Family Loses Fight in Right-to-Die Case : Nursing Home Allowed to Connect Feeding Tube to Elderly Patient

An Orange County judge refused Friday to bar an Anaheim nursing home from connecting a feeding tube to an elderly resident, despite the emotional plea of a Santa Monica lawyer noted for pursuing right-to-die cases.

The suit was filed by attorney Richard S. Scott on behalf of Frances Hornsby, 60, who wants to stop Buena Vista Convalescent Hospital from connecting a nasogastric tube to her father, 83-year-old Stephen Armour Sprague.

But Barry S. Landsberg, an attorney for Buena Vista, said the facility has no plans to attach such a tube--which provides nourishment through the nose--to Sprague.

The facility, however, has refused to assure Hornsby that it will never attach the device, saying it has a duty to ensure Sprague’s health.

Sprague, a retired engineer, has suffered several strokes in the past five years and cannot care for himself. But he is not comatose and has no terminal illness.

‘Senile and Incompetent’

Hornsby maintains that Sprague is senile and incompetent and can derive little pleasure from life, but Buena Vista staff said in court papers that Sprague is occasionally alert and able to converse.

In court Friday in Santa Ana, Scott occasionally left the facts of the case to discuss philosophical issues of life and death.

“Life has been described as a terminal illness,” he told Superior Court Judge John C. Woolley.

“We are concerned here that (Sprague’s) death would be prolonged” if the court declined to block Buena Vista from undertaking possible life-sustaining actions in the future.

Woolley countered: “Your argument is that death is eventual, but that is a given for all of us. You are raising a lot of emotion, and I appreciate that. But this case is not going to be decided by your emotion or anyone else’s emotion.”

The judge cited several reasons in refusing to issue a temporary restraining order at this point in the lawsuit.

No Urgency Found

Woolley said he found no urgency in the case, as no court order seemed necessary to preserve the status quo. Additionally, he questioned whether Hornsby, who pays Sprague’s medical bills, could properly represent the best interests of her father.

At the judge’s invitation, a representative of the public defender’s office attended the hearing, and Woolley said he may ask that agency to represent Sprague in future hearings.

Hornsby said she was disappointed with the judge’s ruling.

“I don’t believe in keeping somebody with no quality of life alive,” she said.

“He can’t walk. He can say a few words. Other times, he can’t speak at all,” she said of her father. “It’s so sad because he was such an outgoing person.”

Hornsby said her father had intimated a desire to avoid a protracted illness.

“There have been several instances when he’s said things that would indicate he doesn’t want to go on,” she said.

Sprague’s wife died in 1961. Hornsby is his only child.

Scott said he would pursue legal action to prevent Buena Vista from undertaking possible life-support measures in the future.