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The family's pediatrician said the problem might be nutritional, so the doctor put her on a special diet and was supposed to see her again two weeks later. But Sabrina could not wait that long. She was desperate for relief.

One night while Lopez, a systems manager with AT&T, was in Beaumont working, Murray took Sabrina to the Houston Northwest Medical Center's emergency room. There, says Murray, doctors performed a brain scan and said they thought Sabrina had a tumor. In a hurry, the hospital loaded Martin into an ambulance and rushed her to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, located in Houston's Medical Center. As soon as Lopez heard the news, she raced back to Houston.

At Memorial Hermann, Lopez says, doctors determined Sabrina did not have a tumor but rather severe sinusitis and that the infection had leaked into the brain, causing an abscess. Doctors wanted to perform a craniotomy, drilling a small hole in Sabrina's head to drain the abscess.

"We never had any experience with anything like this," says Lopez. "Memorial Hermann, that's just where they drove her from the clinic. I always just thought that a hospital was a hospital and that all of the ones down there in the Medical Center were the same and quite reputable."

Memorial Hermann Healthcare System is a nonprofit organization comprised of 14 hospitals and dozens of specialty and outpatient centers. According to its Web site, the group has more than 19,000 employees and more than 4,000 medical staff members, with an annual payroll of more than $1 billion. Nearly 340,000 people visit its emergency rooms every year.

The Memorial Hermann system routinely wins numerous awards, including one in 2006 for its children's hospital, which was named the only healthcare facility in Houston and one of only six in the country to receive the Excellence In Life Support Award from the Extra-­Corporeal Life Support Organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which backs the development of new therapies for the support of failing organ systems.

When asked for comment about Sabrina's case, Memorial Hermann spokeswoman Beth Sartori issued a statement saying, "Sabrina Martin's story is a sad one, and everyone associated with her care at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital is deeply sympathetic to her and her family. However, because of the lawsuit against the hospital and the physicians that cared for her, we are not at liberty to comment further."

Memorial Hermann was one of a host of hospitals across the state that along with doctors and right-to-life groups endorsed the Texas Advance Directives Act, which the Legislature passed in 1999 and which was signed into law by then-Governor George W. Bush. (The right-to-life groups have now backed off their support of the Advance Directives Act and say the law is unfair and gives too much power to ­doctors.)

In essence, the law gives doctors the ability to either continue or withhold life-sustaining treatment against the wishes of the patient or the patient's legal guardian. To do so, the doctor presents his case before the family and an ethics committee, and if the committee agrees with the doctor's decision, the family is given ten days to find another facility that will comply with their wishes before treatment is either continued or withdrawn. Families are given a list of lawyers and organizations to help facilitate a transfer.

Texas and Virginia are the only two states in the country that have a time limit as part of such laws, Virginia's being 14 days for the family to find a transfer.

In Texas, the law has come under fire over the past several years. Families, their lawyers and right-to-life groups have battled doctors and health care facilities in the media and in court to try to prevent them from employing the act. In 2007, an attempt to lengthen the ten-day time period died in the Texas House of ­Representatives.

In general, opponents — ranging from rightwing, right-to-life groups all the way to the American Civil Liberties Union — say the law gives too much power to the hospitals and doctors and takes away individuals' civil rights to determine their own fate.

Proponents, mostly those in the health field, argue that it creates a necessary safe harbor for physicians when further medical treatment is deemed inappropriate and emotionally invested family members can't be objective. They say the law is only invoked when patients are terminally or irreversibly ill and when physicians believe that their treatment is merely prolonging the dying.

Even though the ethics committee never formally convened in Sabrina's case, activist organizations say Memorial Hermann and the doctors who work there have a quicker trigger finger than others when it comes to invoking the law.

Elizabeth Graham is the Director of Texas Right to Life, the only organization in the state on the call list provided to families in Texas who are notified that an ethics review is forthcoming. She says that while no formal statistical database exists, her group has received calls from 30 families throughout the state facing the ten-day law over the last three years, with nearly 17 percent coming from relatives with patients at Memorial Hermann in Houston.

