Arizona Hospital Loses Catholic Status!

[Ed Normile]

This is news I copied from the Associated Press news release, I think its justice done.

Ariz. hospital loses Catholic status over surgery(AP) – 6 hours ago

PHOENIX (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix stripped a major hospital of its affiliation with the church Tuesday because of a surgery that ended a woman's pregnancy to save her life.

Bishop Thomas Olmsted called the 2009 procedure an abortion and said St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center — recognized internationally for its neurology and neurosurgery practices — violated ethical and religious directives of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld," Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. "The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph's medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed."

Linda Hunt, president of St. Joseph's, said doctors performed a necessary procedure on a patient who was getting worse by the minute and was in imminent danger of death.

"If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case," Hunt said. "Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save."

St. Joseph's does not receive direct funding from the church, but in addition to losing its Catholic endorsement, the 697-bed hospital will no longer be able to celebrate Mass and must remove the Blessed Sacrament from its chapel.

Hunt said the hospital will comply with Olmsted's decision but it will continue to operate under Catholic guidelines.

"We will continue in the Catholic heritage through words and deeds," she said. "We have removed the Blessed Sacrament from our tabernacle, we will have no Masses, but priests will see patients. We are still a hospital."

The woman who underwent the procedure is in her 20s and had a history of abnormally high blood pressure when she learned of her pregnancy. After she was admitted to the hospital with worsening symptoms, doctors determined her risk of death was nearly 100 percent.

The hospital's ethics team concluded the pregnancy could be ended under the church's ethical directives because "the goal was not to end the pregnancy but save the mother's life," the hospital said.

Olmsted's announcement came after months of talks between the Diocese, the hospital and the hospital's parent company, Catholic Healthcare West.

Dr. Charles Alfano, chief medical officer at the hospital and an obstetrician there, said Olmsted was asking the impossible from the hospital.

"Specifically the fact that he requested we admit the procedure performed was an abortion and that it was a violation of the ethical and religious directives and that we would not perform such a procedure in the future," he said. "We could not agree to that. We acted appropriately."

Olmsted said the talks eroded his confidence about St. Joseph's and Catholic Healthcare West's commitment to the church's ethical and religious directives. "They have not addressed in an adequate manner the scandal caused by the abortion," he said.

He said he recently learned that Catholic Healthcare West also is responsible for contraceptive counseling, voluntary sterilization, and other practices he said violate the ethical and religious directives.

Hunt, who also is the service area president of Catholic Healthcare West of Arizona, said the hospital had to offer such services under Arizona's Medicaid program, but did so through a third party.

St. Joseph's is home to the Barrow Neurological Institute, where musician Bret Michaels was treated after he suffered a brain hemorrhage in April. The institute recently established the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[url="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gM-naQHFIhfuFzvy6-owllGeBDAA?docId=de52042ef38141b9a8ed8ae809660274"]The article link here.[/url]

ed

[CatherineM]

First hospitals, and hopefully next, colleges.

[Ed Normile]

[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1292982563' post='2193884']
First hospitals, and hopefully next, colleges.
[/quote]


Amen !

ed

[mommas_boy]

And of course, the AP makes the hospital look like heroes.

What they should have done: treated the disease, and then dealt with the complications that the treatment caused.

[CatherineM]

I've gotten really sick while pregnant because of my high blood pressure, but never had the desire to commit murder because of it.

[MithLuin]

Out of curiosity, what treatment could have been given to the woman that would not have harmed her baby? I mean, she was obviously very sick, so something had to be done.....

[TeresaBenedicta]

[quote name='MithLuin' timestamp='1293023161' post='2193940']
Out of curiosity, what treatment could have been given to the woman that would not have harmed her baby? I mean, she was obviously very sick, so something had to be done.....
[/quote]

Yeah, I keep seeing conflicting info on the internet. Sources supporting the hospital keep saying that both mother and baby would've died. Other sources said there were different treatments that could've been pursued.

[CatherineM]

High blood pressure medicines, especially ACE inhibitors, are fetal toxic. They usually treat pregnant women with low doses of Calcium Channel blockers. That's what I switched to when I got married. They don't work quite as well, but will be okay until I'm too old to get pregnant. When you are pregnant and have high blood pressure, it is a bit like a war going on between mother and baby over resources. In my case, it always ended in miscarriage.

