Spotlight on Texas’ ’10-day rule’ in life support cases

DALLAS (AP) — A legal challenge to a hospital’s decision to remove a 9-month-old girl from a ventilator is shining a spotlight on the Texas law that gives families who disagree with doctors 10 days to find a new facility before life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn.

Texas Right to Life spokeswoman Kimberlyn Schwartz says doctors at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth planned to stop treatment Sunday for Tinslee Lewis after invoking the state’s so-called “10-day rule.”

But that day, a judge gave Tinslee’s family until Nov. 22 to find a hospital that will take her.

Schwartz says her group will help the family find a facility.

Officials at Cook Children’s say they’ve reached out to nearly 20 hospitals, and that none felt they could do anything more for Tinslee.

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Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, http://www.star-telegram.com