Hospital plans to remove patient from life support over family objections
Key points
- Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital says it plans to take a 79-year-old A-L-S patient off life support over the objections of her family.
- The hospital says Barbara Howe's condition is deteriorating.
- Howe's daughter Carol Carvitt says even though her mother cannot speak and can barely move, she remains fully alert.
- A Massachusetts family court judge has ruled the daughter should determine her mother's future.
Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital says it plans to take a 79-year-old A-L-S patient off life support over the objections of her family.
The hospital says Barbara Howe's condition is deteriorating. Doctors say she's suffering and would not want to be kept alive. The chief medical officer has ordered life support removed next Wednesday.
Howe's daughter Carol Carvitt says even though her mother cannot speak and can barely move, she remains fully alert. Carvitt tells the Boston Herald she's devastated and angry that the hospital would let her mother die.
A Massachusetts family court judge has ruled the daughter should determine her mother's future. But the judge has so far refused to issue an injunction.
Written and revised by
Gerald Hurowitz, M.D.
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