FORT WORTH, Texas _ Family members of a 9-month-old girl who are in a dispute with Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth will now have until Dec. 10 to find a new hospital before Cook Children's ends treatment.
Tinslee Lewis has several critical health problems and has been on life support at the hospital. Physicians at Cook Children's ruled on Oct. 31 that they would take the baby off life support on Nov. 10, despite the family's objections.
On Nov. 10, the family received a temporary restraining order against the hospital. The order, which was originally set to expire on Nov. 22, prevents the hospital from ending Tinslee's life-saving treatment. On Tuesday, the judge extended the order until Dec. 10.
Officials at Cook Children's said they believe Tinslee is in pain and that nothing more can be done for her medically. However, Tinslee's family disagrees and said they want to give her more time to get better.
Tinslee was born prematurely with a rare heart defect called an Ebstein anomaly. She also suffers from a chronic lung disease and severe chronic pulmonary hypertension, and has undergone several complex surgeries.
"We praise God for this extension of time, which grants Tinslee more than a month of life after the hospital was initially set to pull the plug on the baby on November 10," Texas Right to Life, which has provided Tinslee's family with legal help, said in a statement.
Tinslee's mom, 20-year-old Trinity Lewis, started a donation page to raise money for her daughter. As of Tuesday, $95 had been raised.
The 10-Day Rule is part of the Texas Advance Directives Act, which was signed into law in 1999 by then-Gov. George W. Bush.
Under this section of the law, if a doctor deems a patient's treatment is futile, an ethics committee of other hospital employees have the ability to review the case and either agree or disagree with the physician. If an agreement is reached, the committee gives the family 10 days to transfer the patient before ending treatment.
This dispute-resolution has become controversial among the public, politicians and medical professionals. Some organizations, such as Texas Right to Life, say the 10-day limit "forces everyday Texans to race against the clock to save their loved ones."
Others, such as the pro-life group Texas Alliance for Life, say the act is "good public policy and constitutional."
In a statement, Texas Alliance for Life said their hearts go out to Tinslee and her family, but the group supports doctors being able to decide when to end treatment that has no benefit to a suffering patient.
"This law balances the family's autonomy regarding end-of-life medical decisions with a doctor's conscience rights to not order medically inappropriate interventions that would cause unnecessary suffering without the hope of improving their patient's condition," the organization said in the statement.