"Memorial Hermann is the place from whom we receive the most frequent calls," Graham says. "They tend to rush towards running the ten-day clock."

Graham does concede that because of Memorial Hermann's size and because the system serves such a large number of people, her statistics could be skewed.

Dr. Robert Fine of Baylor Healthcare Systems in Dallas, speaking on behalf of the Texas Medical Association, an organization representing 43,000 doctors and medical students, says it's not fair to label one hospital or another as having a quicker trigger.

"I just think that's absurd," he simply says, "and I think that's wrong."

Graham says another disturbing pattern she sees at Memorial Hermann is doctors entering orders not to resuscitate patients without first checking with or gaining consent from the families.

"It's a totally separate mechanism that accomplishes the same goal," says Graham, "but much quicker."

In Sabrina's case, doctors entered two orders not to resuscitate the teen, according to Sabrina's medical records.

Write Your Comment show comments (11)

  1. As a practicing physician I can assure you that convening an ethics board (containing physicians, nurses and laypeople)to review every aspect of a case in great detail is the last thing a physician who had made a mistake would want to do.
    The laws in Texas are a blessing and exist so that physicians and nurses have the right to NOT continue painful and unnessesary treatments even if the family wants to continue. This is to protect the patient from unrealistic family members and the staff from doing things they find morally and profesionally wrong. They must continue full treatment until an independent group makes a decision.
    A DNR order is usually approved by the family, but is a decision made by a physician that advanced recusitation on a patient would not be benificial and would cause suffering for no reason.

    Comment by Robert — April 30, 2008 @ 12:31PM

  2. A physician is making my decisions or the decisions of my family? No way!

    Any person who calls themselves a physician and is in the business of killing should have their license revoked forever.

    This poor girl would have been dead if the doctors who promise to do no harm had their way. Now, she's in a loving home and has a loving friend and laughs at her jokes. The decision to kill her is not anyone's decision.

    These "independent" boards that help doctors cover up their mistakes is a joke.

    Comment by Astralis — April 30, 2008 @ 02:00PM

  3. I hate sue happy people, but in this case....SUE, SUE, SUE.

    Blessings to the family, I'm so sorry this happened to your little girl.

    I know there are two sides of this story and only one side was presented, but from what is being reported this never should have happened.

    Comment by Barb — May 1, 2008 @ 06:17AM

  4. hey, im one of sabrina's ex boyfriends....i have been close to this family for a long time, even before all this started....to get straight to the point...those doctors DID NOT treat sabrina with care...what so ever..they can deny it all they want, but if they would have just did their job, we would not be in the situation right now. Those doctors CRUSHED Sabrina's dreams and future...i would be at the hospital EVERY DAY to check on sabrina...and everytime i would go, it seems like she got worse and worse...sitting in her room, and her monitors would start beeping, and doctors would not come in and check on here...they seriously NEGLECTED her.she's had seisures, strokes, HER HEART STOPPED!! 2 years later and she's making a little progress, slowly but surely...don't take your child to memorial herman children's hospital!!!!!!

    Comment by joey thomas — May 2, 2008 @ 03:15PM

  5. hey, im one of sabrina's ex boyfriends....i have been close to this family for a long time, even before all this started....to get straight to the point...those doctors DID NOT treat sabrina with care...what so ever..they can deny it all they want, but if they would have just did their job, we would not be in the situation right now. Those doctors CRUSHED Sabrina's dreams and future...i would be at the hospital EVERY DAY to check on sabrina...and everytime i would go, it seems like she got worse and worse...sitting in her room, and her monitors would start beeping, and doctors would not come in and check on here...they seriously NEGLECTED her.she's had seisures, strokes, HER HEART STOPPED!! 2 years later and she's making a little progress, slowly but surely...don't take your child to memorial herman children's hospital!!!!!!

