A judge has ruled in favor of Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, which petitioned for the right to remove an 11-month-old girl from life support. Tinslee Lewis was born premature with a heart defect early last year, and has been kept alive by machines ever since. The child's mother, Trinity Lewis, desperately fought for an injunction against the hospital late last year, against the wishes of her doctors. But now, the court ruling appears to have settled the matter: The little girl will finally be removed from life-saving care this month.
Tinslee has been hospitalized at Cook Children's for her entire life and has never been outside hospital walls.
She was born with Ebstein anomaly, which according to the Mayo Clinic, occurs when the valve between the two right heart chambers fails to work properly. This can sometimes cause enlargement of the heart or even heart failure.
In her short life so far, Tinslee has already endured three surgeries. She also suffers from chronic lung disease and severe chronic pulmonary hypertension, CBS DFW reported.
On October 31, Cook Children's notified Tinslee's mother that medical staff were going to withdraw treatment.
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 her daughter would ever recover, and that she is only suffering by being kept alive. However, the Lewis family strongly believes that 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 at the time. "She’s there. And she has overcome so much I know she’ll be OK this time."
In a statement issued at the time, 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."
Tinslee's life support was due to be shut off November 7, but a 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 went into effect November 23.
The judge was later removed from the case after the hospital raised questions about his impartiality, the New York Times reported. Tinslee's mother then asked Chief Justice Sandee Bryan Marion of the state’s Fourth Court of Appeals to also grant an injunction. On Thursday, however, he denied her request.
Trinity's lawyer, Joseph M. Nixon, later told a reporter for the Times that he had filed a notice of appeal and would file a motion for emergency relief Thursday afternoon, which would prevent the hospital from taking Tinslee off life support.
Cook Children's agreed to not do anything for another week so Trinity and her lawyers could file the necessary paperwork.
Nixon also said that community members were actively working to try to find a different facility that would take Tinslee.
“The culprit in this case is the statute,” Nixon explained to the Times, speaking about the 10-day statue.
The story has even attracted attention from people outside Tinslee's case. In December, a group of 16 state lawmakers cited the case in a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, asking him to call lawmakers into a special session to repeal the 10-day rule.
And in November, State Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Tinslee and her mother. In it, he claimed that withdrawing care for the girl would violate the constitutional right to life.
“Patients must be heard and justly represented when determining their own medical treatment," he said at the time, "especially when the decision to end treatment could end their life."
