Georgetown Hospital: It's Cheaper to Kill Than Care

It used to be that Christians were the ones who stood up against the culture of death. In ancient Rome, Christians rescued babies left on the hills to die of exposure and raised them as their own. But the culture wanted those babies dead so soldiers were assigned to guarantee the deadly outcome.

Nothing much has changed except today those who claim to be Christain, even Catholic, are just as likely to be the agents of deliberate murder by neglect as the pagans. And that's the case at Georgetown Hospital, a nomiminally Catholic institution. It's happening right now as I write this.

A poor immigrant, Ms. Nyirahabiyambere, had her feeding tube removed February 19th against the wishes of her six children. The guardian appointed to protect the rights of the patient was appointed by recommendation of the hospital's lawyer (conflict of interest?). She completely failed in her duty which is to defend the rights of the patient. Here's what she reportedly wrote in an e-mail:

Hospitals cannot afford to allow families the time to work through their grieving process by allowing the relatives to remain hospitalized until the family reaches the acceptance stage, if that ever happens. Generically speaking, what gives any one family or person the right to control so many scarce health care resources in a situation where the prognosis is poor, and to the detriment of others who may actually benefit from them?

Isn't she supposed to representing the patient? Should courts and hospital ethics panels will be deciding for patients over the objections of families? Read more here...

In the Terri Schiavo case, there was at least disagreement within the family. In this case, the family's wishes have been completely dismissed in favor of a decision by the court and the hospital clearly made for financial considerations which conflicts with the hospital's description of patients' rights outlined on their website. Those rights include:

To receive treatment without discrimination as to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or source of payment

Where are the USCCB and Cardinal Wuerl? We need to make sure they know what's going on and to protest! Is this what we mean by "welcoming the stranger?"

Contact Georgetown Hospital. There's an email contact at the bottom of the linked page. Other sources to contact would be the patient advocate and the chaplain's office, both listed, and the president's office. The current president is Dr. Richard Goldberg (a psychiatrist) and his contact information is: Phone:  (202) 444-3000 Fax: (202) 444-3095.

It's likely too late to save this woman after two weeks of dehydration, but this shameful act needs to be exposed. Contact Cardinal Wuerl and ask him to launch a full investigation into this. Contact information for the Archdiocese is here. I suggest starting with the Pro-Life office. Their Executive Director is Christa Lopiccolo, 301-853-5318, e-mail  clopiccolo@adw.org. I sent her the following e-mail:

Dear Ms. Lopiccolo:

I was shocked today to see a report that originated in the New York Times about a woman being deliberately dehydrated to death at Georgetown Hospital over the objections of her family. The facts of the matter were reported on the First Things blog (http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/03/04/immigrant-family-forced-to-watch-mother-dehydrated-to-death/) and I did a blog post on my own site alerting people to object and call for a full investigation.

It is especially horrifying to think that a Catholic hospital would violate family rights, be involved in the naming of a hostile guardian for the patient, and violate their own standards of patient care in order to save money.

I’m writing to urge the Archdiocese to launch a full scale investigation into this matter. After two weeks of dehydration, Ms. Nyirahabiyambere is likely beyond help, but we must guarantee that something like this never happens again at Georgetown or any other Catholic hospital.

Sincerely,

Mary Ann Kreitzer
President, Les Femmes
www.lesfemmes-thetruth.org