Texas girl at center of life support battle leaves hospital

Apr 13, 2022, 2:36 PM | Updated: 3:29 pm

DALLAS (AP) — A 3-year-old Texas girl whose mother has waged a court battle to keep doctors from removing her from life-sustaining treatment has improved enough that she was released from the hospital last week and will now be cared for at home, a group that’s been advocating for her said.

Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, said this week that Tinslee Lewis’ health had “so steadily improved” that she was released from Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth on April 7.

“It’s encouraging to see that the family and the hospital did get to work together so much that Tinslee was benefitted and actually gets to go home,” Texas Right to Life spokeswoman Kimberlyn Schwartz said Wednesday.

The case has been making its way through the courts since November 2019, when the hospital had planned to remove Tinslee from life support after invoking Texas’ so-called “10-day rule.” The law can be employed when a family disagrees with doctors on withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.

The law stipulates that if a hospital’s ethics committee agrees with doctors, treatment can be withdrawn after 10 days, as long as a new provider can’t be found to take the patient.

Texas Right to Life spokeswoman Kimberlyn Schwartz said that within the last year or so “the hospital and the family have worked well together.”

Tinslee had been hospitalized since her premature birth in February 2019. The hospital has said she was born with a rare heart defect and suffered from chronic lung disease and severe chronic high blood pressure. She was put on a ventilator several months after her birth after going into respiratory arrest, the hospital has said.

Schwartz said that doctors eventually switched Tinslee from being ventilated through her mouth to having a tracheotomy. “It helped improve her health to the point that she can go home,” Schwartz said.

She said that Tinslee, who is currently on a portable ventilator, has 24-hour nursing care at home.

A statement issued by Cook Children’s Health Care System this week said: “The medical teams at Cook Children’s have dedicated their lives to healing children, and go to tireless lengths to do what they believe in their hearts and minds to be the very best decision for each and every patient.”

About two months into the court proceedings, Lewis had revoked the hospital’s permission to speak about Tinslee.

In Texas Right to Life’s statement, Lewis thanked “everyone who pulled together to help my daughter” including her attorneys, doctors at Cook Children’s, Texas Right to Life and Protect TX Fragile Kids.

“We have been cherishing and enjoying Tinslee being home,” Lewis said.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

(Facebook Photo/City of San Luis, Arizona)...
Associated Press

San Luis authorities receive complaints about 911 calls going across border

Authorities in San Luis say they are receiving more complaints about 911 calls mistakenly going across the border.
5 days ago
(Pexels Photo)...
Associated Press

Daylight saving time begins in most of US this weekend

No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
13 days ago
Mexican army soldiers prepare a search mission for four U.S. citizens kidnapped by gunmen in Matamo...
Associated Press

How the 4 abducted Americans in Mexico were located

The anonymous tip that led Mexican authorities to a remote shack where four abducted Americans were held described armed men and blindfolds.
13 days ago
Tom Brundy points to a newly built irrigation canal on one of the fields at his farm Tuesday, Feb. ...
Associated Press

Southwest farmers reluctant to idle farmland to save water

There is a growing sense that fallowing will have to be part of the solution to the increasingly desperate drought in the West.
20 days ago
A young bison calf stands in a pond with its herd at Bull Hollow, Okla., on Sept. 27, 2022. The cal...
Associated Press

US aims to restore bison herds to Native American lands after near extinction

U.S. officials will work to restore more large bison herds to Native American lands under a Friday order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
20 days ago
Children play in a dried riverbed in Flassans-sur-Issole, southern France, Wednesday, March 1, 2023...
Associated Press

Italy, France confront 2nd year of western Europe drought

ROME (AP) — Bracing for Italy’s second consecutive year of drought for the first time in decades, Premier Giorgia Meloni huddled with ministers Wednesday to start mapping out an action plan Wednesday, joining France and other nations in western Europe grappling with scant winter rain and snow. Meloni and her ministers decided to appoint an […]
22 days ago

Sponsored Articles

(Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona Photo)...
Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona

5 common causes for chronic neck pain

Neck pain can debilitate one’s daily routine, yet 80% of people experience it in their lives and 20%-50% deal with it annually.
...
Quantum Fiber

How high-speed fiber internet edges out cable for everyday use

In a world where technology drives so much of our daily lives, a lack of high-speed internet can be a major issue.
(Desert Institute for Spine Care photo)...
DESERT INSTITUTE FOR SPINE CARE

Why DISC is world renowned for back and neck pain treatments

Fifty percent of Americans and 90% of people at least 50 years old have some level of degenerative disc disease.
Texas girl at center of life support battle leaves hospital