(Texas) Facility takes in man on ventilator (Another case for Congress?)

Change of heart by San Antonio home ends the fight between his family, St. Luke's

A Friendswood man in a persistent vegetative state was transferred to a nursing home in San Antonio on Sunday, ending a battle between St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and his family over whether to take him off life support.

At 7:30 a.m., Spiro Nikolouzos, 68, was hooked up to a portable ventilator, feeding tube and other support lines and taken by ambulance to Avalon Place, which had rejected his application just nine days before. Facility officials confirmed his arrival about 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

"Thank God that was an ambulance taking Spiro to another health care facility, not another car taking him to a funeral home," said Nikolouzos' wife, Jannette. "I can't tell you the relief and excitement I feel that my husband is still alive."

Dr. David Pate, St. Luke's chief medical officer, said he was "very surprised" Avalon Place agreed to take Spiro Nikolouzos — more than 30 facilities had rejected him — but that he is glad the matter has been resolved to the family's satisfaction. The hospital's ethics committee had argued continued care would be futile and inhumane.

more…
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3094699

https://www.legaldocs.com/htmdocs/livin_st.htm

super easy state-specific downloads

and it has this statement in it...

"Under Law, this Declaration will automatically have no effect during the course of the patient's pregnancy. "

So if you're a pregnant woman, a living will does you no good. You'll be kept as a vegetable until the fetus either dies or develops enough to be born. Even if you're only 3 weeks pregnant at the time. Heck, 3 days pregnant.

That's damned scary.

a comatose woman was impregnated by an orderly. This is a case that I thought would be a sensible application of an abortion. Instead the parents used their daughter as an incubator. Now they have a mixed race baby (not the issue) whose mother is incapacitated, and whose father is in prison for creating them.

Very sad situation. All I can think about is the child.

Cheers
Drifter

You would think you could get a lawyer to draft a version for you with your specific wishes, not the government's.

The GA one says:

"If I am a female and I have been diagnosed as pregnant, this living will shall have no force and effect unless the fetus is not viable and I indicate by initialling after this sentence that I want this living will to be carried out._______(initial)"

So it sounds like they will keep you alive if the baby is viable, what is that? 36 weeks? 28 weeks? But otherwise, you can have the living will enacted by initialling.

If federal dollars are going to cover all the cases like this, Bush won't need to "reform" Social Security to complete his destruction of the federal government.

in because of Terri's case.
Because apparently Bush is the one who signed the bill allowing hospitals to do that. Wouldn't look good if this man was turned off life support at the time Bush says every life is so precious.

It could be, however, due to compassion for the family - my more rational self responds to my cynical self that thought... well isn't that convenient.

previously the very same facility declined to take the guy in.

okay cynical self wins.

rejected this guy's application. And now they decided to take him in. Looks like Terri saved a life, if you could call that a life.

"I can't tell you the relief and excitement I feel that my husband is still alive."

Honey, get back to reality...

if he didn't leave an advanced directive, or if he asked for heroic measures, and there is someone to pay for it, then he should be kept going, if that's what his spouse wants. and the nursing home will be much cheaper than a hospital, for whoever is paying the bills.

She cared for him at home for 10 years, feeding him through his feeding tube. Now he can't any longer breathe on his own, he is on a ventilator.
Some people just have a hardest time to let go.

make it up to them!!! Reel the fools back in with a false show of compassion!!

make this determination over the family's objections. It's called the Futile Support Law I believe.

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.

-Atrios 8:05 PM

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

This law figured in to the removing of life support from Baby Sun Hudson over the mother's objections. Why didn't we hear much of that case in the media?

I just emailed this to Countdown - we need to bombard this hypocrisy to all the media.

I need congress to debate whether to take it out or not. This shit is gone out of control and is becoming more of a media distraction then Kobe and MJ and Peterson combined.

Watch out world!! When the sheeple are hypnotized, American bullets and bombs start to fly.

"Avalon Place officials would not explain their change of heart Sunday, but Pate and family members said they understood that someone from Avalon Place's corporate headquarters intervened late Friday to give permission."
...
Nikolouzos, a retired electrical engineer who suffered brain damage in a motor vehicle accident more than a decade ago, has been in a persistent vegetative state since at least 2001, Pate said.
...
Nikolouzos' serious complications include constant infections and ulcers that penetrate all the way to bone, and muscle atrophy that has left him rigidly curled up in a fetal position. Pate said it is hard to believe that hospital hygiene efforts necessary to prevent infection don't physically hurt the patient."

In 15 years he will be 83.

I seriously think it was done to not embarrass Bush, just when he is going on how precious life is. It wouldn't look good to have this guy's plug pulled when his wife didn't want it. Not that it's going to do this poor guy any good, judging by his condition, but they couldn't have it at this particular time.

It is essentially political. I just mean someone is 'helping out' with the money angle, as the nursing home didn't want the obligation a couple weeks ago. Undoubtedly a Bush supporter.

I just don't get why anyone would keep someone alive in this condition - fetal position, infections, pressure sores, vegetative state. My dad went like this (no feeding tube or respirator, though) and it is a terrible thing to watch. In his case it didn't take too long, fortunately. Most people consider it a relief when the body finally shuts down.

for 10 years, and she fed him trough the feeding tube. Now, he can't breathe anymore, but she still wants him on life support.
As to why? Maybe because of religion, I don't know.

Or it could be misplaced love, coupled with an unwillingness to accept the inevitable.