Donald Jones rescued his wife, Carolyn, from Memorial Hermann Southwest, racing to a different facility that is providing the conscious woman her desperately needed dialysis.
Donald Jones escaped the clutches of the hospital committee on Wednesday with his beloved wife in a private ambulance funded by Texas Right to Life in the middle of the night.
Carolyn was discharged from Memorial Hermann Southwest despite administrators’ protests–the same administrators who sabotaged transfer efforts.
When the 10-Day Rule of the Texas Advance Directives Act authorized hospital administrators to pull the plug on Carolyn against her family’s will, no one expected her to leave the hospital alive. Miraculously, the Beaumont woman survived 60 hours without breathing assistance since hospital staff forcibly removed her ventilator on Monday at 2 p.m.
Against all odds, Donald rescued Carolyn from a death sentence under the 10-Day Rule. Carolyn is now safe and stable in a new Houston facility, where she is receiving the treatment she needs while she awaits an impending long-term transfer.
Carolyn has been accepted at a long-term acute facility, and the paperwork for her new facility will not be ready until at least Thursday afternoon. Thus, the emergency escape ensured that Carolyn remained stable and received dialysis so that she could safely be moved to an appropriate care setting; otherwise, the 10-Day Rule would likely have taken her life.
Memorial Hermann Southwest refused to resume dialysis for Carolyn, even after offers to privately pay for just one treatment until she could be moved. Carolyn had been without dialysis since Saturday, and Texas Right to Life and the Jones family are grateful to the new facility (that cannot be named for privacy protections) for providing dialysis and caring for Carolyn.
Donald Jones says he can finally breathe. “Knowing she’ll be somewhere safe where my directives will finally be honored brings me relief after so many days and weeks of anxiety.”
The family is humbled by the outpouring of public love and support during their fight for their beloved wife and mother: “We are comforted, knowing people who don’t even know us are willing to help our mother. Thank you!”
Vulnerable patients need your help to survive the deadly 10-Day Rule. They may have no fighting chance without you. Give today to the Texas Right to Life Family Assistance Fund to protect patients from death panels.
