Posted on 04/07/2005 6:15:38 AM PDT by tacomonkey2002
To: Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 4:01 PM Subject: NewStarvingCaseinGeorgia.PressRelease.Mullinax(205)408-7598 Media Release
For Immediate release! To: All media, and supporters of life. From: The Family of Mae Magouirk Date: April 6, 2005 Contact: Kenneth Mullinax
Shiavo case revisited in Georgia Mae Magouirk…not comatose …not vegetative …not terminal Why is Hospice LaGrange, Ga. withholding nourishment? (LaGrange, Georgia) Mae Magouirk is being withheld nourishment and fluids and the provisions of her Living Will are not being honored at the Hospice-LaGrange, (1510 Vernon Street, LaGrange “Troup County” Georgia, 706-845-3905) a subsidiary of the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange Georgia. Her family is desperately seeking to save her life before she dies of malnourishment and dehydration.
Mae Magouirk IS NOT comatose and she IS NOT vegetative. She is not terminal!
Despite these facts the Hospice and Beth Gaddy (706-882-9124), a school teacher at LaGrange’s Calloway Middle School and granddaughter of Mae Magouirk have been denying her proactive nourishment or fluids (via a nose administered feeding tube or fluids via an IV) since March 28 without prior legal consent; against the wishes of her Living Will and against the wishes of Mae Magouirk’s closest living next of kin. Mae Magouirk’s next of kin are: Mr. A. B. McLeod (Her Brother 256-236-1331) and Mrs. Lonnie Ruth Mullinax (Her sister 205-408-7598) both of nearby Anniston, Alabama.
Under Georgia law, unless a medical durable power of attorney is in place, your closest living next of kin are stipulated to make all medical decisions. When Mae Magouirk’s closest living next of kin lodged a complaint with Hospice LaGrange’s in-house attorney Carol Todd (706-882-1411) last Thursday, March 31, Ms. Todd checked Mae Magouirk’s case file and upon examination of both documents discovered that Beth Gaddy DID NOT have the durable medical power of attorney for Mae Magouirk and upon closer examination of Mae Magouirk’s Living Will ascertained that fluids and nourishment were ONLY TO BE WITHHELD if she was either comatose or vegetative. SHE IS IN NEITHER STATE!!!
Nor is Mae Magouirk terminally ill. Her local LaGrange, Ga. cardiologist, Dr. James Brennan (706-812-4308) and Dr. Raed Aqel, (205-934-9999) a highly acclaimed interventional cardiologist at the nationally renowned University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center have determined that Mae Magouirk’s aortic dissection is contained and not presently life threatening.
Two weeks ago, Mae Magouirk’s aorta had a dissection and she was hospitalized in the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange, Ga. Her aortic problem was at first determined to be severe and she was admitted in the intensive care Unit. Her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, a teacher at the Calloway Middle School in LaGrange, stated that she held Mae Magouirk’s medical power of attorney and thus invoked said powers against the wishes of Mae Magouirk’s closest living next of kin by having her moved to Hospice-LaGrange. While at Hospice-LaGrange, Beth Gaddy stated that her wishes were for no nourishment for Mae Magouirk via a feeding tube or fluids via an IV. Before hospitalization Mae was lucid and never had been diagnosed with dementia as was testified to in Probate Court on Monday, April 4, by a local MD.
Page Two Mae Magouirk is being starved to death!
Upon learning from Hospice-LaGrange that Mae Magouirk was being denied nourishment and fluids and upon being told by Carol Todd (Hospice LaGrange’s in-house legal consul) that Beth Gaddy DID NOT HAVE THE PROPER LEGAL AUTHORITY to deny said nourishment AND that the denial of nourishment went against Mae Magouirk’s Living Will, Mae’s family (Mullinax/McLeod) ordered the immediate beginning of such nourishment/fluids for Mae to Hospice via Carol Todd.
First Contact with Hospice on Thursday, March 31 Carol Todd told Mrs. Lonnie Ruth Mullinax (Mae Magouirk’s sister) and Kenneth Mullinax (Mae Magouirk’s nephew) via phone on Thursday, March 31 that Georgia Law stipulated that Mrs. Mullinax and her brother A. B. McLeod (Mae Magouirk’s brother) were entitled to make any and all decisions for Mae Magouirk. Mrs. Mullinax immediately told Carol Todd to insert fluids via an IV and insert a feeding tube, via her nose. Carol Todd had the IV fluids started that evening but told the family that they would have to come to Hospice LaGrange to sign papers to have the feeding tube inserted and because of such, she believed that Mae Magouirk would no longer be a candidate for Hospice LaGrange. She was then told that Mae Magouirk’s family concurred and the ONLY REASON Mae was at Hospice was because the LaGrange Hospital had failed to exercise due diligence in closely examining the power of attorney which Beth Gaddy said she had, as well as executing the provisions of Mae’s Living Will to her preordained stipulations. Gaddy only had a financial power of attorney and did not have a medical power of attorney and Mae Magouirk’s Living Will provided that a feeding tube and fluids SHOULD ONLY BE DISSCONTINUED IF Mae was comatose or in a vegetative state. She was and is in neither state.
