This is truly disturbing. This fella almost died because of his wife's decision to pull his feeding tubes, water and antibiotics while he was in recovery. I'm glad the man's family interceded on his behalf and saved his life...
Jesse Ramirez, Considered a “Vegetable” Like Terri Schiavo, Now on His Way to Recovery
By Peter J. Smith
CHANDLER, Arizona, June 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Written off by doctors as a hopeless “vegetable,” an Arizona man would not now be on his way to recovery from an accident caused by a marital quarrel if not for his family’s unrelenting struggle for his life.
The Arizona Republic reports that on Wednesday, Jesse Ramirez, awoke from his nearly month long persistent vegetative state (PVS) and now “can hug and kiss, nod his head, answer yes and no questions, give a thumbs-up sign and sit in a chair.”
If not for the past few weeks’ legal battles that ended Tuesday with a favorable settlement for him and his family, Jesse Ramirez, who depended on feeding tubes for food and water, would certainly have died in circumstances very similar to the tragic 2005 death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
On May 30, Jesse Ramirez and his wife Rebecca Ramirez were quarreling in their SUV when he lost control and crashed into a pottery market, ejecting them both from the vehicle. Ramirez suffered a broken neck and major head-trauma, while his wife had only minor injuries.
Just before the accident, Rebecca had attempted to jump from the moving vehicle saying she was afraid of her husband, who accused her of marital infidelity. Police have yet to determine what exactly led Ramirez to lose control of the wheel.
Ten days after the accident and Ramirez’s PVS diagnosis, Rebecca ordered the hospice where he was staying to remove his feeding tubes on June 8. Ramirez family then began pleading with her to let them try and save his life.
“I'm asking you for the biggest favor of my life,” Jesse’s father told her. “Can you give my son another chance?” Jesse Ramirez Sr. told the Arizona Republic she then hung up on him.
In desperation, the family turned to the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defense Fund, which challenged the prudence of allowing Rebecca to arbitrate her husband’s fate, considering their recent marital strife.
“We've got to make sure the decision-maker is the very best and most capable one,” senior counsel Gary McCaleb told the Arizona Republic. “She said she was in fear of her life. Ten days later, she's going to say whether he lives or dies? Frankly, it's too much to ask of the wife.”
Maricopa County Superior Court judge Paul Katz agreed and ordered the tubes reconnected while an independent attorney mediated between Rebecca Ramirez and Jesse’s family and talked to Jesse's doctors. Then Tuesday Katz ruled that a court-appointed guardian would make decisions for Ramirez while the court continued to investigate his health.
“As we have discussed here previously, PVS is often misdiagnosed. More importantly, it can't be done accurately after only a few weeks post trauma. So, why the rush in this case to write the man off?” commented bioethics expert and author Wesley J. Smith on his blog. “This much is sure: But for parents willing to fight for his life, Ramirez would be dead today rather than entering the rehabilitation unit.”
SOURCE: Jesse Ramirez, Considered a “Vegetable” Like Terri Shiavo, Now on His Way to Recovery
Here's another version of the story...
Man's survival spawns 'Jesse's Law'
Jeff Johnson | OneNewsNow | 7/2/2008
The miraculous story of a Gulf War veteran on the verge of death following a serious accident has sparked the Arizona legislature to protect incapacitated patients from hasty decisions designed to accelerate their deaths.
Jesse Ramirez made it through a war, but he almost died as the result of not having a living will. Just ten days after a severe car crash, Ramirez' estranged wife ordered his food, water, and antibiotics terminated. He was then transferred to a hospice to die.
Gary McCaleb is senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which helped save Jesse's life. He says Ramirez was within hours of dying when they were able to get his food and water restored. "And within a matter of months, he walked out of the hospital -- and now he's almost fully recovered and living at home," the attorney reports.
After local media picked up the story, McCaleb says the state legislature took action and passed "Jesse's Law." That law creates a process to obtain an emergency order to prevent a surrogate decision-maker from withdrawing food or fluids from an incapacitated patient.
"And the media coverage has brought to us dozens and dozens and dozens of similar situations," McCaleb notes. "It's remarkable, frightening, really, how often in America people make these hasty decisions about life and death and [how they] treat human life, which is valuable in its own right, with a great deal of disregard and just send people to hospice to die," he observes.
McCaleb encourages people to get a power of attorney in place as soon as possible, or create a living will.SOURCE: Man's survival spawns 'Jesse's Law' (OneNewsNow.com)
Again, this is truly disturbing. Perhaps the wife sincerely thought she was doing her husband a favor because he was suffering, or maybe she just wanted him dead. We don't know. One thing is certain... we should never give up on anyone after only being in the hospital for 7-days as this wife did. God created the human body remarkably amazing, and innumerable recoveries have been nothing short of miraculous. To think, the guy survived fighting in a war and his wife nearly killed him by one hasty decision.
