- UPDATE
- Subject: Mae is out of hospice!!!
- Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 13:38:19 -0500
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- THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF THE FRIENDS OF TERRI,
MY AUNT MAE MAGOUIRK HAS BEEN AIR LIFTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM
MEDICAL CENTER -- an IV receiving fluids, nourishment and some of the
finest medical care available in the United States!
-
- Praise be the name of the Lord GOD... Thanks to Terri's
friends... It would NEVER ever have been possible without bloggers who
love life , and the truth!!
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- I am racing from my home to UAB now and will type a detailed
update after I see my Aunt Mae!
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- Thanks guys, your calls, emails, blogs and prayers did
it ALL!!!
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- I so love you guys!!!!!!!!!!
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- Ken Mullinax, nephew of Mae
- -----
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- Original Article
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- In a situation recalling the recent death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo
in Florida, an 81-year-old widow, denied nourishment and fluids for nearly
two weeks, is clinging to life in a hospice in LaGrange, Ga., while her
immediate family fights desperately to save her life before she dies of
starvation and dehydration.
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- Mae Magouirk was neither terminally ill, comatose nor
in a "vegetative state," when Hospice-LaGrange accepted her as
a patient about two weeks ago upon the request of her granddaughter, Beth
Gaddy, 36, an elementary school teacher.
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- Also upon Gaddy's request and without prior legal authority,
since March 28 Hospice-LaGrange has denied Magouirk normal nourishment
or fluids via a feeding tube through her nose or fluids via an IV. She
has been kept sedated with morphine and ativan, a powerful tranquillizer.
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- Her nephew, Ken Mullinax, told WorldNetDaily that although
Magouirk is given morphine and ativan, she has not received any medication
to keep her eyes lubricated during her forced dehydration.
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- "They haven't given her anything like that for two
weeks," said Mullinax. "She can't produce tears."
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- The dehydration is being done in defiance of Magouirk's
specific wishes, which she set down in a "living will," and without
agreement of her closest living next-of-kin, two siblings and a nephew:
A. Byron McLeod, 64, of Anniston, Ga.; Ruth Mullinax, 74, of Birmingham,
Ala.; and Ruth Mullinax's son, Ken Mullinax.
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- Magouirk's husband and only child, a son, are both deceased.
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- In her living will, Magouirk stated that fluids and nourishment
were to be withheld only if she were either comatose or "vegetative,"
and she is neither. Nor is she terminally ill, which is generally a requirement
for admission to a hospice.
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- Magouirk lives alone in LaGrange, though because of glaucoma
she relied on her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, to bring her food and do errands.
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- Two weeks ago, Magouirk's aorta had a dissection, and
she was hospitalized in the local LaGrange Hospital. Her aortic problem
was determined to be severe, and she was admitted to the intensive care
unit. At the time of her admission she was lucid and had never been diagnosed
with dementia.
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- Claiming that she held Magouirk's power of attorney,
Gaddy had her transferred to Hospice-LaGrange, a 16-bed unit owned by the
same family that owns the hospital. Once at the hospice, Gaddy stated that
she did not want her grandmother fed or given water.
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- "Grandmama is old and I think it is time she went
home to Jesus," Gaddy told Magouirk's brother and nephew, McLeod and
Ken Mullinax. "She has glaucoma and now this heart problem, and who
would want to live with disabilities like these?"
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- Gaddy's telephone is not in operation and she could not
be reached for comment.
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- According to Mullinax, his aunt's local cardiologist
in LaGrange, Dr. James Brennan, and Dr. Raed Agel, a highly acclaimed cardiologist
at the nationally renowned University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center,
determined that her aortic dissection is contained and not life-threatening
at the moment.
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- Mullinax also states that Gaddy did not hold power of
attorney, a fact he learned from the hospice's in-house legal counsel,
Carol Todd.
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- On March 31, Todd told Ruth and Ken Mullinax during a
phone conversation Georgia law stipulated that Ruth Mullinax and her brother,
A.B. McLeod, were entitled to make any and all decisions for Magouirk.
Ruth Mullinax immediately told Todd to begin administering food and fluids
through an IV and a nasal feeding tube.
-
- Todd had the IV fluids started that evening, but informed
the family that they would have to come to the hospice to sign papers to
have the feeding tube inserted. Once that was done, Magouirk would not
be able to stay at the hospice.
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- Ken Mullinax recalled that Todd said the only reason
Magouirk was in the hospice in the first place was that the LaGrange Hospital
had failed to exercise due diligence in closely examining the power of
attorney Beth Gaddy said she had, as well as exercising the provisions
of Magouirk's living will.
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- Todd explained that Gaddy had only a financial power
of attorney, not a medical power of attorney, and Magouirk's living will
carefully provided that a feeding tube and fluids should only be discontinued
if she was comatose or in a "vegetative state" - and she was
neither.
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- Gaddy, however, was not dissuaded. When Ken Mullinax
and McLeod showed up at the hospice the following day, April 1, to meet
with Todd and arrange emergency air transport for Magouirk's transfer to
the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center, Hospice-LaGrange stalled
them while Gaddy went before Troup County, Ga., Probate Court Judge Donald
W. Boyd and obtained an emergency guardianship over her grandmother.
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- Under the terms of his ruling, Gaddy was granted full
and absolute authority over Magouirk, at least for the weekend. She took
advantage of her judge-granted power by ordering her grandmother's feeding
tube pulled out, just hours after it had been inserted.
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- Florida law requires that a hearing for an emergency
guardianship must be held within three days of its request, and Magouirk's
hearing was held April 4 before Judge Boyd. Apparently, he has not made
a final ruling, but favors giving permanent guardianship power to Gaddy,
who is anxious to end her grandmother's life.
-
- Ron Panzer, president and founder of Hospice Patients
Alliance, a patients' rights advocacy group based in Michigan, told WND
that what is happening to Magouirk is not at all unusual.
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- "This is happening in hospices all over the country,"
he said. "Patients who are not dying - are not terminal - are admitted
[to hospice] and the hospice will say they are terminally ill even if they're
not. There are thousands of cases like this. Patients are given morphine
and ativan to sedate them. If feeding is withheld, they die within 10 days
to two weeks. It's really just a form of euthanasia."
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- Ken Mullinax does not want that to happen to his aunt.
He pointed out that one of the ironies in this tragedy is that the now-helpless
woman worked for years as a secretary for a prominent local cancer doctor.
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- "She devoted her whole life to helping those who
heal others, and now she's being denied sustenance for life," he said.
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- Mullinax said he has begged Gaddy to let him take on
full responsibility for his aunt's care.
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- "If she would just give us a chance to keep Aunt
Mae alive, that's all we ask," he said. "They [Beth and her husband,
Dennis Gaddy] have a family and Beth is a teacher, and it was just getting
to be a lot of trouble. But I'm the caregiver for my mom, and Aunt Mae
could move in with us. We'll buy another house with a bedroom and we'll
take care of her. She can move in with us once she can leave the hospital."
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- But her health becomes more precarious by the hour. Her
vital signs are still good, but since admission to hospice she has not
been lucid - "but who would be since nourishment and fluids have been
denied since March 28," Mullinax remarked.
-
- Attorney Carol Todd could not be reached for comment;
a message on her voicemail said she would not be gone the entire week of
April 4. Hospice-LaGrange did not return phone calls.
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- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
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- http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43688
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