Simon’s Law

Parent Power

nancyvalko disability, family, futility, law, medical ethics, Simon's Law

During the last few months, I have been writing about efforts by some legislators in Missouri and now Kansas to block the passage of Simon’s Law, a bill that exposed and sought to change the secret futility polices in hospitals that led to the death of Simon Crosier, a baby with Trisomy 18. I even wrote my own testimony in support of the bill.

But now in a stunning development, Dr. John Lantos wrote an opinion editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) admitting that withholding life-sustaining treatment from babies with Trisomy 13 and 18 was really a value judgment rather than a medical judgment:

Thirty years ago, pediatric residents were taught that trisomy 13 and 18 were lethal congenital anomalies. Parents were told that these conditions were incompatible with life. There was a tacit consensus that life-sustaining treatment was not medically indicated. Clinical experience usually was consistent with this self-fulfilling prophecy.

But with social media, this changed.  Parents share stories and videos, showing their happy 4 and 5 year old children with these conditions. Survival, it turns out, is not a rare as once thought.”

This survival is even more impressive in light of a related JAMA article titled “Outcomes of Surgical Interventions in Children with Trisomies 13 and 18”   which stated that although “The median age of survival was 13 and 9 days, respectively, in children with trisomies 13 and 18”:

Among children with trisomies 13 and 18 who lived to 6 months, survival at age 10 years was 51% and 60%, respectively.

Note that what is changing the former medical perception of “incompatible with life” is not any new medical advance but rather loving parents who refused to accept the predicted death sentences for their babies, insisted on treatment and then used Facebook and other social and regular media to show off their children’s real lives. I call this Parent Power and it is based on love.

That power may help bills like Simon’s Law to finally pass.

DOWN SYNDROME (Trisomy 21)  AND PARENT POWER

I personally  learned about parent power when my daughter Karen was born in 1982 with Down Syndrome and a severe heart defect. 20+ years before Karen’s birth,  children with Down Syndrome were routinely institutionalized as accepted medical practice. But by the time Karen was born, almost all newborns with Down Syndrome went home with their parents and eligible early childhood programs.

What caused this dramatic change?

Again, it was primarily parent power.

Parents like Kay and Marty McGee not only ignored the standard medical advice to institutionalize their daughter but also fought for support and help for their daughter and others like her. They eventually founded the National Association for Down Syndrome in 1960 (http://www.nads.org/about-us/history-of-nads/ )

By working with other parents and reaching out to willing educational, legal and medical professionals, they helped change medical attitudes, the educational system and public acceptance of people with Down Syndrome who are now achieving goals once thought impossible.

Although it continues to be a long-term effort to ensure non-discriminatory medical treatment for people with Down Syndrome or other disabilities, people with Down Syndrome who were once predicted to die at an early age now have a life expectancy of 60 years and are achieving goals once thought impossible.

THE FIGHT  IS STILL FAR FROM OVER

Unfortunately and on the heels of the welcome editorial comment on babies with Trisomy 13 and 18, comes the news about the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of little Israel Stinson.

Two-year old Israel died after a judge suddenly and unexpectedly rescinded a court order that prevented a California hospital from removing the ventilator from little Israel before his parents could get an opinion from another neurologist after conflicting medical opinions about whether or not Israel was brain dead.

In this case, parent power was overturned by a single judge after the family thought that Israel was protected by a court order.

Not only is this personally tragic for Israel and his parents but this development also serves to devastate the crucial trust needed in our medical and legal systems.

 

 

 

Can We Choose to Live?

nancyvalko advance directives, brain injury, dementia, disability, end-of-life, futility, medical ethics, Simon's Law

In a 2016 study “What does “futility” mean? An empirical study of doctors’ perceptions” in the Medical Journal of Australia distilled this definition from the majority of responses:

Futile treatment is treatment that has only a very low chance of achieving meaningful benefit for the patient in terms of:

  • improving quality of life;

  • sufficiently prolonging life of acceptable quality; or

  • bringing benefits that outweigh the burdens of treatment

Alarmingly, the article also states: “Doctors may reach a view that treatment is futile, informed by their definition of futility and clinical indicators such as functional status, disease severity, and age.” (Emphasis added.)

