Haleigh Poutre Almost Victim of Euthanasia, Now Making Good Progress

Life News ^ | September 4, 2006 | Steven Ertelt

[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.

[Dante3]

Just saw a headline about scientists in England who discovered that a woman in a vegetative state was aware of what went on around her. They cautioned to give a benefit of doubt for these patients.

[bjs1779]

I know, but I think it has taken a toll. Bless the person we have in mind.

[8mmMauser]

I am with you on that, too.

[8mmMauser]

Dante3 spotted this earlier. It is a new case of a young woman supposedly PVS who showed to be conscious.

A patient in a vegetative state can communicate just through using her thoughts, according to research.

A UK/Belgium team studied a 23-year-old woman who had suffered a severe brain injury in a road accident, which left her apparently unable to communicate.

By scanning her brain, they discovered she could understand spoken commands and even imagine playing tennis.

They said their findings, published in Science, were "startling", but cautioned this could be a one-off case.

Vegetative patient 'communicates'

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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.

[8mmMauser]

Support the Troops and Their Mission Weekend Sept. 22-23 in D.C. (Rally Web Site Now Up)

Hope many of us can make it to Washington DC for this.

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[8mmMauser]

Kate Bainbridge...

Scientists have shown for the first time that a person diagnosed as being in a vegetative state can communicate.

For Kate Bainbridge, now 36, the news is especially significant.

In 1997, when Kate was 26, she caught an acute viral infection. It was so serious that it confined her to a vegetative state for six months.

'I felt trapped inside my body'

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[8mmMauser]

Echoes of poor Haleigh Poutre's dilemma...

The infant remained on life support at Medical University of South Carolina Hospital for 40 days although doctors there said she was clinically brain dead from the time she arrived. The Department of Social Services was waiting on an order from Family Court Judge Berry Mobley on whether they would have the right to decide if the infant should remain on life support when the baby died.

Hearing for baby’s parents postponed

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[T'wit]

>> Michael knew she could feel pain according to court testimony. He enjoyed every second of it.

I caught a new detail for some future prosecutor to tell the jury in Michael Schiavo's trial for aggravated manslaughter, in re Terri's unexplained near-fatal injuries the night of February 25, 1990. Part of this story appeared in an inside page of the NY Post on Wednesday, and I ripped it out. The whole story is available here.

>> NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cardiac arrest is often preceded by symptoms lasting for more than an hour, and usually occurs in cases with a known history of heart disease or risk factors, German investigators report.

These findings refute the theory that sudden cardiac death occurs at random in apparently healthy or low-risk patients, the authors say.

The ridiculous bulimia theory was ruled out, and that was Michael's only alibi. Now we see that any other sort of "sudden" cardiac arrest was unlikely too. She didn't just get out of bed and die, did she Michael?

[T'wit]

Aw, thanks, it was a small thing. We should all send her a card now and then, and keep Haleigh in our prayers. As far as I can tell, she is in the Franciscan Hospital for Children in Massachusetts.

Haleigh Poutre
c/o Franciscan Children's Hospital
30 Warren St
Brighton, MA 02135

(617) 783-0475

[8mmMauser]

Caplan, anyone?

Round and brash, with the gravelly voice of a street fighter, Arthur Caplan looks and sounds more like a boxer than an ethi­cal philosopher. The director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, Caplan has been enormously influential in a variety of debates in modern biomedicine, from the fate of Terri Schiavo to the market for organs for transplant. He has written or coauthored more than 400 peer-reviewed articles and several book on the ethics of new medical technologies.

Arthur Caplan... Who elected you king?

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[floriduh voter]

NEWS & AN I TOLD YOU SO FROM ZE COLD VAR:

1. An FBI probe by Tampa FBI clears a bevy of Tampa Judges from the Thirteenth Circuit, Hillsborough County. The judge pictured in the Tampa Tribune said the following, "If they found anything, they would have brought charges." (yeah, right). TAMPA TRIBUNE front page 9-8-2006

2. TERRI SCHIAVO made the front section of the newspaper regarding the woman's medical condition that you referred to. Terri's picture was in the front section. A spokesman for the death industry, "one" neurologist said that Terri's case was different and new discoveries not applicable to her. (yeah, right.)

3. CRISTI-KOOLAID DRINKERS: The mainstream media just caught up with me, floriduh voter. Crist supporter former State Comptroller Bob Milligan jumped party lines to endorse ALEX SINK (D) (Democratic for Guv McBride's wife) instead of Tom Lee (R) for CFO.

THE I TOLD YOU SO, CRIST-KOOLAID DRINKERS: ALEX SINK WAS EMPLOYED AT BANK OF AMERICA WITH CRIST'S GAL PAL KATIE PEMBLE. ALEX AND KATIE are both Emily's Listers...

Nepotism and cronyism are hallmarks of Crist's political philosophy.

I TOLD YOU SO. (I can find my user posts on Alex Sink and Katie Pemble if people have trouble doing their own research which they should be doing anyway after all).

Crist has betrayed GOP former Senate President Tom Lee for DEMOCRAT ALEX SINK. Alex Sink is smart but she is an Emily's Lister. Crist's so called gal pal is a DEMOCRAT.

FACE THE MUSIC.

All in today's Tampa Tribune... Try http://www.tbo.com and see if this news is on line. FV

[8mmMauser]

As the wires are flooded this morning with the remarkable story of the woman who was conscious, one media source came up with a sour note. Any guess? NYT? Nope, NPR!...

