You make me uncomfortable. Let's do something about that...

Feb 10, 2008 at 4:35 PM
1 comment

Lauren Richardson. Lauren. Lauren Marie Richardson. Not just a name. Lauren. She is a person. A living and breathing person. She feels emotion. She loves her family. She knows she has a daughter. She also knows that she has not seen her. If you look at her, you have no doubt that she is there, she may not talk, but she is there. Two weeks ago, after a court battle in Delaware between Lauren's mother, Edith Towers, and Lauren's father, Randy Richardson, Master Chancery Glasscock III, decided Lauren's mother Edith Towers should be guardian of Lauren. Edith Towers wants to remove Lauren's feeding tube, her father does not.

For the record, I would like to state that I do not believe this to be a Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice issue. I do not believe it to be a Conservative vs. Liberal issue. I do not believe it to be a Christian vs. Non-Christian issue. I do not plan to write as if it is. I have noticed many people speaking poorly of the "pro-lifers" and vice versa. It seems that many people believe that just because people do not share the same beliefs, they cannot agree on any one thing. This is not the case. For the people that do not know Lauren or her friends and family, but have invested time in this issue, I send you many thanks. This is not an issue of just one family in just one state. It is something that everyone should know, and everyone should be outraged.

Obviously Lauren's family is outraged. The American public should be as well. This seems to be a topic that makes so many people uncomfortable. It can be hard to deal with your own mortality. The verdict delieverd by Master Chancery Glasscock III was delievered due to testimony given by Lauren's mother and Lauren's uncle. They claim that Lauren stated that she would not want to live "like that," and that living like that would be "gross." These statements were allegedly made when the Terri Schiavo case was being televised.

If these statements were made, which this most certainly is in question, how many people have made statements like that? I know I have. But until this happened I never thought about what "like that" meant. Where is the line for you? When would it be okay for them to let you go and when would you want your family to decide that there is hope? Do you trust that your family would know the difference? Is there someone that you would trust to decide between the two? If you made the statement when you were on drugs do you want people to decide you should not live based on that? If you made it 5 years ago, before you were sober and before you had a child, would you want people to remove your feeding tube. When you said 'like that," did you mean on a bunch of machines? Were you aware that in some states having a feeding tube is considered life support? I personally did not. Maybe a lot of people do.

Surely people with families that would need to be taken care of in the event of a tragic accident do, but people in their teens and twenties? Single people with no one to take care of when they are gone? Even people WITH families are possibly out of the loop. If a doctor said that there was a chance, a good chance, that you would be able to feed yourself again with therapy, would you want your feeding tube removed? If a judge did not let that doctor testify, would you be angry with a verdict that was going to allow someone to remove your feeding tube? What if a judge said before the hearing even started that he already had an opinion on the case? If you could swallow, but people would not be allowed to give you food or water after the tube is removed, how would you feel about that. It would be illegal for people to give you food or water even though you could swallow.

People are born with disabilities that require feeding tubes or other people to feed them every single day... Should these people be starved? What makes it okay for a person born "like that," to live, but not a person who becomes disabled later in life? Neither of them can speak for themselves. But someone can just claim that a person told them once during a commercial break "I would not want to live with artificial nutrition and hydration." The possibilites are endless for what could possibly change your mind... Of course for some it is easier to think that the right thing is being done for Lauren, instead of facing the fact that our society is so uncomfortable with the disabled that they would just as soon have someone deprived of food or water then deal with it. Let's try an experiment, go a few days without food and water and see how you feel. It took Terri Schiavo 13 days to die a slow and very painful death. 13 days. What does not make sense to me is that in the United States of America we cannot help a person with a terminal illness who is in a tremendous amount of pain kill themselves. A person who CAN speak for themselves. We cannot give them drugs that would make it pain free and fast. But we can remove a feeding tube from someone who cannot speak for themselves, and watch them die a horrific death.

