Last night (more here) we posted on the incredible application of a Texas law by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas to use their "ethics" (sic) committee to essentially committ murder. The situation is critical and requires an all-out no-stops media blitz. Until a few days ago, when the physicians decided to increase her pain medication and anesthetize her into unconsciousness, Andrea was fully able to make her own medical decisions and had decided that she wanted life saving treatment until she dies naturally.
Urgent help is needed from bloggers and blog readers. Please, immediately contact the hospital by telephone and email, and advise them of your horror that a faith-based hospital that supposedly respects life would act so irresponsibly as to put dollars before a patients life, etc.... :
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave., Houston, TX 77030Ironically, St Luke's website has the caption "Live More " on their banner and has the following description:
Main hospital telephone number - 832-355-1000
Email (more to be updated later)
St. Luke's Episcopal Health System has a unique commitment to patient care. As a faith-based, non-profit organization, St. Luke's believes that true healing involves the body, mind and spirit. Our approach goes beyond religion, focusing on the healing aspects of spirituality and based on deeply held trust, love, caring, compassion, and respect for well-being and life.Obviously this is nothing more than a "come-on" just to fool patients into thinking they can be trusted to be compassionate and respect life! Isn't this a rather "sic" use of false advertising?
In light of their history, their lead should be come to St. Luke's and other Texas hospitals to have your life turned off!
While bloggers and readers join in Andrea's plight to survive the death sentence by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital's Ethics Committee, her story is begining to gain more attention. Today at WorldNetDaily is carrying the story:
[...] An ill woman in Houston could die within days because a hospital ethics committee has voted to take her off life support - this despite the fact the 54-year-old is not in a coma, is not brain dead and wants to go on living, her family says.On April 30, Andrea Clark is scheduled to be on the receiving end of a Texas law that allows a hospital ethics committee to terminate care with 10 days' notice, giving the patient's family that length of time to find a different facility.
"They just say, 'Well she's miserable.' Well, to me that's a quality of life decision that is up to her and her family," Lanore Dixon told KHOU-TV. "That is not a medical decision."
Dixon recently protested at the St. Luke's Hospital on behalf of Clark, her sister, who has been hospitalized there since November.
In January, Clark underwent open-heart surgery and later developed bleeding on the brain. A ventilator, which the committee voted to remove Sunday, helps her breath.
Talking about the Texas law, Dixon told KHOU: ""If their ethics committee makes a decision, it doesn't matter what the patient wants. It doesn't even apparently matter what the patient's condition is, because our sister is not in a coma; she's not brain dead."
Clark's family says though she cannot speak, they are able to communicate with her by moving her lips and blinking her eyes.More to come. Please watch for important updates. This post will be cross posted to BlogsForTerri, ProLifeBlogs, and Freedom's Zone.Columnist and attorney Wesley J. Smith, who wrote extensively on the Terri Schiavo case in Florida, chimed in on his blog:
"Note that the treatment is apparently being removed because it works, not because it doesn't - which means, in effect, that the hospital ethics committee has declared the patient's life to be futile."
Noting that the family wants Clark to live, Smith noted, "It is as if Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers wanted Terri's care continued but the hospital said no."
(...)Smith described the Texas law as allowing "private decision-making that will result in death without even the right to a public hearing, to cross examine witnesses or a formal appeal."
(...) Some have charged the law is meant to benefit insurance companies who want hospitals to get critical patients "off the books."
Related:
Local coverage in Houston (with video).
More at Right Wing News
Hat tip on the WND story: (JackLewis.Net)
Related previous announcement of protest already held: Protest state-approved forced-death of sick woman tomorrow!
Cross posted from Hyscience
Previously:
- Andrea Clarke's Struggle for Life
Killing Andrea Clark - We are Protesting - Help Us
Additional Sources:
- The Troubling Case of Andrea Clarke of Houston, TX
Life support battle at St. Luke's
Hospital to 'kill' sick woman?
Houston Hospital Votes To End Woman's Life With Bush Law
Watch the news video here.
Will try to join protest on Saturday late or early Sunday.
Do we still have time?
Leslie Hanks
V.P. Colorado Right to Life
Is there going to be a protest? I would like to show my support for Andrea.