Mar 23, 2006 8:12 pm US/Eastern
DSS Chief: Doctors Said Haleigh Wouldn't Recover
SPRINGFIELD (AP) ―
Massachusetts' child welfare chief said his agency didn't tell the state's highest court that a brain-injured girl at the center of a right-to-die legal battle might be getting better because doctors convinced him she would never recover from a vegetative state.
Department of Social Services Commissioner Harry Spence has been criticized for moving too quickly to try ending Haleigh Poutre's life support. He's also come under fire for not seeking more medical opinions on her chance for recovery.
Authorities say Haleigh, who is now 12 and in a rehabilitation hospital, was beaten nearly to death by her adoptive mother and stepfather.
Spence said Haleigh was showing signs of responsiveness about a week before the Supreme Judicial Court granted permission to remove her life support. But he said Haleigh's doctors said her movements were not a sign she would recover.
"When there was evidence there were signs of improvement, we insisted the doctors re-examine Haleigh and come back to us," Spence said Thursday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "They absolutely affirmed that the chances of her recovery were absolutely zero. There was nothing for us to report to the SJC. There was nothing that had changed."
Immediately after the SJC's Jan. 17 ruling that Haleigh's life support could be removed, Spence said he ordered the girl's doctors at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield to examine her again.
"They said `oops, we're seeing signs of consciousness,"' Spence said.
Haleigh was soon moved to the Franciscan Hospital for Children, a Boston rehabilitation facility that has been giving her physical, occupational and speech therapy.
Spence refused to comment on Haleigh's condition Thursday, but said "the hope is that she will be able to return to the care of a family.
"We are examining what kind of care she will need after her treatment at the rehabilitation hospital," Spence said.
Haleigh was comatose when she was brought to Baystate last Sept. 11.
Although Haleigh's doctors said she had a damaged brain stem and would remain in a vegetative state, other neurologists and ethicists have said it can take a year to determine whether such a young patient can recover from serious brain injuries.
But eight days after Haleigh was hospitalized, DSS sought permission from a Juvenile Court judge to remove her life support.
"It was a quick move because the doctors believed that intrusive care was both inhumane and useless," Spence said.
Dr. Loring Flint, Baystate's senior vice president for medical affairs, said he could not comment on the case because of federal privacy laws.
"We cannot and will never comment publicly on the medical treatment received by patients at Baystate Medical Center," he said.
Haleigh's stepfather, who is facing assault charges and could have been charged with murder if she died, fought to keep the girl connected to a feeding tube and ventilator. Haleigh's adoptive mother, who also was charged with assault, had died alongside her grandmother in a murder-suicide shortly after Haleigh was hospitalized.
A day after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Haleigh's life support could be removed, DSS publicly disclosed that Haleigh was showing signs of improvement.
A lawyer for Haleigh's stepfather, Jason Strickland, said DSS should have told the high court that Haleigh was showing signs of possible improvement before the high court reached its decision.
"They should be professionally obligated to inform the court the minute there was any change in her condition," attorney Jack Egan said. "You ought not to leave judges trying to wrestle with a decision like this with incomplete information."
A panel appointed by Gov. Mitt Romney to review Haleigh's case recommended in a report this week that DSS should -- before seeking to end a child's life support -- consult the ethics panel at the patient's hospital and get a second opinion from a doctor at another hospital.
Spence said he agrees with those recommendations. But when Haleigh's case was argued before the SJC, DSS lawyer Virginia Peel said: "Do you really need to seek out five different doctors to see if they all agree?"
Some child welfare advocates and ethicists have said seeking an outside medical opinion should have been an obvious move.
"Some say it was common sense to get an opinion from another hospital," Spence said. "But the SJC had a chance to review the department's procedures and clearly considered them adequate at the time."
Romney's panel didn't single out anyone for blame, but said the case involved "systematic failure" by state agencies and the medical community.
Although DSS received at least a dozen reports alleging that Haleigh was being abused between 2001 and 2005, psychiatrists and doctors were convinced that the girl's injuries were self-inflicted.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
