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SPRINGFIELD (AP) – After winning a legal battle to remove a severely beaten and comatose 11-year-old from life support, state officials are now looking closely for signs of improvement from the girl, who is breathing on her own.
Haleigh Poutre was weaned off a ventilator over the past week. But her medical condition remains uncertain, and state officials are trying to determine the exact nature of her conditio:crying: n – and whether it warrants proceeding with a court-won right to remove her from life support.
“She can intake air, but she can’t swallow on her own and her saliva needs to be suctioned constantly, almost every hour,” said Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services.
Haleigh has been in DSS custody since she was hospitalized in September with a badly damaged brain stem that authorities say resulted from abuse. Thinking that she was in a permanent vegetative condition, the state went to court to seek permission to remove her from life support – a move her stepfather, one of two family members accused of beating her, fought.
www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO12838/
Haleigh Poutre was weaned off a ventilator over the past week. But her medical condition remains uncertain, and state officials are trying to determine the exact nature of her conditio:crying: n – and whether it warrants proceeding with a court-won right to remove her from life support.
“She can intake air, but she can’t swallow on her own and her saliva needs to be suctioned constantly, almost every hour,” said Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services.
Haleigh has been in DSS custody since she was hospitalized in September with a badly damaged brain stem that authorities say resulted from abuse. Thinking that she was in a permanent vegetative condition, the state went to court to seek permission to remove her from life support – a move her stepfather, one of two family members accused of beating her, fought.
www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO12838/
