Gravely Ill Woman Kept on Respirator
A judge on Monday turned down doctors who wanted to unplug the respirator of an elderly, severely brain-damaged woman despite the wishes of her husband.
“I think she’d be proud of me,” Oliver Wanglie said when a judge granted him power to make medical decisions for his wife of 54 years, Helga.
Doctors at Hennepin County Medical Center had asked District Judge Patricia Belois to appoint an independent conservator to decide the fate of the 86-year-old woman.
They hoped a conservator would permit them to take her off the machine that has helped keep her alive since May, 1990, when she fell into a persistent vegetative state after a respiratory attack.
Belois ruled that such decisions are best left to family members when they are competent.
Doctors sought a conservator in the case because they believed that Wanglie did not fully understand his wife’s hopeless condition. One physician said it is morally wrong to use a respirator on a severely brain-damaged person who has no hope of recovery.
William Miller, an attorney for the county-owned hospital, said an appeal is unlikely.
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