On Thursday, a Texas Judge Sandee Marion ruled that 11-month-old Tinslee Lewis can be taken off life support against the wishes of the child’s mother Trinity Lewis.
To the disagreement of Ms. Lewis, doctors say Tinslee is in pain and will never recover from her rare heart condition and other medical issues.
Ms. Lewis’ request to “issue an injunction to ensure that the Cook Children’s Medical Center doesn’t end her daughter Tinslee Lewis’ life-sustaining treatment” was denied by Judge Marion, the chief justice of Texas’ Fourth Court of Appeals, CBN News reported.
Tinslee was born premature and suffers from a rare heart defect, chronic lung disease, and severe chronic high blood pressure, according to CBN. “She hasn’t come off a ventilator since going into respiratory arrest in early July and requires full respiratory and cardiac support, deep sedation and to be medically paralyzed. The hospital said doctors believe she’s suffering,” the report noted.
Following the decision, Ms. Lewis and Tinslee’s grandmother Linda Williams spoke out about the ruling.
“This isn’t Tinslee’s first rodeo,” said Ms. Lewis. “She’s made it this far. I know she’s going to continue to fight for her life.”
Asked about the law ordering her daughter to be taken off life support, the young mother told reporters, “It’s not fair and I don’t feel it’s their right to take somebody’s life because they want to stop treating them.”
Williams said she disagrees with doctors who call her granddaughter’s case “hopeless.”
“Even though the doctors are saying it’s hopeless — hopelessness, I don’t believe there is such things as hopelessness, because there is hope,” she said. “What they want to do is remove her from the ventilator, and to me, that is not their decision to make.”
According to CBN, “Doctors at the hospital had planned to remove Tinslee from life support Nov. 10 after invoking the state’s ’10-day rule’ which can be employed when a family disagrees with doctors who say life-sustaining treatment should be stopped. The law stipulates that if the hospital’s ethics committee agrees with doctors, treatment can be withdrawn after 10 days if a new provider can’t be found to take the patient.”
“Hospital officials have said they reached out to more than 20 facilities to see if one would take Tinslee, but all agreed that further care is futile,” the report added.
Texas Right to Life says they will appeal the judge’s decision and keep fighting for Tinslee.
“I am heartbroken over today’s decision because the judge basically said Tinslee’s life is NOT worth living. I feel frustrated because anyone in that courtroom would want more time just like I do if Tinslee were their baby,” Ms. Lewis said in a written statement to Texas Right to Life. “I hope that we can keep fighting through an appeal to protect Tinslee. She deserves the right to live. Please keep praying for Tinslee and thank you for supporting us during this difficult time.”
Judge Marion was not the first judge assigned to the case. “Tarrant County Juvenile Court Judge Alex Kim originally took up the case, but he was removed after Cook Children’s Medical Center filed a motion questioning his impartiality and saying that he bypassed rules to make himself the presiding judge,” The Daily Caller noted in a report posted Thursday. “Marion, who ran for her seat as a Republican, was then assigned to the case.”
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via The Daily Wire
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