Court Blocks Hospital From Taking 9-Month-Old Off Life Support as Mom Searches for Options

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A Texas court has granted one family a temporary restraining order to prevent a hospital from taking their 9-month-old daughter off life support. Tinslee Lewis has been hospitalized at Cook Children's in Forth Worth, Texas, her entire life, because of a heart defect she was born with called Ebstein anomaly. But after recently determining that the baby's health will not improve, doctors told her family they were going to end treatment. The Lewises hope to buy time while they seek another hospital willing to try to save her.

Tinslee has never been outside of the hospital walls, and has only been able to breathe with help from a ventilator for the past two months.

CBS DFW

According to the Mayo Clinic, Ebstein anomaly occurs when the valve between the two right heart chambers doesn't work properly and can sometimes cause enlargement of the heat or even heart failure. In her nine months of life, Tinslee has already gone through three surgeries. She also suffers from chronic lung disease and severe chronic pulmonary hypertension, CBS DFW reports.

Cook Children's notified Tinslee's mother Trinity on October 31 that it was going to withdraw treatment.

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Under Texas's "10-day law," medical facilities are permitted to withdraw treatment if the patient is in an “irreversible condition," according to Fox News. In this case, Tinslee's doctors told her mother that there was a low chance that her daughter will ever recover and that she is suffering by being kept alive. The family, however, believes Tinslee has a shot if they can find another hospital where she can be transferred. 

"I just don’t think that what they’re doing to my baby is [right], because she’s not brain dead," Trinity told CBS DFW. "She’s there. And she has overcome so much I know she’ll be OK this time."

A statement from the hospital explained that it has already reached out to 20 other hospitals to see if they could help transfer Tinslee.

CBS DFW

In the statement, the hospital claimed that Tinslee was beyond care:

"Cook Children’s has made heroic efforts to treat Tinslee’s condition, all while being very transparent with her family regarding her poor prognosis. Despite those extraordinary efforts, Tinslee’s condition has not improved. At the request of Tinslee’s family, we have reached out to nearly 20 facilities across the country to see if any would be willing to accept Tinslee as a patient.

To maintain the delicate balance necessary to sustain Tinslee’s life, and to prevent her from pulling out the lines that are connected to the ventilator, doctors have had to keep her constantly paralyzed and sedated. Tinslee may sometimes appear alert and moving, [but] her movements are the result of being weaned off of the paralyzing drugs. We believe Tinslee is reacting in pain when she’s not sedated and paralyzed."

Cook Children's also listed several of the facilities notified, including the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Johns Hopkins, University Hospital San Antonio, Texas Children’s, Dallas Children’s, Boston Children’s, and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, who all agreed with their assessment and did not want to take on Tinslee's case.

"While we believe every child’s life is sacred, we also believe that no child should be sentenced to a life of pain," the statement noted. "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."

Tinslee's life support was due to be shut off November 7, but the temporary restraining order came through just in time.

Nine hours before Tinslee was due to be taken off her ventilator, Tarrant County Judge Alex Kim signed the order, which will be effective through November 23, the Texan reports. A hearing for Tinslee's case has been scheduled for November 22.

For now, the mother is grateful that she'll have a little more time to get her daughter some help.

“I thought that they were going to pull the plug on my baby,” Trinity told Fox News. “I didn’t think she was going to still be here today, and that’s what I’m grateful for.”