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Haleigh Poutre Almost Victim of Euthanasia, Now Making Good Progress
Life News ^ | September 4, 2006 | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 09/05/2006 4:45:45 AM PDT by 8mmMauser

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: babykillers; deathcult; deathcultivation; haleigh; haleighpoutre; kottkamprinotoo; schiavo; terridailies; terrioctoberdailies; terrischiavo; terrislegacy
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To: ahayes
By diluting the significance of the term "euthanasia" you are actually being self-defeating. Most people are opposed to euthanasia, that is, the active killing of a person for stated humanitarian reasons. Most people are not opposed to the withdrawal of futile care, and indeed a lot of people do not want to be kept alive when there is no chance of their improving (my parents both have advance care directives demanding withdrawal of sustenance if they should become permanently vegetative).

You would make a good point if this was a futile care case, but it's not. Nor is it a euthanasia case per se. It's a case of malpractice and failing to give the kid any chance. What, waiting a few days or even weeks to recheck her condition was too much to ask? The doctors screwed up big time, and the state agency was very fasyt on the trigger, almost suspiciously so.

641 posted on 09/18/2006 9:53:08 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (We didn’t lose 3,000 people that day. We lost one wonderful person at a time, 3,000 times.)
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To: BykrBayb
And DSS recognized this. What they didn't recognize was that Haleigh has as much right to live as anyone else. They intended to euthanize her, by depriving her of food and water, and giving her morphine. That is euthanasia.

Can you give me a link on that? I need to refresh my memory, and most of what I've pulled up so far talks about the doctors saying no recovery and the state just going along and wanting to pull the respirator.

642 posted on 09/18/2006 9:55:18 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (We didn’t lose 3,000 people that day. We lost one wonderful person at a time, 3,000 times.)
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To: T'wit
"Euthanasia" is itself a euphemism coined to sell murder.

Not really. It's fine to euthanize your dog...

643 posted on 09/18/2006 9:59:08 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (We didn’t lose 3,000 people that day. We lost one wonderful person at a time, 3,000 times.)
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To: T'wit
The only trick is, you have to declare the patient brain-dead (a new definition of death invented at Harvard in the 1960s in order to make organs more accessible for transplantation).

Though I stand with you against the culture of death, I support the brain death standard. It is simply true that sometimes so much of the brain has died that the person cannot recover even to a PVS-like state, and cannot breath without help. In such a case, they are dead.

If someone is using the brain death standard to run an organ scam, that just means they're doing the same thing a doctor would do if he heard a heartbeat and pretended he didn't. It doesn't mean the standard itself is bad.

644 posted on 09/18/2006 10:13:52 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (We didn’t lose 3,000 people that day. We lost one wonderful person at a time, 3,000 times.)
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To: metmom
Hadn't thought of that. What better source of a nice fresh *commodity*. Sick.

Plus the organs of children are in huge demand, due to their lesser numbers and the importance of the size of the organ.

645 posted on 09/18/2006 10:17:55 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (We didn’t lose 3,000 people that day. We lost one wonderful person at a time, 3,000 times.)
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To: floriduh voter

What exactly do you mean when you say..

"I'm sorry about your son. It sounds like he was not in Florida."....

And if my son had been in Florida, what are you saying here?...do you actually mean to imply that had he been in Florida, that no matter what doctor treated him, or what hospital he had been in, that he would not have received full care?...

I am confident that had my son been in Florida, he would have received the best care possible for his condition, and would have had doctors looking out for him in the best way possible...

Do you actually mean to imply that had my son been treated in Florida, he would have received poor, inadequate care?

I dont understand how anyone can say such a thing, and actually believe it at the same time...

This is what I mean by broadbrushing all doctors in one state, as being out to get everyone...you have just made such a statement, and its regrettable...



646 posted on 09/18/2006 10:18:00 AM PDT by andysandmikesmom
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To: floriduh voter

Your post #627, is merely your opinion, and not a fact...

And thats fine, everyone is entitled to their own personal opinion, based on how they see things...I would hazard a guess tho, that the majority of Floridians would disagree with your opinion...

And thats fine as well...all different people have many different opinions, which they will voice in the voting booth...you can voice your opinion, and others will voice theirs...you speak for yourself, and others will speak for themselves...thats how things work...


647 posted on 09/18/2006 10:26:35 AM PDT by andysandmikesmom
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To: Peach; floriduh voter
Wow, Floriduh voter said that somebody looks gay, that a guy who is fat and gets no exercise might have a heart attack, and that Florida, a state where a casual conversation over a decade and a half old is taken by the courts as begging to be starved, is not a safe place for the disabled to live.

