Haleigh Poutre Almost Victim of Euthanasia, Now Making Good Progress

Life News ^ | September 4, 2006 | Steven Ertelt

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Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed via euthanasia when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma. Now Poutre, once termed "brain dead" by doctors, continues to improve and is speaking a few words, her grandmother says.

Sandra Sudyka, the girl's biological grandmother, is no longer allowed to visit her granddaughter and now says she is ready to speak to the media about Poutre's condition.

She told The Republican newspaper that she last saw Poutre on July 18 but indicated she was "doing well."

"She was bright-eyed and smiling. She is always responsive to us," Sudyka explained.

Department of Social Services had asked Sudyka not to talk with reporters about Haleigh, but since they will no longer allow her and Haleigh's biological mother, Allison Avrett, to visit the 12 year-old, she said she's going to talk to the media.

"I decided since they broke the deal, I am going to talk. People should know how well she is doing," Sudyka told the newspaper.

"They don't want people to know how she is doing after they wanted to pull the plug," Sudyka said.

DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro declined an interview with The Republican but said that the visiting privileges have been suspended, not terminated.

Haleigh first began speaking in June, her grandmother told the newspaper.

"I was saying to her 'I love you,' and she was trying to say 'love' and it came out as a vibration...'ove,'" Sudyka said.

Sudyka, who is working with an attorney to adopt the girl, said she has said hello, responds to comments and questions, speaks nonverbally and is able to write her name. Haleigh can't walk and is confined to a wheelchair.

Avrett, Poutre's biological mother, lost custody of her daughter after physically abusing her. Poutre was put into a foster home where her adoptive parents also abused her. Her adopted mother committed suicide after abusing Poutre so much she had to be hospitalized.

DSS took Poutre into custody and when she appeared to slip into a coma, the agency asked the state Supreme Court for permission to take her life. That's when Poutre began responding.

Poutre has been receiving physical, speech and occupational therapy since January 26 at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton.

Gov. Mitt Romney appointed a commission to look into how the state failed to properly handle the girl's case.

[T'wit]

Yes, isn't it? A very keen insight.

[T'wit]

>> a cornerstone of Right Wing ideology has been the so-called "pro-life" stance

We've been preaching that since 1776, dude. And incidentally, Ronald Reagan was a Democrat who came around to our way of thinking. The American way of thinking.

[T'wit]

>> They don't favor universal health care to help ensure that all babies born have an opportunity to grow up with their health care needs being met. They attack public education at every opportunity. They want to slash funding, increase class size, and pay teachers less. (And on and on and ON that way, sheesh!)

The statement is, If you don't favor 1) socialized medicine, 2) socialized education, 3) excessive school taxes, 4) smaller classrooms, and 5) union scale pay for teachers, you are not pro-life.

I don't think a beginner's course in logic would help, but hey, I believe in miracles.

[T'wit]

>> The Next Terri Schiavo Case

Who are they planning to murder this time?

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Now, that makes me laugh out loud! Next step -- Cindy and Mike become an "item" on the front cover of all the tabloids ("Jodi heartbroken"). Then the headlines could scream, "It's all over, Cindy dumps cheating Schiavo for Michael Moore." "Mikey makes a move on Susan Sarandon, gets a black eye." "Mikey seen on park bench cooing with Helen Thomas."

Now this could get out of hand if imagination runs wild. I can imagine the possibilities in the supermarket rags, involving Tom Cruise, paternity suits, Mikey's new weight loss miracle...

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Us.

[TheSarce]

Wesley J. Smith being interviewed right NOW on EWTN. (10:30am Sunday, 9-10-06.)

It's one of EWTN's new series, "Faith & Culture."

[T'wit]

>> I can imagine the possibilities in the supermarket rags, involving Tom Cruise, paternity suits

Mikey says Suri is Jodi's baby -- was stolen by Tom and Katie at a Clearwater Starbucks!
He was inside ordering decaf, low-fat iced cappucino when baby was taken from car by masked scientologists!
Katie faked pregnancy, never had sex, is still virgin

[syriacus]

All of what you write is true. I'm hoping that public knowledge of what is going on reaches critical mass.

[syriacus]

Thank you, Lesforlife.

[bjs1779]

Didn't you quote the bible the other day about 'those who hate me love death'? If so, I couldn't find it.

[T'wit]

See 146, copied in 151... Here's the kjv:

8:35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.

8:36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

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Haleigh Poutre...

9-11 anniversary.

WESTFIELD - One year ago today, an 11-year-old girl named Haleigh Poutre was brought to Noble Hospital unresponsive with a severe head injury.

Ten days later, her adoptive mother and step-father, Holli A. and Jason D. Strickland, the same people who brought her to Noble, were charged with severely beating her.

The next day, Holli Strickland, out on bail, was killed in a murder-suicide at the hands of her grandmother, police said.