Attempt to rescue Mae on Friday denied by Probate Judge Donald Boyd On Friday, April 1, when A. B. McLeod (brother) and Kenneth Mullinax (nephew) showed up to meet with Carol Todd and to arrange emergency air transport of Mae Magouirk to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center (One of the top cardiovascular centers in the USA) Hospice LaGrange stalled them while Beth Gaddy went before Troup County Georgia (LaGrange, Ga.) Probate Judge Donald W. Boyd (who DOES NOT hold a law degree) who granted Beth Gaddy emergency guardianship of Mae Magouirk, giving Beth Gaddy full and absolute authority. Thus, they COULD NOT MOVE HER FOR PROACTIVE MEDICAL CARE Friday because Beth Gaddy had Hospice stop them and then she had Mae’s IV fluid tube pulled out. Beth Gaddy has repeatedly told Mr. McLeod, Mrs. Mullinax and Kenneth Mullinax that she feels they all should let Mae not eat and thus cause her to die because, and we quote Beth Gaddy: “Grandmamma is old and I think it is time she went home to Jesus. She has glaucoma, and now this heart problem and who would want to live with disabilities like these?”
As stipulated under Georgia Law, a hearing for an Emergency Guardianship, must be held within 3 days of its request and Mae Magouirk’s hearing was held on this past Monday, April 4, before Troup County Georgia Probate Judge Donald Boyd who favors granting Beth Gaddy permanent guardianship and thus will seal Mae Magouirk’s fate of allowing Beth Gaddy to starve her to death against the wishes of her Living Will and in full knowledge that Mae Magouirk is not terminal, not in a coma and is not in a vegetative state and that medical care at UAB Medical Center is awaiting her. Shiavo revisited!
Mae’s present state and vital signs Mae’s blood pressure is good, averaging 140/82 with a pulse rate of 88. However, since admission to Hospice she has not been lucid but who would be since nourishment and fluids have been denied since March 28, 2005. Also adding to her confusion is that she is off her regular medicines and is on a dose of Adavan and Morphine. Without food or water her electrolytes and body chemistry is not within its proper parameters. If her condition is not given major public attention soon, she will die, not by divine cause but by the omission of assistance by man. WE MUST GET Mae moved to UAB Medical ASAP
Resources: Probate Judge Donald Boyd (706) 883-1690)…Court CASE NUMBER: Estate 138-05 Attorney for saving Mae’s life: Jack Kirby, Kirby & Roberts, (706) 884-2992***
Step by step goes the march of Death.
Can't say I didn't see it coming.
I was harassed for weeks for pointing out this obvious continuation of allowing Terri Schiavo to be murdered. Looks like it's open season on the helpless.
Coming? These decisions are made every day all across the land and have been for years.
This post leaves several unanswered questions. How old is this lady and if she was conscious how did someone else get this alleged PoA? Morphine will make someone incoherent.
Who but a court can make these decisions legally? How can that be changed?
And I have been harassed for weeks for pointing out that there are thousands of these cases at any given time across the land and that there was nothing medically unusual in the Schiavo case. Just the legal fight around it.
How can these decisions be made by anyone but families or courts when there is a dispute.
I don't see an age for this sick woman. But it looks like a granddaughter has the control....Using my daughter as a base, I'd say the sick lady is in her 80's.
You did just fine.
It is clear that our laws need to be reviewed and revised.
As GWB said, the default choice needs to be life. I also think the decision about who gets to be the guardian needs to be looked at.
pinging...
pinging you also...
"...if she was conscious how did someone else get this alleged PoA"
Since when do you only grant a POA by being unconscious? My grandmother granted my mother POA several years before her death (back in the '80s) and she was lucid till the last couple months of her life (strange accident, we'll never really know).
Of course, it's all moot if as the OP claims, this woman didn't really have POA.
I think these things have been happening for a long time. The Schiavo case just brought it into public view. Maybe now there will be more public outcry in favor of other people in the same predicament.
"... pointing out that there are thousands of these cases at any given time across the land and that there was nothing medically unusual in the Schiavo case. Just the legal fight around it."
Well that's true, and who disputes that? The problem w/the Schindler case was believing a "guardian" on hearsay evidence several years after the fact, who himself was having questionable relations violating marriage covenants. Judgement was bad - or rather not used in that case which led to this whole tragedy.
Never mind the final bad judgement which allowed long, slow starvation.
Of course it is common and almost always, if not always, unavoidable. There only result of this absurd and gruesome spectacle will be to further empower the fedgov should it step in and order federal court review of such cases further bankrupting the medical establishment while INCREASING the power of those judges so widely loathed.
Think Ninth Circuit deciding these matters.
And that is the MOST positive potential result.
Quick, get a video camera. Apparently, if we actually saw what this "treatment" does to a person, there would not be any more of this starvation and dehydration.
Nonsense. Nothing can stop most of it. These issues were never even seriously thought about as long as private resources were required to maintain the patient. Only after the pockets of the taxpayer became available or free money from the insurance companies were the enormous costs of prolonging the deaths acceptable.
When heresay evidence is also the "best available evidence" it will prevail. Nothing exceptional there. Extraneous issues are irrelevant.
These judges are out of control! My goodness, that granddaughter does not understand! Lord, please help us put an end to this culture of death!
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
Thanks so much for posting this, it is a better update than what I have previously seen.
Topher, I know Fr. Pavone is extremely busy, but do you think you could pass word of this on to him? We must gain the attention of the world that this is an ongoing travesty of justice, this culture of death. Thank you. I know you will try.
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