SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Doctors are split over whether the state should remove the feeding tube from a comatose 11-year-old West Springfield girl at the center of a right-to-die legal battle after she was allegedly beaten by her adoptive parents.
According to court documents released Wednesday, two doctors for Haleigh Poutre agree she should be removed from her ventilator, but one of them is opposed to removing her feeding tube.
If she is taken off the ventilator but continues to receive nourishment through the feeding tube, Haleigh would die “anytime from several weeks up to two months,” the doctors said.
“Without the feeding tube, the child’s demise would likely occur in a substantially shorter period of time,” according to the documents.
The documents don’t explain why the doctors are split over the issue.
Haleigh has been virtually brain dead since being hospitalized in September with brain stem injuries. Authorities say she was beaten nearly to death by her aunt and her husband, who were the girl’s adoptive parents.
The state Department of Social Services now has custody of the girl and is seeking to end her life support.
Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the agency, declined to comment on the case Wednesday, but said Haleigh remains hospitalized in critical condition.
A Juvenile Court judge has approved the agency’s request to take Haleigh off life support, but that decision is being appealed before the state’s highest court, which will hear arguments in the case next week.
Haleigh’s aunt, Holli Strickland, and her husband were charged with beating the 11-year-old.
Holli Strickland was fatally shot in what police say was either a double murder or a murder-suicide. The husband, Jason Strickland, is out on bail after pleading innocent to assault and battery charges.
He is fighting to keep Haleigh on life support. If she dies, he could face murder charges.
His lawyer, John Egan, said the possibility of being charged with murder is not influencing his client.
“I have not seen any evidence that he has anything but the interests of the child in the forefront of his considerations,” Egan said.
-Associated Press
