WebProNews

Tag: Marlise Munoz

  • Texas Pregnant Woman Ruled Legally Dead Today

    In a twist from recent life support legal battles, today a Texas family has won the case to release their loved one from life support.

    On November 26th, a 14-week pregnant Marlise Munoz was deemed brain dead from what was presumed to be a pulmonary embolism. ABC News tells us that according to the family’s lawyer, the now 22-week-old embryo is “distinctly abnormal,” citing lower extremity deformities and water on its brain. It is not clear if this was due to Marlise’s affliction, or if the abnormalities were already present.

    What makes this situation distinct from cases such as Terri Schiavo and the most recent Jahi McMath case is that Munoz’s family wishes to remove her from life support– but Texas laws prohibited it.

    The law states that “a person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient,” which means that Marlise Munoz was legally appointed to be on life support for the sake of the fetus.

    Munoz’s family asserts that Marlise Munoz, a paramedic, clearly expressed that she never wished to be on life support– despite being pregnant as well as already having a 14-month-old child. The ruling today has deemed that the law that kept her organs functioning do not apply to her because by law, she is legally dead.

    Jobin Panicker of the Dallas Channel 8 news team live-tweeted the case today, and his descriptions of the Munoz family reactions:

    helps one to believe that it does not seem to be a heartless situation of a family wishing to rush a loved one to their death. According to Panicker’s eyewitness account, the Munoz family asserted that they merely wanted the “science experiment” on Marlise Munoz’s body to end.

    There was no happy ending for anyone today as the judge declared Marlise Munoz legally dead earlier this evening, but at least the family was granted the opportunity to begin dealing with the closure.

    Image via NDN

  • Judge Orders Hospital to Remove Life Support From Pregnant Woman

    Marlise Muñoz has been on life support since November 26, at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. She collapsed in her kitchen with what doctors believe was a blood clot. She was also 14 weeks pregnant. Her husband found her unconscious and she was rushed to the hospital.

    Muñoz was being kept alive by respirator against the family’s wishes, and against her wishes. Marlise and her husband Erick are paramedics who were clear that they didn’t want life support. Especially if one of them became brain dead or comatose.

    When the family was told she was brain dead, Marlise’s mother and father, as well as her husband Erick, asked the doctors to remove her from respirators, as the pregnant woman had urged them to do if she was ever in that situation.

    However, the hospital refused. John Peter Smith Hospital had argued that it had to protect the life of the unborn child.

    Further, hospital officials have said a state law prohibiting withdrawal of treatment from a pregnant patient bound them. Several experts interviewed by The Associated Press have said the hospital is misapplying the law.

    On Friday, Judge R.H. Wallace Jr. of State District Court in Tarrant County, ordered John Peter Smith Hospital to pronounce the woman, Marlise Muñoz, dead, and remove her from life support by 5 p.m. on Monday.

    “This is tragic and very difficult case,” the judge said before siding with the family and ruling that the state law in question did not apply to Ms. Muñoz because she was dead.

    Regarding the baby (fetus) Erick Munoz’s attorneys said that the fetus, now believed to be at about 22 weeks, is “distinctly abnormal.” This information, they said, came directly from the hospitals medical records.

    Image via YouTube

  • Marlise Munoz Ordered Off Life Support

    Tarrant County District Judge R.H. Wallace has told John Peter Smith Hospital of Fort Worth that they have until 6PM EST this coming Monday to disconnect 33-year-old former paramedic Marlise Munoz from her ventilator.

    Her husband, Erick, has been fighting to get his wife taken off of life support since November. However, the hospital he sued refused to comply with his wishes. The reason given by John Peter Smith Hospital was Munoz’ pregnancy and a state law that said that a pregnant woman couldn’t be denied life-sustaining support if it would harm or endanger the unborn child.

    Munoz was determined to be roughly fourteen weeks pregnant when she collapsed from due to pulmonary embolism. At present, Munoz is in her second trimester and a court affidavit has said that the fetus is “not viable”, meaning regardless of whether or not Munoz remained on life support, the fetus would likely not survive.

    Erick Munoz considers his wife legally dead and feels that “to further conduct surgical procedures on a deceased body is nothing short of outrageous.”

    With the lack of viability for the fetus, there was legally no reason to deny the request of Munoz’s husband.

    Sadly, this case isn’t unique in terms of the battle over the removal and preservation of life via ventilator. Jahi McMath, a thirteen year old girl who experienced complications during a tonsillectomy and other procedures went into cardiac arrest late last year. After being declared brain dead a few days after the failed procedures, her family became locked in a battle with Children’s Hospital Oakland, wanting to keep the teenager alive and find answers as to what went wrong.

    An earlier and world famous case occurred in 2005 when Terry Schiavo‘s husband, Michael, won the legal battle against her family that would allow him to take her off of life support after ten years. He did not believe his wife would want to exist in a vegetative state.

    There are no real winners or losers in cases like this. Only heartbroken families left to pick up the pieces as best they can, with or without closure.

    Image via WFAA TV Twitter