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 HOUSTON---Emotions for the Andrea Clark family were up and down like a roller coaster Friday but as of late Friday afternoon, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital had reportedly agreed not to remove the life support from the disabled woman until at least Tuesday while the search continues for a facility where she can be transferred.
The family and their supporters were breathing a sigh of relief early Friday after learning that a facility near Chicago had agreed to accept Andrea as a patient but 20 minutes before the ambulance was to start the transfer process, the family was told that the facility had notified St. Luke's that they did not have the medical equipment available to sustain Andrea.
Jerri Lynn Ward, the Texas attorney who is representing the disabled woman, says that efforts are still being made to transfer Andrea's care to another physician or facility.
The hospital ethics committee has decided under the Texas Futile Care Law that it would be futile to prolong the life of the 53-year-old heart patient and has recommended that she be removed from life support despite her family's wishes and the wishes of Andrea herself.
Under Chapter 166 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, if an attending physician disagrees with a surrogate over a life-and-death treatment decision, there must be an ethics committee consultation (with notice to the surrogate and an opportunity to participate). In a futility case such as Andrea's in which the treatment team is seeking to stop treatment deemed to be non-beneficial, if the ethics committee agrees with the team, the hospital will be authorized to discontinue the disputed treatment, after a 10-day delay, during which the hospital must help try to find a facility that will accept a transfer of the patient.
In Andrea's case, her attending physician, Dr. Ronald Giveon, made the decision to remove Andrea from life support. His decision was supported by the hospital's ethics committee and the respirator and dialysis keeping Andrea alive was scheduled to be removed from Andrea on Sunday, April 30.
Andrea has been a heart patient at the hospital since November. In January, she underwent open heart surgery and in February, she developed bleeding on the brain.
Her family says that she's not brain dead and she's not terminal. According to her family, Andrea is showing some signs of improvement but slight. She has endocarditis which her sister says takes about four months to resolve.
Andrea's family says that prior to her being placed on heavy medication due to the pain from a bed sore, that she had expressed her desire to live and they say she would relate that now were she not so heavily medicated.
Lanore Dixon, Andrea's sister said that Friday afternoon, 20 minutes before Andrea was due to be transported by ambulance to the airport for the flight to Chicago, her doctor, or rather, the one filling in for her doctor who has gone on vacation this week, came into her room and informed the family that Andrea would not be transferred to the Chicago facility after all.
"After questioning the doctor I learned that someone messed up", Lanore said, "I don't know which end the foul up occurred, but this all goes to show the danger of being forced to choose a healthcare facility due to pressure of an ethics committee ruling. "This so called LTAC was nothing more than a nursing home with dialysis machine in the basement. They had no ability to administer the medications Andrea requires", she said.
"While we're grateful that St. Luke's halted the transfer before Andrea was moved, I cannot tell you the stress this has put on our family. We are exhausted from this effort, but we will continue to fight for our sister.
"St. Luke's has agreed not to pull Andrea's life support at least until Tuesday. On Tuesday, a committee of doctors from St. Luke's will meet to discuss how to proceed with Andrea's case. Andrea's new doctor--a doctor who shares our values about the sacredness of life--will take over her care on Tuesday and will fight for her right to live".
Melanie Childers, Andrea's other sister said that St. Luke's had "played hardball" with them on the issue when the hospital told them of their choice to move their sister to the hospital in Chicago. Melanie said that they were told that if they made the decision Thursday, the hospital would pay the entire amount of $14,000 of transfer costs but if they delayed a day, the hospital would only pay half of the cost and if made the following day, the hospital would pay nothing.
The North Country Gazette learned late Friday that efforts were underway to transfer Andrea to a Michigan hospital but that hope was apparently dashed when a social worker from St. Luke's told an internist from the hospital that she didn't feel that Andrea was stable enough for the transfer. 4-28-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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