Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402130103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SARASOTA, FLA. LENGTH: Short
At her bedside, her parents battle hospital officials who insist that nothing more can be done and Teresa should be taken off life support.
"She is fighting. We are fighting," Scotty Hamilton said Friday. "We will not arbitrarily end her life. . . . We will not take a chance away from her."
Teresa's is not the classic case of a family fighting to end a loved one's suffering while doctors try to maintain life at all costs. It is a family refusing to let go of a patient whom every doctor who has been consulted says is brain dead.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital's ethics committee has met four times on Teresa's case; each time, its members have reached the same conclusion: discontinue treatment. But the hospital's lawyers, fearing liability, have advised just the opposite. Hospital officials said they plan to ask a judge to intervene.
Florida law says a person is dead when the brain stops functioning. A hospital is not required to ask permission from next of kin or a court to remove a brain-dead patient from life support.
Teresa, a severe diabetic, was taken to Memorial on Jan. 7 with severe flu symptoms. She quickly slipped into a coma. All brain activity ceased the next day.
Her care costs about $3,240 per day, the bill is more than $116,000 and the family's medical insurance has run out. Hospital spokesman Mike Vizvary said the cost has nothing to do with the hospital's position.
by CNB