Another Baby Faces Death Under Bush' Texas "Kill-the-indigent" Law

Via Left Coaster

Hospital Rules to Unplug Baby Girl

Leukemia patient's parents scramble to find new care facility
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

In Houston's latest end-of-life controversy, Memorial Hermann Hospital has decided to remove from life support a 6-month-old girl whose leukemia has spread to her brain.

The parents of Knya Dismuke-Howard, who also has multiple-organ failure and a life-threatening antibiotic-resistant infection, vowed to fight the decision. Under Texas law, they have eight days remaining to find another facility to take her.

"I think she can beat the odds," said Tamiko Dismuke, the baby's mother. "She's a fighter. The hospital's given up on her, but everyone who's witnessed her through this has been amazed at how she keeps coming back."

Dismuke said the family hasn't hired a lawyer or decided to take legal action but may still do so. She said their first priority is finding a hospital to take her.

Memorial Hermann officials said other pediatric hospitals they consulted concurred with their treatment plan and decision to discontinue care.

They said the infant, who is on a respirator, is suffering badly — she is on morphine and other opiates to relieve pain — and described her condition as hopeless.

The case is the third in Houston this spring to publicly test a 1999 state law that allows hospitals to discontinue treatment in futile cases 10 days after notifying loved ones of their intentions. The others involved a 6-month-old boy with a fatal form of dwarfism and a 68-year-old man in a persistent vegetative state.

The families delayed both those cases by appealing them to the courts, and in that time the wife of the man found a San Antonio nursing home to take him. The boy died after Texas Children's Hospital unplugged his respirator.

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Excuse me I'm looking for the Blogs for Kyna website? I'm 100% certain that the pro-life community has set one up. Also, does anyone know when Mr. Delay is going to interrupt Congress to cry out against this? I'm also looking through Mr. Santorum's schedule and I don't see any Houston trips planned . . .yet, but and certain there is one in the near future. And I'm waiting for the news that George Bush will do the unthinkable, interupt another vacation to sign legislation saving this child. Oh, I forgot, he already signed that pro-life legislation to withdraw her treatment to save hospital profits.


Since the pro-life community is stalling on this one, maybe a quote from the little girl's mother will inspire things:

"If you saw our daughter, you'd know why we have hope," said Dismuke. "She's fully aware — she opens her eyes when we enter the room and makes facial expressions, like moving her eyebrows or pouting. She's a trouper."

Sound familiar? The difference is that this is a baby with an actually 5% chance of recovery as opposed to the 0% chance of recovery for Terri Schaivo, whom many courts determined that she would have wanted to die.

I suppose it's okay for Saint George Bush the Great to write laws that kick the poor out of hospitals for financial reasons and let them die. After all, he is pro-life and that covers a multitude of sins.