Emilio Gonzales dies
Baby Emilio died on Saturday. From the AP story:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A 19-month-old boy whose terminal illness started a contentious legal and ethical debate over who decides when life-sustaining treatment should cease has died.via FRIDA:
Emilio Gonzales died in his mother's arms Saturday night at Children's Hospital of Austin, family attorney Jerri Ward said....
Emilio, who had been on a respirator since December, was believed to have Leigh's disease, a progressive illness which destroys brain functions. His mother had fought in court to continue his medical care while doctors, saying there was no hope of recovery, sought to remove him from the machines keeping him alive.
Doctors wanted to invoke a state law allowing the hospital to stop life support after a 10-day notice for patients deemed medically futile.
Emilio's mother, Catarina Gonzales, said she knew her son would die but wanted doctors to continue care, pointing out that he smiled and turned his head when he heard voices. Her lawyer argued the state law was unconstitutional. In April, a judge agreed to temporarily block the hospital's move to end life support....
The state Senate approved legislation this month to change the law and give patients' families more time before ending life-sustaining treatment.
We of FRIDA offer our sincere condolences to Emilio's family and are thankful that he was able to pass without being under denial of treatment. We hope that his mother finds comfort in thinking of the many disability rights allies, including many readers of this blog, who sought to aid in whatever ways they could.
We encourage you to leave your comments and thoughts on this website, or post on other websites, and most especially we encourage you to write your thoughts to your local papers to make sure that the nation thinks long and hard about why this family had to fight this fight with the State of Texas and the medical establishment.
17 comments:
Sometimes death is the best answer. If there is no father in the home, if there is no money to take care of oneself, let alone a sick child (or even a healthy child). This is the biggest tradegy - the birth of a child who has no hope to be connected to a healthy and encourging family. The biggest fatal disease is the birth of a child to a family that is not prepared, whether it is emotional, financial or physically. Perhaps not only is this a condition that has a high fatality rate, it is also a condition that borders, or perhaps is child abuse.
I'm wondering where the father was. There was no mention of him. Who was paying the bill for the hospital ? Was the bill paid for by an insurance company, or some sort of state or federal aid ? If the family was paying for it out of their pocket, would a different decision be made if thousands of dollars a day were being paid by the mother ?
Middle class people constantly face this decision... earning too much money to qualify for state or government aid, and not enough to pay for insurance. There are families that make this difficult decision daily. Lose everything they have worked for in order to pay for the medical care that a heart attack, or cancer requires. OR.... forgo treatment that cannot be paid for. Senior Citizens face this decision constantly.
Yes, it is tragic for the mother to lose a child. And yet, depending on circumstances, it is tragic for a child to be born into a family that cannot sustain life on it's own.
I am so sorry for there loss. Who do they think is paying for this end of life care? It's you and me folks. If someone is terminal why prolong it- Someone can be cared for properly when they are terminal it's called HOSPICE. Save the resorces for the living. Make people start paying cash for these terminal cases. It will never happen but people would start making more realistic choices.
Was this kid or his mother even a US citizen?
I couldn't tell you what the ratio is but you can bet your bottom dollar that if the child had been white, and the mother wanted life support removed that every bleeding heart liberal in the world would have been hounding the legal system to block her wish.
Unless the terminally ill patient's care is being paid for in cash, i don't feel the parents/care giver have the right to prolong the inevitable. this is exactly why us folks that do pay our health insurance premiums, have such a hefty bill ! personal accountability for everyone - if you can't afford it, you shouldn't get it -
It's comforting to know how many compassionate people there are in the world. I guess if your poor your just not worthy. According to the comments I have read, you probably shouldn't have even been born. What a kind and loving world we live in.
I'm with Anonymous who asks was this even a legal citizen AND the first Anonymous who asks who's footing the bill? I got a feeling it's probably both.
While everyone tries to put the spin on the contribution illegal aliens (criminal tresspassers in my opinion) make to this country, doesn't amount to a drop in the bucket in what they have stolen from American citizens - social security numbers, stealing social security payments, etc. She adds to the drain on our medical system and whatever else there may be.
Any further racist, classist, anti-immigrant comments will have to be owned up to by the cowards who make them. Anonymous commenting has been disallowed. For those serious about having a discussion, registering is an easy one-time thing. If you register once with Blogger, you can comment anywhere your views are tolerated.
I'll be back later to debunk some of the lies and misinformation.
Interesting that all these anonymous people have the same last name. Or is this just one brave person writing several comments?
I'll address you as if you are one person, you do seem to have a lot in common.
Anonymous, are you a Native American? If not, your family were at some point immigrants. Isn't that interesting? Are you a Christian? Do you feel the love towards the people that come to the States for a better life? Or do you think that your family was blessed or special in some way and that nobody else should be able to get into the country?
Do you think, when you get sick and need a doctor or go to the hospital - or one of your loved ones - that you are a drain to the medical system and that if you don't have at that moment the money to pay for whatever needs to be done (surgery or medicine) that you should just suck it up and be in pain or even die? Do you feel in that way about yourself and your family or just those who you think are beneath you?
And pray tell, who are beneath you, could you please list them in alphabetical order so that we know just how high up in the social ladder you are. Pretty close to Jesus, right? Thought so, you seem to think alike and act alike.
signed, Princess of Cybermob
I'm hoping Emilio was at peace, and I'm truly happy his mom got to enjoy more time with her son...each day counts at times like that.
Amazing.
God gives a child a horrible disease which causes him to slowly degenerate.