[MithLuin]

Would calcium channel blockers have worked on this woman, though? You mentioned that they typically use only low doses on pregnant women, and the hospital claims the patient was dying.

Obviously, if there is a way to save both, that's what you are morally obligated to try to do. But sometimes...you really can't save the baby, as sad as that is. I understand why the hospital would be censored for performing an abortion, but I honestly don't know what happened here. Meaning...did the baby die? Or did they kill it? And was there any choice in the matter? The hospital seems to be denying that an abortion even took place, which makes me wonder what really [i]did[/i] happen and how much of this is a media storm rather than reality.

I'm sorry the bishop and the ethics committee couldn't reach an understanding, because I would have preferred the hospital to remain Catholic and for the Eucharist to remain available for patients and their families. But I understand why the bishop would have to make that decision if they really weren't on the same page.

[TeresaBenedicta]

[quote name='MithLuin' timestamp='1293049381' post='2193993']
Would calcium channel blockers have worked on this woman, though? You mentioned that they typically use only low doses on pregnant women, and the hospital claims the patient was dying.

Obviously, if there is a way to save both, that's what you are morally obligated to try to do. But sometimes...you really can't save the baby, as sad as that is. I understand why the hospital would be censored for performing an abortion, but I honestly don't know what happened here. Meaning...did the baby die? Or did they kill it? And was there any choice in the matter? The hospital seems to be denying that an abortion even took place, which makes me wonder what really [i]did[/i] happen and how much of this is a media storm rather than reality.

I'm sorry the bishop and the ethics committee couldn't reach an understanding, because I would have preferred the hospital to remain Catholic and for the Eucharist to remain available for patients and their families. But I understand why the bishop would have to make that decision if they really weren't on the same page.
[/quote]

We're missing a lot of the details. I think that we just have to trust that the bishop knew all of the details and found that the case ought to be handled differently.

[Adrestia]

This case, while horribly sad, was not the only reason that this hospital was stripped of it's affiliation.

"He said he recently learned that Catholic Healthcare West also is responsible for contraceptive counseling, voluntary sterilization, and other practices he said violate the ethical and religious directives.

Hunt, who also is the service area president of Catholic Healthcare West of Arizona, said the hospital had to offer such services under Arizona's Medicaid program, but did so through a third party."

As long as this hospital accepts public funding (yours and my tax dollars), they are required to counsel unethical procedures. No hospital that takes public funding can meet Catholic standards.

This particular case might have been the straw.

[TeresaBenedicta]

I found some clarifying statements:

[url="http://usccb.org/doctrine/direct-abortion-statement2010-06-23.pdf"]USCCB Statement[/url]

[url="http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=11494"]Commonweal[/url]

[HollyWilliams]

I say it's about time! The hospital refused till the very end to comply with Catholic morality so it is not a Catholic hospital. You can't be a Catholic hospital owner and allow abortions to occur at your hospital!

[Gregorius]

Look what I found:
[quote]Just a bit of medical knowledge related to the abortion/Phoenix scandal:

I spoke with the head of Ethics/Chief Medical Officer at my place of work on the issue. He-a retired Ob/Gyn surgeon and Catholic/pro-life-stated after ~5000 deliveries he personally performed and overeeing more as an administrator at Catholic hospitals, never has he seen a case where a mother was in danger of losing her life with an abortion as the answer. [Guess there is case 5001, but it doesn't look good for those who prescribe abortion, does it?] In the recent case-to his limited knowledge on the said situation-the doctors could have gotten her through a few more weeks and decided which was a safer place for the life: in the womb or in an intensive care unit. Again, he cannot imagine in his experience that an abortion would even help the mother-and even if id could, you still do not perform [it]. (I am not even sure if an action of “double effect” could be done, like, for example, with an ectopic pregnancy.)
It’s diffiult once people know you are Catholic-they usually only see their individual rights! I am very tired-but extremely glad-to defend Mother Church.
[/quote]
[url="http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/12/a-little-arm-chair-medicine-and-the-phoenix-affair/#comments"]For those readers who don't already follow this blog (I highly recommend it!).[/url]

[Papist]

The good bishop had no choice.