A case to make Schiavo look easy

[markomalley]

This one has all the marks of a good scandal story...daughter adopted away from abusive mother by her sister, sister gets murdered shortly after adoption complete, adoptive father beats daughter, daughter on life support -- if she's pulled off life support and dies, adoptive father gets charged with murder. Adoptive father wants her alive. Natural mother who gave kid up wants her dead (life support removed). State wants kid dead (life support removed).

Read the story and there are questions to follow:

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Accused stepfather fights push to take girl off life support

WESTFIELD, Mass. --The photos hanging on Allison Avrett's living room wall conceal the heartache they've come to represent.

The snapshots of her daughter Haleigh show a smiling little girl with brown bangs hanging over her squinting eyes. She's a schoolgirl, a dancer, a baby hugging her teddy bear.

Most of them were taken before Avrett gave Haleigh up for adoption five years ago, long before the abusive blows that police say landed the 11-year-old girl in a hospital bed attached to the ventilator and feeding tube keeping her alive.

Now, with Haleigh's doctors saying she won't recover from her vegetative state, the child is at the center of a right-to-die legal struggle.

The state Department of Social Services, which has had custody of Haleigh since she was hospitalized on Sept. 11, wants to remove her from life support.

Her stepfather, Jason Strickland, who is charged with beating her and could face a murder charge if she dies, wants to keep her alive.

A Juvenile Court judge has already ruled that Haleigh should be allowed to die. Strickland appealed, and the state's highest court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Tuesday. It will be the first time DSS has argued such a case before the Supreme Judicial Court.

Avrett, who gave up her parental rights when she let her sister adopt Haleigh in 2000, says her daughter shouldn't suffer anymore.

"They say the most she might ever do is open her eyes," said Avrett, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom with two other children. "I don't want her to sit there longer than she needs to."

Police say the injuries that left Haleigh with severe brain stem injuries came at the hands of Strickland and his wife Holli, Avrett's sister.

Within two weeks of the couple pleading innocent to the beating, Holli Strickland was dead, fatally shot in her grandmother's West Springfield apartment. The body of her 71-year-old grandmother, Constance Young, was beside her. The possible murder-suicide is still under investigation.

In a legal brief filed ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Strickland, 31, asks to be declared Haleigh's de facto parent.

His lawyer, John Egan, insists his client isn't motivated by the chance he could be charged with murder if the girl dies.

"We should be coming down on the side of life as opposed to death," he said.

He cites the differing opinions of two doctors who disagree on whether the girl's feeding tube should be removed. Both doctors say her ventilator should be shut off. If she remains attached to the feeding tube only, she could live for several months, one of the doctors said. Without the tube, death would come much quicker.

"There's a 50-50 split in the medical opinion, and we ought to -- at a minimum -- be moving more cautiously on this," Egan said.

Either way, Haleigh's plight marks a tragic end to an 11-year childhood filled with turmoil and upheaval.

She was born in 1994, when Avrett was 17. Haleigh's father had just been sent to prison and never met his daughter.

In 1998, Haleigh and Avrett moved to Virginia to live with her boyfriend. A few months later, Avrett sent Haleigh back to Massachusetts to spend the summer with Avrett's sister, Holli, and her former husband, Jonathan Poutre.

Within a few weeks of her daughter's return to Massachusetts, Avrett says the Department of Social Services took custody of Haleigh and began investigating allegations that she was abused by Avrett's boyfriend in Virginia.

A DSS spokeswoman confirms that the agency launched an abuse probe at that time, but refused to give any details because of privacy issues.

Avrett said her boyfriend was ultimately cleared. But by then DSS had already placed Haleigh in the permanent foster care of Holli and Jonathan Poutre. By her own admission, Avrett wasn't doing everything she could to regain custody.

"I stopped all contact for a while with DSS, my sister and Haleigh," Avrett said. "I couldn't handle the stress, so I took myself out of the situation. I needed a break from it."

After attempting suicide and breaking up with her boyfriend in Virginia, Avrett married another man in 1999. A year later -- after what Avrett said was several years of strong persuasion by DSS -- she agreed to let her older sister formally adopt Haleigh.

