Judge Asked to Intervene in Family Dispute over Feeding Tube
A Maryland judge on Wednesday will consider a request for a preliminary injunction requiring doctors to keep a feeding tube in place for an unemployed computer technician who suffered brain damage after a heart attack.
The brother and mother of Daniel Sanger say he should be kept alive with a feeding tube, while Sanger’s wife says she wants to honor his wishes that he not be kept alive by invasive means, report the Associated Press and the Frederick News-Post.
Sanger’s brother and mother are represented by Daniel Cox, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund. Cox says Daniel Sanger told his mother he wanted to live before his health declined due to complications from a bed sore. An alliance press release says Sanger became unconscious after expressing a desire to live.
Daniel Sanger’s wife, Leta Sanger, doesn’t believe he expressed a desire to live. “He can barely put two words together,” she told the News-Post. “He can’t carry on a conversation.”
The Alliance Defense Fund says Cox obtained a temporary restraining order (PDF) restoring the feeding tube in advance of the Nov. 2 hearing.
