FORT WORTH
A hearing has been set to determine whether or not Cook Children’s Medical Center will be barred from ending the life-sustaining treatment of a 10-month-old baby.
A hearing for Tinslee Lewis’ case has been scheduled at 9 a.m. Thursday in the 48th District Court in Fort Worth, Tinslee’s family’s attorney Joe Nixon confirmed Tuesday.
Cook Children’s moved to end Tinslee Lewis’ treatment in October under the Texas Advance Directives Act, which grants physicians the power to end life support treatment if an ethics committee deems the treatment futile.
Tinslee’s family filed for a temporary restraining order against the hospital in November, and Family Court Judge Alex Kim extended the order to Dec. 10. The family is hoping to receive an injunction against the hospital that will prevent its physicians from ending Tinslee’s treatment, Nixon said.
“I believe the statute is facially unconstitutional — we will be making that argument in court,” Nixon said.
The case have involved weeks of legal back-and-forth between Tinslee’s family and Cook Children’s.
Kim was removed from the case on Dec. 5 after Cook Children’s filed a motion for him to be recused, saying he was biased in the case and violated legal procedure by assigning himself Tinslee’s case.
On Monday, Chief Justice Sandee Marion of the Fourth District Court of Appeals was assigned to the case.
Cook Children’s argued that Tinslee’s treatment is prolonging her suffering and, while they searched for other hospitals to transfer her to at the family’s request, all of them agreed with the doctors’ diagnoses.
TInslee’s family disagrees — they say the baby needs more time to improve and the hospital does not have a right to end her life. They have been searching for another medical facility to take Tinslee to but have been unable to find one.