Holli had a degree in child care and was Avrett's role model growing up. The arrangement was OK for Avrett, who was content to have frequent visits with Haleigh and still felt involved in her life.

"We were always a close family," Avrett said.

But Avrett says things started to change after her sister divorced Jonathan Poutre and married Jason Strickland.

"When Jason came into the picture, we started seeing less of Haleigh," she said.

And when she did see her daughter, there were sometimes scrapes and bruises along with explanations and excuses: Haleigh had multiple personalities. She was injuring herself, Avrett was told.

According to court documents filed by Strickland's lawyer, Haleigh had been hospitalized during the past three years for self-inflicted injuries. The girl's alleged tendency to hurt herself is a cornerstone of Strickland's defense.

But a baby sitter said Friday that she saw both Holli and Jason Strickland abuse Haleigh on several occasions before the September beating that resulted in her hospitalization.

Testifying at a district court hearing in Jason Strickland's criminal case, Alicia Weiss said she saw Holli Strickland kick her down the stairs repeatedly and hit her with a baseball bat. She said she also saw Jason Strickland hit the girl twice with an open hand and once with a plastic stick.

His wife's death leaves Strickland alone to face the charges of beating Haleigh. He hasn't been accused of dealing any particular blows, and court documents alleged that he watched as Holli Strickland kicked Haleigh and hit her with a baseball bat.

"It is clear that there was an ongoing pattern of abuse and Jason as a caretaker for the child not only did nothing to stop the abuse, but he participated in it," a police arrest report says.

Jason Strickland is out on bail while he awaits trial.

Investigators haven't concluded whether it was a murder-suicide or double suicide, but Avrett says her grandmother called her grandfather before shooting herself.

"She said `I just killed Holli. I'm going to kill myself next. You better get over here,'" Avrett said. She said both her sister and grandmother left behind notes, but would not talk about what they said.

Avrett finds no comfort in the fact that Strickland could be charged with murder if Haleigh dies. "But if he does," she said. "It will be a good thing."

For now, her hope is that the Supreme Judicial Court will uphold the decision to let Haleigh die and that the state will allow her to plan her daughter's funeral.

"I've had guilt for years over giving her up for adoption," Avrett said.

Now, she said, the guilt is over not knowing what was happening in her sister's house.

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Source: The Boston Globe

So here's the questions:

1. Should the mother who gave the kid up for adoption have any role in this whatsoever?
   
2. Should the state have any role in this whatsoever?
   
3. Should the father have any role in this whatsoever?
   (I ask the above because it seems like there should be a none-of-the-above selection here)
   
4. Should the kid's ventilator be removed?
   
5. Should the kid's feeding tube be removed?
   

And before you say "he11 yes she should be cut off," try to remember your position in regards to Michael Schiavo's rights in the Terri Schiavo case a few months ago. Try to be consistent.

Oh, btw, my answer: I don't know...

[markomalley]

BTW, closer reading of this shows that Jason Strickland was not the adoptive father, but the stepfather. Doesn't really change any of the facts otherwise, just wanted to be clear.

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

mark

another question to ask

did the natural father pay child support?

if he did he should have a say

if not back off

Edited December 13, 2005 by coolchef1248 @adelphia.net

[markomalley]

So far as what I can gather, the natural father was in prison.

"She was born in 1994, when Avrett was 17. Haleigh's father had just been sent to prison and never met his daughter."

[Shellon]

Should the mother who gave the kid up for adoption have any role in this whatsoever? No

Should the state have any role in this whatsoever? Yes, they should have all the say at this point

Should the father have any role in this whatsoever? No, not the adoptive father, step father or bio father.

(I ask the above because it seems like there should be a none-of-the-above selection here)

Should the kid's ventilator be removed? Yes

Should the kid's feeding tube be removed? Yes

[Morgan]

Should the mother who gave the kid up for adoption have any role in this whatsoever?