Questions linger 1 year after injury

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Terri's Legacy List

(Original Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to September 7.)



Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.

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The story continues on the woman who was "PVS" and conscious. Terri's dad comments...

........................

St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo's father reacted to news about a 23 year-old British woman supposedly in a so-called "vegetative state" who stunned doctors by responding to certain commands asked of her. The results have been displayed in brain imaging showing more is going on in her head than meets the eye.

Although the unnamed woman can't move or speak, she has responded to sentences spoken to her and even played an imaginary game of tennis in her head, her doctors say.

The results have all been recorded on a brain scanner and show that disabled patients like Terri Schiavo or those who are comatose may be much more aware than they appear.

Terri’s father, Robert Schindler, agrees and, in a statement sent to LifeNews.com, said the case shows more should have been done to save his daughter's life and to listen to experts who said she wasn't as bad off as her former husband made it appear.

“This new case is not surprising to our family," Schindler said.

Terri Schiavo's Father Reacts to Woman in Vegetative State Responding

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[8mmMauser]

Where have all the flowers gone,long time passing...

In a warehouse-sized coffee shop in the shadow of an elevated subway line, Donna Edwards and her retinue of volunteers are waiting for the music to begin. Edwards, a candidate for Maryland's Fourth Congressional District, has enticed guitarist Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) to strum a few tunes. The appointed moment arrives, but Edwards waits: The coffee shop is only half full, and most of its denizens are unaware of the political event that brought a small assemblage--mostly Edwards's campaign staff and her family--to the front of the room. And it stands to reason: There were just two weeks left until Edwards, a foundation executive from Fort Washington, faces U.S. Representative Al Wynn, an incumbent in his seventh term whose commanding presence has scared away every political challenge he has encountered in seven races.

But some say that tomorrow's Democratic primary might be different. Edwards has accumulated no small support from the left in Maryland--not to mention The Washington Post's endorsement--by pointing out, time and time again, that Wynn, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), is out of line with his voters and his party. Not only does he vote the wrong way, she says, but he votes the wrong way at precisely the wrong times--and especially when Democrats crave unity. Wynn voted to intervene in the Terri Schiavo affair. He endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. He voted to repeal the estate tax--several times. He is, she has said, "Maryland's Joe Lieberman."

Maryland's own Joe Lieberman... Wynn Again

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Following a month-long recess, members of Congress returned to Washington last week to begin the legislative sprint toward November's midterm elections. With so many political pundits predicting doom and gloom for the GOP this November, it appears that Congressional Republicans plan to spend the next few weeks concentrating on the issue that has been their silver bullet in past elections—national security. While no one can doubt the importance of national security legislation, Congress needs to show the American people that it can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Snip

Ken Connor is Chairman of the Center for a Just Society in Washington, DC and a nationally recognized trial lawyer who represented Governor Jeb Bush in the Terri Schiavo case. Connor was formally President of the Family Research Council, Chairman of the Board of CareNet, and Vice Chairman of Americans United for Life. For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.ajustsociety.org. Your feedback is welcome; please email info@ajustsociety.org.

Looking for Leaders in Modern America

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[T'wit]

>> The legal, political and media maelstrom surrounding the little girl ... took off from there, running unabated for months.

Really? Where the heck was the press? You and I among others have dug for stories and patrolled the Internet for any scrap of news about Haleigh. Yet we find lots of meaty information in this story that's completely new. I don't think the news blackout is entirely due to DSS gag orders. I think a lot of media are too busy peddling their politics to pay attention to one poor, battered little girl.

[T'wit]

Let no one forget that Michael specifically refused to let Terri have up-to-date brain tests of this sort. In fact, he refused over and over again. Obviously he was afraid they would reveal his lies and show that Terri was conscious after all.

[T'wit]

>> "The danger of this diagnosis is that it is being used as a reason to kill innocent people with disabilities, like Terri," her father added. "We believe that this PVS diagnosis is inhumane and it should be abolished.”

If I'm not mistaken, the concept of "persistent vegetative state" came along in the early 1970s, right on the heels of Harvard's invention of "brain death." Can it be coincidence that both of these "conditions" are used for declaring care futile? For killing patients?

PVS is anything but an exact medical condition, like, say, measles. You can hardly find two brain experts who even agree what it is in detail. The media treat PVS like some sort of divine revelation, but in truth it's one of the most subjective, controversial diagnoses in all of medicine.

Bob Schindler is exactly right. "PVS" is unscientific and malign. It should be abolished.

[T'wit]

>> Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary)

Peter, Paul and Mary showed up yesterday in a fascinating and enormously revealing personal history by an art critic at the New York Times. The man grew up in an important Communist household in Greenwich Village, and apparently met every big-name leftist around, right in his living room. And he dropped all of their names in this one remembrance. Yes, including Peter, Paul and Mary :-)