Mae Magourik - Updated Information

Richard at BlogsForTerri.com has communicated with both the judge and the nephew (again) in Mae Magourik's case - it looks like some of the initial information we were given was skewed.  Mae was not on a feeding tube to begin with, but her brother, sister and nephew believed she should be placed on one since she was unable to take substantial nutrition and liquids orally.  The granddaughter's insistence on keeping Mae in hospice and refusing a feeding tube was apparently based on one local doctor's opinion that Mae was not treatable - but the panel of three doctors appointed last week agreed that Mae should be removed from hospice and evaluated to see if she could be treated without surgery.  The judge will have a statement issued to BlogsForTerri and the interested bloggers soon, but from what I understand, he considers himself pro-life and was a bit alarmed at comparisons between himself and Judge Greer in the Schiavo case.  The granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, has also been offered an opportunity to make a statement clarifying her side of this issue - we'll see if she takes them up on the offer.

Once Judge Boyd or Beth Gaddy responds, I'll post it here or provide a link... in the meantime, check out BlogsForTerri.com for Ken Mullinax's answers to some questions about things that just didn't seem to add up in the initial information we were all given.

Comments

[Jeremy]

Can I say I told you so...PLEEEZE? Pretty Please? Something just didn't add up before.

[songstress7]

*sigh* if you must... ;)

Seriously, Hubby and I were a little curious about how things got that out of whack if the initial information we were given was true... Now that there has been an explanation it makes more sense.

[Janice]

I just re-listened to the Glenn Beck interview and Glenn said something about Mae's tube being put BACK in - Ken didn't correct him. Everyone was under the impression that she had a feeding tube that had been removed, and I can't help but wonder if it was very cleverly worded by Ken intentionally so that we WOULD all think that. Glenn Beck apparently was under the same assumption - an honest misunderstanding, or a very cleverly worded press release?

[Janice]

Ken also stated during that interview that Mae's "nutrition has been pulled." If you listen to the interview, the assumption seemed to be on Glenn's part also that her feeding tube had been pulled, IMO. Ken's intentions were good-to get the most help possible as quickly as possible for Mae, but in my opinion, what we all thought was exactly what he wanted us all to think. That is just my own opinion as to how we all misinterpreted the events. I took time off work, making phone calls, writing emails and praying and regardless of unintentional or intentional, I am very grateful that Mae is now getting the proper medical care, bless her heart, she sounds like one tough lady and Ken seems to love her very much.

[concerned247]

There is still more to this story than Ken is letting you people know. Your right about him wording things to make you assume. And him not correcting Glenn has made him into nothing more than a liar. If he didn't tell the truth about that, then what else has he lied about? Maybe his motives for all this? I read an interesting article about feeding tube. Here it is. Maybe it will make people think twice about prolonging someones death just to satisfy their own guilt for not being there for that person when they needed them.
Posted on Sun, Apr. 03, 2005

Suffering with a feeding tube can be worse than death

By PAUL DEMARCO

Guest columnist

As the Terri Schiavo case illustrates, the decision to place or remove a feeding tube is one of the most difficult medical choices families face.

In my practice, the dilemma is usually whether to place a tube. A typical case might involve a patient with advanced Parkinson’s disease or dementia who no longer can communicate or eat enough to sustain himself. The family may be spending hours trying to get their loved one to take pureed food or specially thickened liquids.

The family faces a gut-wrenching choice. Continue to do the best they can, knowing it’s not enough, or place a feeding tube and risk prolonging a life to the point of meaningless suffering. I have met with dozens of families grappling with this issue, and it’s never easy.

Families leaning toward continued oral feeding want to know if dying of dehydration is painful. My experience caring for several hundred dying patients has convinced me that it is a peaceful, dignified way to die with little, if any pain. Almost all of these kinds of deaths are “good deaths.” Families gather at home or in a hospital room, friends come in and out. It is often a very rich, if bittersweet, experience.

Families leaning toward placing a feeding tube often have not answered the question of “what comes next?” The thought of “starving their family member to death” is so intolerable that only one option seems possible. With these families, I share my experience that the lives of severely demented patients with feeding tubes are generally miserable. These patients already require round-the-clock care, either at home or in a nursing home. They spend the entire day in bed unless they are placed in a chair. They are unable to communicate. Almost invariably, the placement of a feeding tube causes no improvement in their condition; it simply prolongs their lives.

I ask these families to consider two questions. First, “If you were in the condition of the patient, would you want us to place a feeding tube in you?” It is interesting that many family members answer without hesitation, “No,” but still feel obligated to place a feeding tube in their loved one. The second question is, “How do you envision your family member dying?” If we eliminate dehydration as an option, what’s left? Most often these patients die of an infection, usually pneumonia, a urinary tract infection or an infected bedsore. These deaths can be less peaceful because infection can cause fever, shortness of breath or pain.

I hope that the primary lesson of the Schiavo case will be to state your wishes unequivocally to all your family members and in a living will so you will never be caught in the horrible limbo where Terri Schiavo existed. But I fear that the case will produce an expectation in many people that feeding tubes are mandatory no matter what the condition of a patient.

When people read that the Florida legislature considered (but, I’m thankful, did not pass) a bill to make denial of food and water to patients in a persistent vegetative state a crime or that Pope John Paul II said that feeding tubes are “morally obligatory” for most patients in vegetative states, they may be intimidated into placing a feeding tube in their loved ones that will only prolong the suffering.

This is an issue so profound, complex and personal that is best left to doctors, patients and their families. Every case is different and requires the special knowledge and concern of your personal physician.

Let me give you an example of why political maneuvers or religious dogma do not serve us well. I recently saw Mrs. M, a minimally responsive patient at the nursing home who had been transferred from an outlying hospital with a gangrenous right leg. Her leg, from the mid-calf down, was dead and black and obviously painful. She could not speak or follow commands but she grimaced or moaned when she was moved. The family did not want an amputation because she was so very ill. She was being fed by a tube. After a discussion with her family, we removed the tube and simply offered her liquids and controlled her pain. She died peacefully several weeks later.

I am a devout Methodist Christian who believes deeply in the sacred nature of life. I am also a physician who is charged with balancing the sometimes competing values of defending life and relieving suffering. I do not claim any moral authority, but I cannot believe God wants physicians like me to maintain Mrs. M’s life at all costs.

I believe that God created mankind so that a natural death was available to most of us. When we are so old and frail that even if we are fed by others we continue to decline, there is rarely anything left for us to enjoy about life. I also believe that there are fates worse than death.