Over 10 years ago, I wrote an article “Futility Policies and the Duty to Die” about little-known futility policies being promoted, even in Catholic hospitals. These policies allow doctors and ethics committees to overrule patients’ or families’ decisions to continue  care or treatment when a person’s prognosis or “quality of life” was considered too poor.

In February, I wrote about the still not passed Simon’s Law here in Missouri that exposed the secret futility policies that led to the death of Simon Crosier, a baby with Trisomy 18.

However, a couple of weeks ago, a horrified nurse friend showed me two health care directive she recently received as a patient. One was from a Catholic  health care facility and the other was a standard Missouri durable power of attorney directive . The wording in both made her question whether such futility policies were now being incorporated into such directives.

I understand her concern.

THE CATHOLIC  DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE

A person signs such a directive in order to have a family member or other trusted person make health care decisions when they are incapacitated. An legally incapacitated person is  defined as  a “Person unable to make rational decisions or engage in responsible actions. Mental and/or physical deficiency, disability, illness, drug use causing temporary or permanent impairment.”

“Living wills” and other advance health care directives,  invented by so-called “right to die” groups, claimed to give people the power to choose at the end of life

Remembering the prolonged dehydration deaths of Nancy Cruzan and Terri Schiavo, two non-terminally ill but severely brain-injured women said to be in the so-called “persistent vegetative state”, a person might sign a directive but want to prevent such a terrible death for himself or herself.

However, while this Catholic directive has a section to make such a decision, it also an asterisked section attached to both withdrawal and refusal of withdrawal:

I DO NOT AUTHORIZE my Agent/Proxy to direct a health care provider to withhold or withdraw artificially supplied nutrition and hydration (including tube feeding of food and water) as  permitted by law.*

*(In a XXXXX health care facility, nutrition and hydration may be withheld or withdrawn if I have an irreversible condition which is end-state or terminal AND if the means of preserving my life have likely risks and burdens which outweigh the expected benefits or are disproportionate without a reasonable hope of benefit.) (Emphasis added)

Using such terms as “end-state or terminal”  could, for example, apply  not only to a “persistent vegetative state” but also to Alzheimer’s or other dementia. “Artificially supplied” could encompass a simple IV while the asterisked section inexplicably does not even include the words “artificially supplied” before the food and water.  Along with using terms like “disproportionate without a reasonable hope of benefit” without stating who makes that determination or what the criteria is for benefit, the average person could be understandably confused in a real life situation.

THE MISSOURI DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY DIRECTIVE

Many, if not most, Missouri hospitals have this directive.

This directive has a section stating:

If I am persistently unconscious or there is no reasonable expectation of my recovery from a seriously incapacitating or terminal illness or condition, I direct that all of the life-prolonging procedures that I have initialed below be withheld or withdrawn. (Emphasis added)

This list includes not only “artificially supplied nutrition and hydration” but also antibiotics, CPR and “all other life-prolonging medical or surgical procedures that are merely intended to keep me alive without reasonable hope of improving my condition or curing my illness or injury.” (Emphasis added) Note that, according to the directive, a person need not have a terminal illness or be in a coma to qualify for withdrawal.

The next section can seem reassuring if a person has qualms about a decision to withdraw treatment or care being made too quickly or influenced by age or disability.  However, the directive only states that such treatments or care may  be tried-at the doctor’s  discretion-for an undefined “reasonable”period of time before withdrawal. Unfortunately, this section also includes automatic consent to pain relief, even in dosages that can suppress breathing and appetite as in terminal sedation:

3. However, if my physician believes that any life-prolonging procedure may lead to a recovery significant to me as communicated by me or my Agent to my physician, then I direct my physician to try the treatment for a reasonable period of time.  If it does not cause my condition to improve, I direct the treatment to be withdrawn even if it shortens my life.  I also direct that I be given medical treatment to relieve pain or to provide comfort, even if such treatment might shorten or suppress my appetite or my breathing, or be habit-forming. (Emphasis added)

The Catholic health directive also includes this section, almost verbatim.