I don't know. It sounds as if the natural mother had some degree of an active role in her daughter's life and that the adoption may have in at least a small degree, been a result of "coersion" for lack of a better word and/or because the daughter had already been with the sister for so long that it may have seemed in the best interest of the girl to leave her where she was. Frm what I read, the natural mother and her boyfriend were eventually cleared of charges of wrongdoing. However, I do not feel I know enough about these circumstances to form a definitive opinion.

Should the state have any role in this whatsoever?

Absolutley. If not the state then who? The man who at least passively, if not actively paricipated in harming the girl in the first place. My only question here is whether the state should allow the natural mother a say or not, but at this point they are in agreement anyway, so the point is somewhat irrelevent.

Should the father have any role in this whatsoever?

(I ask the above because it seems like there should be a none-of-the-above selection here)

By father, here I am assuming you mean the step-dad? Absolutely not. The bio-dad, nope, he doesn't know her at all.

Should the kid's ventilator be removed?

I don't know. I have mixed feelings on these issues.

Should the kid's feeding tube be removed?

I don't know. I have mixed feelings on these issues. I lean toward yes, turn them off. But there is apart of me that is uncertain.

[Ron G.]

As much as I hate to allow the state to have authority over children in ANY situation, I guess I have to grudgingly agree that it should be the states call.

Better yet, the medical professionals call. Let the doctors decide. The parents/step parents have no moral authority in this.

All my opinions about that sort of thing were dashed last year when a local Mountain View boy, Terry Wallis, came to after being in a "vegetative state" coma for twenty years. He has speech problems and some other problems, but I hear he no longer thinks Reagan is president and is coming to terms with the idea that his infant daughter is really a grown woman. Poor guy was knocked cold in a bad car wreck at age 19 and woke up in time for his 40th birthday.

Edited December 13, 2005 by Ron G.

[Shellon]

How's come in this thread I can only reply using fast reply?

Works ok, but odd

[mstar1]

Should the mother who gave the kid up for adoption have any role in this whatsoever?

Should the state have any role in this whatsoever?

Should the father have any role in this whatsoever?

(I ask the above because it seems like there should be a none-of-the-above selection here)

Should the kid's ventilator be removed?

Should the kid's feeding tube be removed?

There is a lot in the story about the extremely dysfunctional family dynamics, which is screwed up beyond belief, but I dont necessarily think that the surviving family members should be excluded from the process just because they seem somewhat reprehensible in the way that they are portrayed in the story.

I would hate to have to be the Solomon that sorts it all out, but I think that they should be at least given their say and have it weighed into the decision process.

There is not enough information on the exact condition of Haleigh for me to answer whether or not the ventilator or feeding tube should be removed or not. She has been in this condition only three months and the focus of the article was more on making the family members the story than her exact condition

The Schiavo case had been stretched out so long, tried and retried in so many courts, that every last angle had been covered as amatter of public record.

I am not against giving people the right to die but, I couldn't and wouldn't make a decision based on the scant info in this article.

[mstar1]

UPDATE:

I cant find the story online but read it in the local paper----FYI The little girl in question started breathing on her own yesterday a day after the state said that she could be taken off life support.

Edited January 20, 2006 by mstar1

[markomalley]

Thanks for bringing this back up mstar,

Here's an article on it:

Girl in vegetative state reported to improve

DSS says it has no plan to remove feeding tube

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff | January 19, 2006

A day after the state's highest court ruled that the Department of Social Services could withdraw life support from a brain-damaged girl, the agency said yesterday that Haleigh Poutre might be emerging from her vegetative state.

DSS also said it has no immediate plans to remove her feeding tube.

''There has been a change in her condition," said a DSS spokeswoman, Denise Monteiro. ''The vegetative state may not be a total vegetative state."

Monteiro said Haleigh is breathing on her own, without the ventilator she has depended on for four months. Monteiro also said that doctors at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield elicited responses from Haleigh during tests performed yesterday.

They will begin more medical tests today to determine her neurological activity. Further tests, Monteiro said, could show whether Haleigh is going to be ''a miracle child."

