Man Dies 8 Days After Feeding Tube Removal

A severely brain-damaged man at the center of a right-to-die court battle died Friday, eight days after the feeding tube keeping him alive was removed at his wife’s request.

Hugh Finn, a 44-year-old former TV anchorman in Louisville, Ky., died at Annaburg Manor Nursing Home, 3 1/2 years after a car crash left him unable to eat, communicate or care for himself.

His wife, Michele Finn, had said he had once reported on a similar case and told her he didn’t want to be kept alive under such conditions.

Finn’s aorta was ruptured in the 1995 crash, depriving his brain of oxygen. He was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state with no chance of recovery. Under Virginia law, food and water may be withheld from such patients.

Finn’s brother, John Finn, went to court to prevent Michele Finn from having the feeding tube removed. But a judge turned the brother down, and the family dropped its legal fight.

The state also stepped in and sent a nurse and doctors to see Finn. The nurse reported that Finn told her “Hi,” prompting Gov. James S. Gilmore to go to court in a last-minute effort to keep Finn’s feeding tube from being removed.

Circuit Judge Frank Hoss Jr. ruled against Gilmore, saying it wasn’t a case of mercy killing or euthanasia because removal of the tube “merely permits the natural process of dying.”

The feeding tube was removed a few hours later, but a conservative state lawmaker, Delegate Robert Marshall, then asked a federal judge Thursday to order the tube reinserted. Marshall argued that depriving Finn of food and water violated Medicaid rules. But the judge said he had no jurisdiction simply because Finn was a Medicaid patient.