Comatose Man’s Feeding Tube Removed

In an agonizing right-to-die case, a grieving wife Thursday removed the feeding tube that has kept her comatose husband alive more than three years, but Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore said that he would ask his state’s highest court to intervene.

The case had divided the man’s family and raised new legal and political questions about the state’s rights in such a seemingly personal decision.

This week, united over the need to end the ordeal, the immediate family has lined up behind Michele Finn’s wish to end her husband’s life. And Thursday the family announced that it had pulled the feeding tube despite the governor’s threat to go to the Virginia Supreme Court.

“They put me through sheer hell,” said Finn after hearing of Gilmore’s intervention. “They obviously have total disregard for my wishes and my husband’s wishes.”

In March 1995, Hugh Finn, a local television anchor in Louisville, Ky., was in an automobile accident that severed his aorta, which cut off oxygen to his brain and left him unable to eat, talk or care for himself. After several years of therapy, Finn was moved to the Annaburg Manor nursing home in Manassas, Va., where a cluster of protestors staged a prayer vigil Thursday.

Three of Finn’s physicians said that he is in a permanent vegetative state from which he will not recover. But some family members, and even a nurse, insisted they have seen fleeting signs of responsiveness--a clash that underlines the ongoing debate over how to judge the condition of seriously brain-injured patients.

“The governor is sympathetic to Hugh Finn’s family and understands the anguish they are feeling right now,” said Lila Young, a spokeswoman for Gilmore. “But he feels strongly that it is his job as governor to protect those in society who can least protect themselves and that we have to be very careful to be sure that those in very frail condition get due process under the law.”

Death Could Take Several Days

Gilmore will pursue his legal battle no matter what the family has done, said Young. Medical experts have said that it could take several days to several weeks for Finn to die after the feeding tube is removed.

The case resulted in a painful split among family members, pitting in-laws and siblings against one another and against Mrs. Finn. It was Mrs. Finn’s sister, in fact, who urged Gilmore to intervene, even after Hugh Finn’s brother John agreed to drop his legal lawsuit to keep Finn alive.

“The problem, actually, isn’t really what condition Hugh Finn is in,” said medical ethicist Art Caplan, who directs a bioethics center at the University of Pennsylvania. “The problem is that we are not comfortable in resolving disputes among intimate family members and we also don’t want to risk sliding down a slope that would lead to the abuse of the disabled, or even the merely different.”

This is not the first time in the history of right-to-die cases in which the state--or even a governor personally--has become involved. In 1988, Rhode Island Gov. Edward D. DiPrete ordered feedings stopped to a comatose woman at the request of her family, after the hospital staff had refused to do so. And in the late 1980s, the administration of Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft opposed the wishes of the family of Nancy Cruzan, who had been injured in an automobile accident, to withdraw her feeding tubes.

But Caplan argued that “this is an unusual fight and an unusual set of circumstances. Most of the time, families agree, doctors agree and you don’t have to bring the governor in to play doctor. For every case of Hugh Finn that makes it to the governor and to the headlines, there are literally hundreds every month that we, as a society, resolve amicably, and with integrity.”

In June, Finn’s wife told family members that she wanted to remove her husband’s feeding tube, saying that he had told her he would not want to live under such conditions.

John Finn went to court to block her, but Prince William County Circuit Judge Frank Hoss Jr. ruled Aug. 31 that Mrs. Finn would remain her husband’s guardian and had the right to remove the tube when the appeal deadline expired Sept. 30.

Nurse Said Finn Was Responsive

The case became more complicated on Sept. 18, when a nurse employed by the state visited Finn and reported that he told her “hi” and smoothed his hair during the hour and 15 minutes she watched him.

Mrs. Finn and her attorney argued that the nurse was wrong, saying that Finn does not really react but does utter guttural noises and makes movements.

Initially, John Finn said that he planned to take the case to the Virginia Supreme Court. But on Monday, the family agreed to end its legal dispute, leaving Finn’s wife free to remove the tube when the appeal deadline expired.

But it didn’t end there.

Mrs. Finn’s sister, Elaine Glazier of Philadelphia, who believes that her brother-in-law is still “locked in” his damaged body, sought help from Gilmore, who filed a last-minute appeal Wednesday night.

Mrs. Finn wept during the hearing and afterward angrily attacked Gilmore for intervening.

Her arguments were bolstered by a report from Dr. Naurang Gill, a neurologist hired by the state who examined Finn and told the court that “the chances of any meaningful recovery in this gentleman are practically zero.”

State Assistant Atty. Gen. William Hurd argued that removing the tube would amount to euthanasia, but Hoss disagreed and rejected the state’s request.

Under Virginia law, life-sustaining treatment may be stopped if a person is in a persistent vegetative state.

The feeding tube provides the food and water that keep Finn alive. Without it, he will become dehydrated, his kidneys will fail and he will eventually die.

Thursday morning, Hoss ruled again that Mrs. Finn was free to remove the tube, saying: “The governor says Hugh Finn is not in a persistent vegetative state. This court has found otherwise.” Gilmore then said that he would appeal to the state’s high court.