talking to Tinslee’s family for months about concerns for her long-term survival. By August, the hospital said, everyone on the girl’s care team agreed further care was pointless and by September they’d began talking to the family about ultimately withdrawing support. With the doctors and her family still unable to resolve their differences, the ethics committee met Oct. 30 and unanimously decided further treatment was inappropriate.
If you remember, another young lady’s family also had an issue with a hospital wanted to end life support.
Jahi McMath, an Oakland teenager whose brain-death following a routine tonsil surgery in 2013 created national headlines, died on June 22, according to the family’s attorney.
Over the years, the family has shown videos and released statements that show Jahi was “still alive” despite reports from some doctors.
According to court documents, the ordeal all started when McMath was admitted to Children’s Hospital Oakland on December 9, 2013, for an adenotonsillectomy and other related routine procedures. It was hoped that these procedures would provide improved airflow during her sleep at night. The hospital described these procedures as complicated. The family described the surgery as a routine tonsillectomy in media reports.
After the surgeries were performed, McMath was conscious and according to her mother, Latasha “Nailah” Winkfield, asked for a Popsicle while in the recovery room. On December 9, 2013, McMath suffered massive blood loss and consequent cardiac arrest. According to McMath’s doctors at Children’s Hospital Oakland, the loss of blood circulation caused whole brain death. On December 12, 2013, her doctors declared her brain-dead. Her family was informed that she was legally dead, and that as a result, life support systems would be discontinued. Her family refused to accept the medical declaration of death by neurological criteria, said that McMath was not dead, and initiated legal proceedings in an effort to require the hospital to continue treatment.
Nearly five years later, “Jahi died as the result of complications associated with liver failure,” the statement from attorney Christopher Dolan said.
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