Family of baby on life support at Cook Children’s files appeal to keep her alive
The family of an 11-month-old baby at Cook Children’s Hospital filed an appeal Thursday that argues against a judge’s decision to allow the hospital to end the baby’s life-sustaining care.
Trinity Lewis, Tinslee Lewis’ mother, and her lawyers filed the appeal in the Second Appellate District of Texas in Fort Worth. Cook Children’s has until Jan. 27 to respond to the appeal.
Tinslee Lewis has been on life support at Cook Children’s since July. She was born prematurely in February with a rare heart defect called an Ebstein anomaly. She also suffers from a chronic lung disease and severe chronic pulmonary hypertension, and has undergone several complex surgeries.
A legal battle between the family and the hospital broke out in October, when a hospital ethics committee made up mostly of hospital faculty ruled to remove life-sustaining care for Tinslee.
Tinslee’s doctors and hospital staff said they believe her medical conditions are terminal and continued care is only causing unnecessary suffering. The committee gave the family 10 days to find another hospital before they would end Tinslee’s care.
Tinslee’s mom, Trinity Lewis, does not believe her daughter is suffering and wants more time for her to get better. On Nov. 10, a judge granted the family a temporary restraining order against the hospital, preventing Tinslee’s doctors from ending her care.
After a day-long hearing in December, Chief Justice Sandee B. Marion of the Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled on Jan. 2 the hospital was allowed to take Tinslee off life support.
The family announced that day they would appeal.
In the motion for appeal, Lewis’ attorney, Joe Nixon, argues the law that allowed Cook Children’s to make the decision to end Tinslee’s care is unconstitutional. Nixon, the family and anti-abortion advocates also argued against the law — the Texas Advance Directives Act — in the injunction hearing.
Section 166.046 of the Texas Advance Directives Act allows an ethics committee to choose to end treatment if doctors determine care is futile or medically inappropriate.
That section violates three constitutional rights, Nixon argues in the appeal: Tinslee’s right to life, Tinslee and Lewis’ right to a parent-child relationship, and the family’s right to due process.
“Section 166.046 clearly permits Texas hospitals, via its ethics committees, to take action normally only held in the hands of State officials such as judge, peace officers and executioners who can take a person’s life against that person’s wishes with immunity,” the appeal says.
The appeal also makes the argument that an ethics committee should not decide whether a patient lives or dies because it is not an impartial group. Of the 22 people in Tinslee’s ethics committee, 19 were hospital employees. Nixon calls this a conflict of interest.
The Texas Advance Directives Act takes a family’s right to make life-or-death decisions away, Nixon argues.
Lewis said at a press conference on Jan. 6 that her worst fear is not that her daughter will die — she is afraid Cook Children’s will end her daughter’s life instead of letting her make that choice.
Because the act grants hospitals immunity when they invoke section 166.046, Nixon said the law bypasses due process.
“All alleged due process safeguards by Cook here are illusory,” the appeal states.
Tinslee breathes with the assistance of a ventilator and is sedated but conscious, the family says, and responds to touch and stimulation as any baby would.
In a prior statement, the hospital said Tinslee’s condition was “most certainly fatal,” painful, and that she requires full respiratory and cardiac support, deep sedation and to be medically paralyzed.
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 4:10 PM.
