FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF)- Attorney’s representing the family of a 17-month-old Fort Worth baby are requesting a new doctor to be allowed to treat her.
Tinslee Lewis has been on life support at Cook Children’s Medical Center for 10 months and has been hospitalized since birth with severe lung and heart problems. Tinslee has been in the center of a long standing legal battle regarding continuance of care. Cook Children’s believes Tinslee is suffering and continuing treatment goes against physician’s ethical or moral beliefs.
The family of Tinslee Lewis appealed after a judge gave Cook Children’s Medical Center the green light to remove the baby from life support.
Now it’s up to the Court of Appeals to determine her fate, however since COVID-19 that process has been on hold.
Meanwhile, according to Kim Schwartz with Texas Right to Life, Dr. Glenn E. Green has stepped up to help care for baby Tinslee and attorneys are asking Cook Children’s for permission to do so.
Schwartz said Dr. Patrick Roughneen, a physician from Galveston, and Dr. Green from Michigan both assessed Tinslee’s condition and agreed a Tracheostomy will help her.
This procedure will help her breathe by making an incision to the windpipe from her throat.
“Baby T.L. should be treated no differently than any other child who has been on a ventilator this long. Tracheotomies are routinely performed for patients after 14-days on a ventilator. Baby T.L. has been on a ventilator for over 10 months. It is not within the standard realm of care to leave a patient on a ventilator this long and refuse a tracheostomy. The benefits of a tracheostomy versus a ventilator are decreased work of breathing, reduction in airway dead space, avoidance of tracheo-innominate fistula [a lethal complication of an indwelling tracheostomy tube] and management of pulmonary secretions. Hence there are very specific patient benefits to performing this procedure,” said Roughneen.
According to Court Documents, at this time, Tinslee is not allowed to be moved from Cook Children’s without the hospital agreeing to emergency privileges for Dr. Green to perform a tracheostomy and providing care following the procedure.
Schwartz said if they can perform this procedure Tinslee will no longer need ICU Treatment.