    Comment by joey thomas — May 2, 2008 @ 03:15PM

  6. Many people are patients at Hermann hospital and never pay their bills. It is a huge place that handles most of the local trauma . Many lives are saved at Hermann. For the ones that will not make it, the DNR is a kind way to let nature take its place. The story of that child is a sad one but things happen that are out of the control of all parties concerned. A reality check is needed here. The child appears to be in a vegetative state and no doubt, if she were able to communicate she would prefer to be set free. Often times parents suffer from guilt, selfishness in terms of wanting to hold on to their children even though they should let go. In this case, these people are determined to get money to satisfy their point of view and greed. They are wrong for doing so. They will not win. Hospitals try their best and not all will end up satisfied. We have to face reality that all things do not end up the way we expect.

    Comment by alumette — May 3, 2008 @ 07:35AM

  7. Frankly, no one gives a shit if they need to save their own asses. Since when do doctors really care if you're in pain or if treatment is unnecessary. BULLSHIT. She has a right to life. THere are many stories of people who defy the odds, so whose to say that one day she will be at least 50% better. As you can see towards the end of the article, she isn't a 'vegetable'...the way i see it, the parents can afford the supposed "unnecessary treatment" then is it really HURTING the doctors to treat the patient?? Last I checked, the doctors didn't give birth to her, they're not her parents, they don't know the emotional devastation of what losing a kid does to you; so they should get off their biggity high horse and treat the patients..that's what they get paid for. I'm currently in med-school and I would NEVER see myself playing God with someone's life. I hope they get sued up the ass.

    Comment by becky — May 3, 2008 @ 08:54AM

  8. The first time I found this article I was mortified. I read it out loud to my wife and a friend of ours. At the time I was only able to read the first half of the article. I just finished it and though I'm very saddened by it, I am also very happy that Sabrina recovered even if not fully. I don't know what I would do if a member of my family was suddenly in this condition. I do know though that there would be some medical staff that would be suffering as much if not more than my family for that negligence. Good wishes and prayers to Sabrina and her Family and Friends.

    Comment by Shane — May 6, 2008 @ 03:57PM

  9. Though I'm sure that this unfortunate girl's money hungry family and obviously highly educated ex-boyfriend are providing a completely unbiased veiw of the situation, I wish that the Press would have included some of the physician's side or at least 'A' physicians side of the story. The reporting is a little sensationalistic and one sided.

    Comment by Micheal — May 7, 2008 @ 09:42AM

  10. Yeah, what's up with doctors on their "biggity high horse". Becky, who is obviously in medical school ;), seems to of stated a very non-emotional, well thought out point. (you can tell from all the exclamation points and profanity) It needs to be stated that doctors are the caretakers of the PATIENT, not the family. Many times, especially in pediatric cases, the family/random boyfriends etc fail or refuse to understand and exept the situation. In that case many helpless people are subjected to painful and unneccesary procedures (intubation, feeding tubes placed through the abdominal wall, etc) that only prolong the inevitable. My sister and I wanted everything done for my father, even though, in retrospect, he had no chance of survival. A very patient and caring physician at Hermann helped us understand the process and my father died naturally in peace with us at his side. The doctors at Hermann did us a great service and saved my father a lot of needless pain.

    Comment by Dakwan — May 7, 2008 @ 09:44AM

  11. Oh. This was an "article" in a "news" publication. I thought it was a pamphlet from the Right to Life folks. Were any medical ethicists consulted? Did the "reporter" review the medical records himself or just talk to the family and their attorney? Did the "reporter" research locked-in syndrome enough to understand that this poor child doesn't have that? Did the "reporter" talk about the cases in which families insist that their all-but-dead relatives keep received life-sustaining treatment even when it is excruciating to the patient?

    Right. It was a pamphlet.

    Comment by Elizabeth — May 15, 2008 @ 11:39AM

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