Wow, truly those things are so over the top. You're so bloody sensitive I suspect that you work at Harvard. I promise not to mention families of dump trucks around you.

648 posted on 09/18/2006 10:33:14 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (We didn’t lose 3,000 people that day. We lost one wonderful person at a time, 3,000 times.)
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To: floriduh voter

I have to be out for the rest of the day, will continue on with this later when I return...My real life does consume my time...

One last thing I would say...three of my husbands elderly relatives have died in Florida, within the last couple of years...

One aunt, in her 90s died from a cancerous brain tumor...the docs in Florida, did everything possible for her that they could, and she actually did manage to live quite a bit longer than had been originally thought, simply because of the excellent care she received...

Another aunt, became violently ill on a cruise, due to some ongoing medical problems, and had to be airlifted to her home state of Florida, where another very serious medical condition was diagnosed...the doctors treating her, used every medical means at their disposal to treat her, and when that did not work, they even scoured around, trying to find experiemental trials that would include her in their treatment programs...unfortunatley she died before this could happen...but she was in her late 80s, and no one killed her...she died from her medical problems...

Another uncle, again in his 80s, spent the last few years of his life in a nursing home, due to severe complications from his diabetes, and the extreme care he required...he lived for those years in the nursing home, extremely well taken care of, and lived longer than anyone thought he would, considering his frail state of health...

Three of our elderly relatives living in Florida, all in the Clearwater Florida area, receiving extremely fine medical care, disprove the point, that the elderly in Florida are there only to be poorly taken care of, so that they will die as soon as possible..

And I am sure, that there are many, many posters, just here on FR, who either live in Florida, or have relatives in Florida, who are just as satisfied with their medical care as I have been, with our elderly relatives...

Poor medical care, and superior medical care, is found in all states...Florida is no different...\


649 posted on 09/18/2006 10:37:30 AM PDT by andysandmikesmom
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To: Peach
But hey - get a sense of humor. I'm just kidding that you have mental health issues.

And I'm just kidding when I say that you do.


650 posted on 09/18/2006 10:42:44 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Family of dump trucks, family of dump trucks, family of dump trucks, family of dump trucks, family o)
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To: 8mmMauser

Terri's brain wasn't just dead, it was mostly missing.


651 posted on 09/18/2006 10:47:19 AM PDT by DManA
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To: T'wit

Bump for later sending.


652 posted on 09/18/2006 10:51:02 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Family of dump trucks, family of dump trucks, family of dump trucks, family of dump trucks, family o)
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To: Mr. Silverback
Take me off your ping list; you're so nonsensical that I'd prefer not to converse with you.
653 posted on 09/18/2006 10:51:31 AM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they captured or killed.)
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To: Mr. Silverback

You're an a**; I can see you don't mind injecting yourself into something you don't know about and making an idiot of yourself. Good to know.


654 posted on 09/18/2006 11:00:57 AM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they captured or killed.)
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To: Peach
Wow, you really can't take a joke!

OK, you're off the list. Take two Steven Wright albums and call me in the morning.

655 posted on 09/18/2006 11:01:14 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Terri Schiavo would have been treated better if she was a captured member of Al Qaida.)
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To: Mr. Silverback

Pot Kettle Black

Just kidding.


656 posted on 09/18/2006 11:04:37 AM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they captured or killed.)
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To: DManA
I guess it depends on what you define as dead. Terri's brain functioned much better than that of our son. He lived twenty six years like that, a happy kid bringing joy to us both. Yet, he never had the brain function of Terri at her worst, at least prior to the last day or so of her life. And we didn't try to snuff him.

Her brain was doing fine after the incident. Here she is some time afterwards and before Mikey had her brain operated upon.

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

657 posted on 09/18/2006 11:26:11 AM PDT by 8mmMauser (Jezu ufam Tobie...Jesus I trust in Thee)
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To: T'wit; 8mmMauser
Macbeth: Will not all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hands?

(Lady Macbeth enters with blood covered hands)

Lady Macbeth: My hands are of your color. Come, a little water washes away the deed.

MacBeth, Act II, Scene II

658 posted on 09/18/2006 11:30:54 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Terri Schiavo would have been treated better if she was a captured member of Al Qaida.)
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To: floriduh voter
Terri liked ice cream. I'd say that qualifies her to be part of the human race.

My cat likes ice cream. I'd say that qualifies Terri to be part of the subspecies Felis silvestris catus.

659 posted on 09/18/2006 11:56:32 AM PDT by Dont Mention the War (This tagline is false.)
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To: ahayes

Correction: EEG = fMRI


660 posted on 09/18/2006 2:38:46 PM PDT by ahayes (My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)
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