Monteiro said that doctors did not tell DSS, which has custody of Haleigh, that her condition had changed until yesterday afternoon. She also said the agency's decision to seek court approval to remove life support was based on the ''best diagnosis that we thought we had at the time."

Monteiro declined to give further details about the condition of Haleigh, an 11-year-old Westfield girl who had been on breathing and feeding tubes since she suffered a beating last September, allegedly by her adoptive mother and stepfather.

Last fall, doctors described Haleigh as being in a persistent vegetative state and ''virtually brain dead," district court records said. Physicians said her brain stem was severely injured, leaving her unable to think or feel and in an ''irreversible coma," according to an opinion Tuesday by the Supreme Judicial Court.

Many neurologists say it is rare for a patient with severe brain-stem injuries to fully recover from a persistent vegetative state that lasts for more than a month. Sometimes, patients can partially recover, such as showing increasing responsiveness to touch by frowning or moving their hand, said Dr. Steve Williams, chief of rehabilitation medicine at Boston Medical Center.

But rarely do these patients fully recover so they can communicate, feed themselves, and live ordinary lives, he said.

He added, however, that the recoveries, when they happen, are more likely with children than adults. ''There's more plasticity to their brain," he said. ''There's potentially other areas of the brain that can take over."

Allison Avrett, Haleigh's biological mother, said yesterday that she saw improvements in a hospital visit last week, but was convinced by doctors and DSS workers that hand movements that she had seen were involuntary.

When Avrett visited Haleigh yesterday morning, Avrett said she again observed movement that caused her to reconsider her previous view that Haleigh was better off if allowed to die.

Avrett said she cannot give any more details about Haleigh, because the DSS has told her not to discuss the case.

John Gamelli, a family friend from Westfield, said he was told by Avrett yesterday that Haleigh was able to respond to commands, such as releasing an object from her hand when she was asked.

Gamelli said he is holding back from celebrating this as a sign that Haleigh will fully recover.

But he expressed frustration that DSS, which acknowledges missing signs over the past few years that Haleigh was being abused, had now possibly made the wrong call about the removal of life-support systems.

''Right now, things just don't make sense," he said.

In the Western Massachusetts town where Haleigh was raised, some had compared her case to that of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who was on life support for 15 years before a court ordered her feeding tube removed last spring. She died 13 days later at the age of 41. Schiavo was deemed by doctors to be in a persistent vegetative state, breathing on her own with her eyes open, but unconscious. Her parents, who sought to keep her alive, had insisted she sometimes responded to stimulation. Her husband said she would have wanted her feeding tube removed.

Before yesterday's disclosures, Haleigh was thought to have more serious brain damage than Schiavo, in part because she was not breathing on her own. Haleigh was brought unconscious to Noble Hospital in Westfield last Sept. 11.

Afterward, doctors diagnosed traumatic brain injuries and many bruises in various stages of healing. In the past few years, the DSS had received more than a dozen complaints from people whom the agency has declined to name, saying Haleigh was being neglected or abused, but social workers said many of the injuries were self-inflicted or childhood mishaps.

On Sept. 20, Holli and Jason Strickland, the girl's adoptive mother and stepfather, were arrested on child abuse charges. The adoptive mother was released two days later, and within hours, was found dead with her grandmother. Police continue to investigate the deaths, but say it seems to be a murder-suicide.

In October, DSS officials, saying that Haleigh's medical condition was hopeless, won a juvenile court order to have her ventilator and feeding tube removed. Jason Strickland, who could face murder charges if Haleigh dies, filed a motion to keep her on life support.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Judicial Court rejected Strickland's claim to be a ''de facto" parent, saying it was ''unthinkable" to give a say to someone who allegedly helped put Haleigh in a coma. The justices also gave DSS authority to remove Haleigh's breathing and feeding tubes.

Jack Egan, a Springfield lawyer for the girl's stepfather, said yesterday's medical news confirms their view that DSS was too hasty in determining that Haleigh's condition was irreversible. He noted that DSS asked the courts to withdraw life support after Haleigh had been in the hospital for less than a month.

source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...ted_to_improve/