FORT WORTH, Texas — Cook Children’s Medical Center is requesting that the case involving Tinslee Lewis go to trial this summer. It also said that Texas has spent $24 million in Medicaid to help keep her alive, according to an appeal filed on April 16.
Tinslee, who is now 2 years old, has been hospitalized at Cook Children’s Medical Center since her birth in February 2019. She was born with grave lung and heart problems and remains hooked up to machines to help her breathe and eat.
For years, Cook Children's and Tinslee's family have battled over her medical care. Cook Children's said Tinslee's condition will not improve and she cannot survive without medical intervention. Her family wants her to remain under medical care.
In the court documents filed this month, Cook Children's said the case has never been about money and that it has never considered finances when making an end-of-life decision. But according to the motion, the State of Texas, through its manager of a Medicaid care program, is now threatening to interject the issue into this dispute.
"As would be expected in light of the extreme efforts that have been required to keep T.L. alive since birth, Cook Children’s and its physicians have incurred more than $24 million in billable charges for T.L.’s medical care through 2020," court documents said.
The court documents state that Tinslee's medical care is paid for through a special Texas Medicaid-managed program called, Texas STAR Kids.
The program is administered by a third party, which evaluates charges to determine whether treatment should be covered as medically appropriate and within the standard of care, according to the documents.
In the appeal, Cook Children's also asked the 48th District Court of Fort Worth to schedule a trial date this summer to decide whether Tinslee should be removed from life support care.
The hospital cited the following reasons in the court documents on why it believes a trial date of July 26, 2021 is appropriate for the case:
- As the financial cost of Tinslee's medical care – which is currently covered by a Texas Medicaid managed program – has continued to mount, the State of Texas’s manager appears to be reviewing whether continued care for the toddler is appropriate.
- Tinslee remains terminal with no medical treatment to improve her long-term prognosis.
- Tinslee also only survived until now because she been subject to extreme and aggressive treatments well beyond the standard of care.
- Tinslee continues to suffer and her medical condition has continued to decline necessitating an emergency tracheostomy on March 30.
- After the Second Court of Appeals issued its decision, the Texas Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court declined to consider whether the opinion was correct until a final judgment is issued.
In court documents filed in September 2020, doctors and nurses said Tinslee cannot eat solid food, has one to two teeth, and cannot cry due to the medicine and treatment the hospital has been court-ordered to continue.
The hospital has requested to end care since November of 2019.
In 2019, Cook Children’s Medical Center determined that their efforts to help Tinslee were only causing the baby more suffering and pain, and they told the family they’d be removing life-sustaining treatment in 10 days in accordance with state law.
That law was signed in 1999 and allows hospitals to stop giving care, even at a patient's or loved one's objection if a hospital ethics committee votes to do so.