The mother fights God's will, keeping the child alive artificially. Nobody comments on her defiance of God.
The child finally dies, and rather than trying to discern the lessons God wanted us to learn through the horrific death He inflicted upon this child, people would rather comment on the fact that the child had a Hispanic name and therefore must not be in the United States legally.
Perhaps God wants us to realize that a whole lot of Americans are Hispanic, and tortured this child to death to help bring that to light?
After praying on the subject, I expect I'll post myself on feelgoodbible.blogspot.com.
Good luck reining in the Anonymous Klansman, Mr/Ms Olson.
While everyone tries to put the spin on the contribution illegal aliens (criminal tresspassers in my opinion) make to this country, doesn't amount to a drop in the bucket in what they have stolen from American citizens - social security numbers, stealing social security payments, etc. She adds to the drain on our medical system and whatever else there may be.
First, there has been absolutely no report anywhere that I can find that Catarina Gonzales is not a U.S. citizen.
Second, some actual facts about immigration and the contributions they make to our country are available here. Sources include The Cato Institute, Brookings Institute, National Academy of Science, and the Social Security Administration:
"Immigrants come to work and reunite with family members.
Immigrant labor force participation is consistently higher than
native-born, and immigrant workers make up a larger share of
the U.S. labor force (12.4%) than they do the U.S. population
(11.5%). Moreover, the ratio between immigrant use of public
benefits and the amount of taxes they pay is consistently
favorable to the U.S., unless the “study” was undertaken by an
anti-immigrant group. In one estimate, immigrants earn about
$240 billion a year, pay about $90 billion a year in taxes, and
use about $5 billion in public benefits. In another cut of the
data, immigrant tax payments total $20 to $30 billion more than
the amount of government services they use."
Princess: Thank you, my Icelandic friend.
Matthew Valk: If your argument is that use of medical technology to prolong life is a sin against God, well, ha HA!, have you come to the wrong woman's blog. For oh so many reasons. Thanks for the amusement.
Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free...as long as they're not foreign, or have strange accents, or have no health insurance...what a bunch of xenophobic morons the original post about this tragic situation attracted.
My father is an immigrant to this country. He's not a citizen. The funny thing is, you would never know that from his name! He's incognito! Send 'im back! He must be a drain on the economy! My mother must have been craaazy to get mixed up with one of them. Respectable people should shun her forever, you know, once they ship my Dad back home where he belongs. (It's been 35 years, but you know, I'm sure he'll pick up right where he left off!)
That time I broke my toe in high school, I guess the ER should have checked his citizenship status before treating me. Send 'em back! Don't waste your medical tape and Advil on ferriners and their brats! Everyone knows that I will never amount to anything anyway! And I should be grateful to God for the lesson s/he taught me through that broken toe! Pain is OUCHY. I learned!
My brother is on public assistance! Send 'im back too! How dare he take our American food stamps! Especially refuse him as much medical care as possible, because he has bipolar disorder. Meds? What for? He's only an indolent son-of-an-immigrant, after all. Might as well let him go manic permanently and let God's will be done with him, instead of artificially prolonging his even keel with the devil's own Depakote.
Of course, I do have two parents, so maybe the anonymouses are cool with me and my brother mooching off of America by getting jobs and using health care. They'd have to check with my parents - not that these upstanding citizens would condescend to actually speak to one of those immigrants - to see if they were adequately prepared to bring children into this veil of tears. And then they would need to get all up in our financials to determine if any of us qualified for health care. (Sing it with me: "Can you pay my biiiills/Can you paay my automobiiiills...")
I'm sure that if these fine folks learned our last name, though, they would leap to the conclusion that we are good, self-sustaining white folks who deserve the bootstrap benefit of the doubt.
Phew! It's a good thing no one told them we are Jewish!
First and most importantly, I send my condolences to this family into the blogosphere. I am so glad that Baby Emilio's mom got to spend more time with her baby.
Secondly, I think it's quite obvious that the xenophobic, narrow minded bigots' pathetic day is done when they have to spew their hate on a blog that reports the tragic death of a small child. Anonymous wears no clothes.
While it doesn't change the substance of any of my comments on this case or the Texas Futile Care Law, an email from Catarina Gonzales' lawyer informs me that Ms. Gonzales is, indeed, a U.S. citizen. Her grandfather fought in WWI and her uncles fought in WWII and Korea, all in American uniforms.
Isn't it weird how military service in wars is the ultimate standard by which someone's eligibility for public services is determined in the public's eyes? I mean, considering who has been barred from service historically, the incredible immorality of our current war and the real lack of services actually available to those returning from it?
first of all thank you everyone one that supported me for my son my name is Catarina Gonzales I am baby Emilio lee Gonzales mother and I have read the comments let me tell those ignorant people that want to say if we where illegal my mother and father where born in Lockhart TX my grandparents where also born in Lockhart TX me and my brother and sisters where born in Lockhart TX and my son was born in Austin TX so we are US citizens born and raised I work really hard i was working as well when my son was on disability so I was paying taxes that they took out of my check every two weeks to give people like my son what he needs and also I was going to school at the same time i left everything in December my school and job because my son need me but i worked my butt off so my son could have everything so you put your self in my shoes then tell me something and "I AM AMERICAN A MEXICAN AMERICAN BORN AND RASED IN LOCKHART TX 78644 NOW WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT '
LOVE CATARINA GONZALES
AKA
BABY EMILIO LEE GONZALES MOM
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