Prayers Up: Family fights to keep 9-month-old Tinslee Lewis on life support [VIDEO]
Article By Jacqueline Harris // EEW Magazine // Prayers
We are praying for 9-month-old Tinslee Lewis. Her mother Trinity Lewis is fighting to keep her precious daughter on life support, although physicians at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth want to end all treatment.
“We are just asking for the opportunity to give Tinslee a fighting chance,” Tye Brown, Trinity Lewis’ cousin, told Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “And we’re not being given that.”
Tinslee, who was born prematurely, has a rare heart defect known as an Ebstein anomaly. Additionally, she suffers from a chronic lung disease and severe chronic pulmonary hypertension. At such a young age, she has already undergone several complicated surgeries and is only able to breathe with the assistance of a ventilator. The family says Tinslee is sedated but conscious and responds to touch and stimulation as any other baby would respond.
Tinslee’s rare heart defect and chronic lung problems have kept her in the hospital since birth. Doctors say they must keep her sedated to stop her from ripping out tubes.
On Sunday evening, Nov. 10, a judge granted Lewis and her family a temporary restraining order to stop the hospital from ending Tinslee’s treatment. The family has been given until Nov. 22 to move sweet Tinslee to another facility.
Officials at Cook Children’s told the press they believe Tinslee is in pain, and there is nothing medically that can be done to help her improve.
“While we believe every child’s life is sacred, we also believe that no child should be sentenced to a life of pain,” said Winifred King, assistant vice president of public relations for Cook Children’s Health Care System, in a statement. “Removing this beautiful child from mechanical ventilation is a gut-wrenching decision for Cook Children’s physicians and staff; however, we feel it is in her best interest to free her from artificial, medical intervention and suffering.”
10-Day Rule
Cook Children’s is using the 10-Day Rule in Tinslee’s case, which is a Texas law that lets hospitals end life-sustaining treatment for patients against the family’s wishes. The rule is evoked in cases where doctors believe further treatment will not be helpful in any way. The family is given 10 days to transfer the patient to another hospital before treatment ends.
Tinslee’s 20-year-old mom said the hospital’s decision came suddenly on Oct. 31 at 11:30 p.m. At that time, physicians and nurses informed her that they did not believe her daughter would get any better.
Cook Children’s would have taken Tinslee off of life support on Sunday evening, but at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, doctors told Tinslee’s family they had decided not to take Tinslee off the ventilator that night, reports the Star-Telegram.
To keep Tinslee from pulling out the lines connecting her to the ventilator, doctors keep her paralyzed and sedated, said King, the public relationship representative. “In the last several months, it’s become apparent her health will never improve. Despite our best efforts, her condition is irreversible, meaning it will never be cured or eliminated. Without life-sustaining treatment, her condition is fatal. But more importantly, her physicians believe she is suffering,” he said.
Tinslee’s family disagrees with doctors and nurses, and they are not giving up. They say they want to give Tinslee more time to get well.
Texas Right to Life provided a lawyer for the family, and Protect Texas Fragile Kids has helped the family fight the hospital’s decision.
“The hospital committee cited no physical health reason for their decision to seize Tinslee’s ventilator against her mother’s will but instead cited their own ‘quality of life’ judgments,” Texas Right to Life said in a statement.
We are interceding for Tinslee and her family that God’s will be done.