CONCLUSION

With the help of the media, mentally disabling conditions like Alzheimer’s are often portrayed to the public as a fate worse than death and a terrible burden on a family. Tragically, the “right to die” mentality has led many people to conclude that they should die if they develop such conditions or, if dying, that their death may be accelerated to spare their families.

As a nurse who has seen the problems with advance directives firsthand, I helped design my own durable power of attorney advance directive without exemptions or checkoffs that could be misused or misinterpreted. I also educated my husband and family about the medical ethics involved.

As I wrote in my blog Living with “Living Wills”, there are better alternatives available to the standard kinds of advance directives even though no directive is foolproof.

Adequately informed consent is required for legal consent to surgery. Shouldn’t advance directives that involve life or death be held to the same standard before signing?

 

 

My testimony for Simon’s Law

nancyvalko disability, futility, law, medical ethics, Simon's Law

On February 16,  a hearing was held by the Health committee of the Missouri Legislature on Simon’s Law.

Here is my submitted testimony to Dr. Frederick and all the committee members:

I am a past member of the Down Syndrome Association in St. Louis, an RN and legal nurse consultant and most importantly, the mother of a daughter who had special needs.
I cannot be at the hearing tomorrow but please accept my testimony in favor of Simon’s Law:

In September 1982, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl we named Karen. Karen was born with both Down Syndrome and a severe heart defect called a complete endocardial cushion defect. A pediatric cardiologist was called in and even before I left the recovery room, he gave me the bad news about our Karen’s heart defect and even said that it was inoperable. He said to take Karen home where she would die in 2 weeks to 2 months.

This doctor turned out to be wrong. Further testing revealed that Karen’s heart defect could be fixed with one open heart operation and she had a 90% chance of survival.

My husband (a doctor) and I (an ICU nurse) were determined that our daughter receive the best medical care possible for her heart condition and without bias because she had Down Syndrome. We knew about the recent Baby Doe case where the parents of baby boy with Down Syndrome and an easily correctable tracheoesophageal fistula refused surgery so that their baby would die. The case went to court and a judge ruled that the parents could make that lethal choice. As medical professionals, we were appalled by this case but at least we could make sure that our daughter would have her chance at life. Or so I thought.

The bias against children like Karen soon became apparent when the cardiologist said he would support us “100%” if we chose to let our Karen die without surgery. I had to insist that Karen be treated for her heart defect the same way any other child would be treated for the same heart defect. To do otherwise was medical discrimination and illegal.

Then, the surgeon recommended for Karen’s pre-op heart catheterization was overheard questioning the wisdom of even treating “all these little mongoloids”! Another doctor sympathetically told us that “people like you shouldn’t be saddled with a child like this.” We were stunned by this negative view of children with Down Syndrome.

Later on when Karen developed a pneumonia that was being successfully treated in the hospital, I found out that my trusted pediatrician had even made Karen a “Do Not Resuscitate” behind my back because I “was too emotionally involved with that retarded baby”. The DNR was rescinded and we took Karen home but I found it hard to trust any doctor after that.

Unfortunately, Karen developed another bout of pneumonia and died of complications just before her scheduled open-heart surgery. But even at the very end, when Karen was apparently dying, a young resident physician “offered” to pull all her tubes so that she would die as soon as possible. I reported this young man to the chief of pediatric cardiology who was furious with the resident. (This chief of cardiology later started a clinic for children with Down Syndrome to meet their special health needs.)

Although we lost Karen when she was just 5 ½ months old, I still treasure my time with her and because of her, I became an advocate and volunteer for people with disabilities.
I wish I could say that my story is unique but I have seen many similar situations over the last three decades involving people of all ages with disabilities.

Therefore, I beg you to approve Simon’s Law. It will potentially save lives as well as send a strong message that medical discrimination against the disabled based on subjective judgements of “medical futility” and/or predicted “poor quality of life” is wrong.

Sincerely,

Nancy Valko, RN ALNC