FORT WORTH (1080 KRLD) - A hearing Thursday will determine whether Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth can end treatment for a girl who was born with a heart defect.
Tinslee Lewis was born ten months ago, but the hospital says she has been on a ventilator and under sedation since July.
In October, Cook Children's moved to end treatment under Texas' "Ten Day Rule," which is part of the state's Advance Directives Act. The law lets hospitals end treatment for patients if doctors deem that treatment "futile," and an ethics committee agrees. Families are then given ten days to find a different facility that will continue treatment.
A judge granted a temporary restraining order in November, and a judge could issue an injunction Thursday to force Cook Children's to continue treatment indefinitely.
"The family believes Tinslee is a fighter. She still has more time. They know her condition is not fatal," says Texas Right to Life's Kimberlyn Schwartz. "So, the Texas Ten Day Rule would not only rob Tinslee of due process but also rob her of her right to life."
Cook Children's has said Lewis was born prematurely. In addition to the heart defect, the hospital says she has a chronic lung disease. Cook Children's says treatment is "prolonging her suffering."
The hospital says it has reached out to 20 other facilities, and each one of them agreed that additional treatment would not help the girl recover.
Schwartz says an injunction would give the family additional time to navigate financial, legal and medical "hurdles."
"That's a lot of pressure for other hospitals, for the family, for the current hospital. That's one reason we don't believe this arbitrary countdown should be applied to patients' lives," she says. "There are so many conditions people can live with, and they live with them every day, that are not necessarily treatable. People have diabetes. That's not necessarily curable or reversible."
Texas Alliance for Life says continued treatment would have no benefit and simply prolong Lewis' suffering. The organization says Cook Children's made the right decision based on the recommendation of her doctors and the ethics committee.
“This law balances the family’s autonomy regarding end-of-life medical decisions with a doctor’s conscience rights to not order medically inappropriate interventions that would cause unnecessary suffering without the hope of improving their patient’s condition,” Texas Alliance for Life wrote in a statement.