Now, this is simply an anecdote. This 23-year-old woman doesn't really tell us anything about anybody else in a vegetative state. Science magazine, which is publishing the finding (subscription required), also published a commentary warning people not to leap to broader conclusions about brain activity in people in this state. (No responsible physician would suggest that the physically atrophied brain of Terry Schiavo could have responded in this way).

Reporting with Caution

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[8mmMauser]

Bobby Schindler to speak in Michigan...

DAVISON TWP. - Bobby Schindler, younger brother of Terri Schiavo, will speak at the annual "embrace life" benefit dinner Sept. 28 sponsored by Flint Right to Life and Black Americans for Life.

The 6:12 p.m. event at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 8428 Davison Road, also will feature as emcee Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, a religious-based advocacy group that fought to prevent authorities from removing Schiavo's feeding tube.

Schiavo brother to speak at Right to Life dinner

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[floriduh voter]

Also in today's Tampa Tribune. www.tbo.com

FV SAYS: ANOTHER DCF COVERUP IN THE MAKING? WHERE'S FL AG CRIST? He's not investigating DCF or Foster Care but there's a severely injured child. Did his key advisor Clay Roberts SPIKE a real investigation????

A child was placed in foster care while mom went to drug rehab. At present, the child is in a less than minimally conscious state and mom doesn't know while her child was in DCF and foster care. Another horrible mistake by Florida's DCF... I suppose Bernie McCabe will handle this coverup too.

Imagine being in recovery and your children are in state custody and they aren't returned to you in mint condition. One is returned in a less than minimally conscious state.

TAMPA TRIBUNE METRO SECTION: headline: Mother Sues Over Injuries to Young Son (this is related to C. Crist because his friend Darryl Rousson is helping her the way he "helped" Martin Anderson's mom.) Is he helping her or is he shadowing her for Florida's Attorney General? I would think that Darryl Rousson would have a major conflict of interest being that he's Crist's friend. SHADOWING ANOTHER VICTIM FOR CHARLIE CRIST? I ask you. The child's name is: LAZON GULLEY. (DCF does not return children to their parents in mint condition). The culture of corruption is once again exposed.

FV SAYS: DCF is a trainwreck. Remember www.rescuemykids.com or .org. DCF is grabbing kids in what looks like an effort to reach a quota but the parents are INNOCENT.

Gallagher voters who are hopping on Crist's bandwagon are in for a rough ride. Maybe someday these issues wil come to light and Crist will either be back in St. Pete without his bar license or he will be incarcerated.

Does Bill Clinton come to mind yet? LAZON'S mom will sue the State of Florida but there were be no trial. This may just be a campaign strategy if Rousson gets on tv and publicly asks his FRIEND "Charlie Crist, I demand that you investigate LAZON GULLEY's abuse at DCF."

Cristi-Critters are being played and I am sticking my neck out yet again.

[8mmMauser]

Presently no screen name pings us to a thread by neverdem on the woman of the day who regained consciousness. It comes from the New York Times.

A severely brain-damaged woman in an unresponsive, vegetative state showed clear signs on brain imaging tests that she was aware of herself and her surroundings, researchers are reporting today, in a finding that could have far-reaching consequences for how unconscious patients are cared for and how their conditions are diagnosed.

Mental Activity Seen in a Brain Gravely Injured

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[8mmMauser]

Ping to BykrBayb's thread on a foster child killed...

CINCINNATI — Investigators recovered 18 bone fragments near an old chimney where investigators believe the body of a developmentally disabled 3-year-old foster child was burned, a county coroner said Thursday.

The boy's foster parents, charged with killing him, pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder.

Investigators Find Bone Fragments Believed to Be From Body of Ohio Foster Child

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[T'wit]

For the record, a medical article on the effects of positional asphyxia -- like Michael getting on Terri's back and she couldn't breathe. (The injury is associated with police restraints, but having a very big man on your back is worse.) 1) Cardiac arrest. Terri went into cardiac arrest. 2) Metabolic acidosis. Terri's blood showed metabolic acidosis, surely as strange a test result as the one-time low potassium reading (which is also associated with violence). Acidosis occurs in extreme exertion (such as fighting for life and breath). Terri, so far as anyone can imagine, was asleep when Michael got home -- no exertion at all. She went from healthy to nearly dead soon after he got home late that Saturday night.

Metabolic Acidosis in Restraint-associated Cardiac Arrest

[T'wit]

There is absolutely nothing surprising about this. What goes on inside the human brain is mostly a mystery and mostly beyond the reach of instruments poking around the outside. A diagnosis of "persistent vegetative state" is so unreliable and variable, we can't get three doctors to agree what it IS. It is misdiagnosed half the time, people recover from it who weren't expected to. A diagnosis of "PVS" is all but medically useless -- except for euthanizing the patient and harvesting organs. And that is why we have death doctors like the late Ronald Cranford for hire in lawsuits, ready to testify in every case that the patient should be killed.

[T'wit]

>> (No responsible physician would suggest that the physically atrophied brain of Terry Schiavo could have responded in this way)

One supposes the approximately fifty brain specialists who testified or filed affidavits for Terri were the irresponsible sort.

[floriduh voter]

What a mess. Crist and Davis even run in the same crowd. This from The Buzz.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/buzz/2006/01/floridas-most-eligible-gubernatorial.html

Seems to me that 527 attack ad was a calculated plan to take Gallagher and Smith out of the race for buddies Crist and Davis. How is Crist going to run against his pal Davis and vice versa?

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/buzz/2006/01/floridas-most-eligible-gubernatorial.html

(more democrats with Crist, wherever you turn!)