Let's talk about Terri Schiavo for a minute. I know this case, Lauren's case, seems similar. I'm sorry, not Lauren's "case," but her life. In some ways it is. In a lot of ways it is not. Lauren has made more progress in 17 months then Terri did in 15 years. I am not saying that what happened to Terri Schiavo was in any way right, I am justing stating facts. And no one has said that Lauren would be a "miracle" and just one day be her old self again. No one has said that. However, not being her old self does not mean that the person she is and the person she will become with the right therapy is someone expendable.

I am also aware that a lot of people are not at all familiar with the information in regards to Lauren. And there is some information that cannot be talked about due to legal reasons. But these facts I can give you.

Lauren overdosed on heroin in August of 2006. She had been hiding from her mother that week because she was pregnant and her mother was trying to force her to have an abortion. That day she was packing and getting ready because the next day she moving in with her father and step-mother. She had asked them for help with the baby. When she was taken to the hospital she was having seizures and was in a coma. Her mother and father were informed and arrived to the hospital shortly thereafter. They were both informed that things did not look good, but there were a lot of tests that could not be performed because of the pregnancy. They were told that they could take her off the life support, but that they had to decide within the next few weeks because after that the fetus would be viable and the hospital would not legally be able to take her off until the baby was born. Once again they were told that things did not look good for Lauren. Both parents agreed, after multiple meetings with doctors, that they would keep her on life support. Not once was it ever mentioned that Lauren would not want to live this way. Not once.

After about two months Lauren slowly started to come out of her coma. Doctors still believed that things did not look good for her. Her father, step-mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and her grandmother were with her constantly. She had her daughter in February of 2007. Her mother, due only to timing, got custody of Lauren's daughter. The custody for her is currently in court, although many hearings have been postponed. Reasons: unknown. Once Lauren had her little girl, a little girl that she has never seen, Lauren's mother came forth with information that Lauren had said she would never want to live "like that." Lauren was moved to Arbors nursing home and the court battle started.

Her doctor said Lauren would never move her body, she does. He said she would never respond, she does. He said she would never breathe on her own, she does. He said she was essentially a "vegetable" and therefore could not feel any pain, but amazingly enough prescribed morphine for pain. She cringes and pulls away if someone does anything to make her feel discomfort. He also said she does not feel emotion (what with her brain not working and all) but she cries, especially when her family sings to her. She smiles if someone says something funny. If yous saw her, you would know how she feels about her daughter. I cannot say for sure whether or not he said that she would never be able to swallow. If he didn't I am sure it is because he did not think that that would come up... But she can swallow.

Lauren's G.A.L. is Jason C. Powell. He has done nothing to advocate for her life, only for her death. He has put a restraining order on Randy due to the video given to the media... Funny how the video contradicts so much of what her doctor testified to. No one is allowed to take pictures of her now. Obviously video is not allowed. The court has also decided that there had to be an approved list of people that could visit her. And of course they have to sign a statement saying that they will not do anything to invade Lauren's privacy. Jason C. Powell wants people to believe that Lauren is so brain-damaged that her life is worth nothing, but he wants to make sure she has her privacy? These are people, the only people, advocating for her life. Amazing. Just a few days ago the court transcripts which were public record, were sealed quickly. If Master Chancery Glasscock III is so confident in his decision why does he want the records sealed? Is it because it is on record that he had an opinion on the case, before the hearing started? Or is it because it is on record that Master Chancery Glasscock III did not want this to be lengthy, so he cut down Randy's witness list.

Why is it that Jason C. Powell, a person that once again is supposed to be looking out for Lauren, did not let the doctors who wanted to see Lauren because they thought she had improved and stated that she could continue to do so. Why did he not let them give her treatments that have been PROVEN to help people declared PVS? Including a girl who was in a coma for 6 years after a heroin overdose? Are these decisions you would want made when you could not speak for yourself???

I know this has been really long. If you read all of it I thank you. I encourage everyone to go to www.lifeforlauren.org This includes people who perhaps do not agree with the statements I am making. I would especially love for you to visit that website. There are stories there that prove that this is not a decision that should be made on hearsay alone. Stories that would blow your mind. Lauren is a human being, she is a person with thoughts and emotions and she is ALIVE. Why in the world does anyone think it is okay to take that away from her?