WASHINGTON — *UPDATE - Dec. 11, 2020: After WUSA9's reporting, Washington Hospital Center has given Garcia a two-week extension to stay on life support while the family searches for alternative care elsewhere.
Another D.C. family is claiming that Washington Hospital Center stopped administering life support to their loved one even as it asked medical staff to continue providing that care.
One week ago, the family of 37-year-old Nelson Orellana Garcia of Maryland said Washington Hospital Center informed his loved ones it would discontinue his life-saving care last Saturday. Garcia’s foster mother, Saundra Rogers, said he has been battling coronavirus for roughly 60 days.
According to Rogers, Washington Hospital Center recently agreed to extend its timeline on Garcia’s care to this Saturday. But she said her family is still angered by the development because they were not given enough time to find an alternative medical facility in which to transfer Garcia.
“They told me that Washington Hospital Center has a moral imperative to discontinue life support and they do not need the permission or the agreement of the families to do it,” Rogers said.
Sterling resident Karen Bennett said her family faced a very similar situation when her 84-year-old mother received care from Washington Hospital Center this spring.
“We thought that maybe she was in the best care but as things progressed, we realized after speaking with the doctors, on multiple occasions, it just didn't look like she was getting the best care,” she said.
Bennett said her mother, Pauline Harper, of D.C., was admitted to Washington Hospital Center on Mother’s Day after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. She said her mother stayed in the hospital without incident for two-and-a-half weeks as she received aid from a ventilator and dialysis machine.
Then, Bennett said things began to change.
“[Washington Hospital Center] began to inform us that she was progressively getting worse, not getting any better,” she said. “We did express our concern about her treatments continuing and we did not want any of her treatments stopped.”
Ultimately, Bennett said the hospital informed her family it would take Harper off life support in a week’s time.
“At that point, they had become just a bit forceful, saying that it was their decision and they just felt that at this point, my mom would not get any better, and it became a bit devastating at that point for us,” Bennett said.
Bennett said her family tried to see if it could transfer her mother to George Washington University Hospital. But, at the time, Bennett said her family was told that the facility did not have enough open beds in its intensive care unit.
She said Washington Hospital Center’s deadline ultimately did not leave her family time to find care elsewhere.
“It’s just heartbreaking because when you're in a situation like that and all you want to see is your loved ones survive,” Bennett said.
Harper ultimately passed away on June 6, according to Bennett.
WUSA9 reached out to Washington Hospital Center for comment on Bennett’s case. The facility provided WUSA9 with the same statement it did in response to requests for comment on the Garcia case.
“Due to federal privacy laws, and out of respect for all patients’ rights to privacy, we are unable to discuss specific patient information. In general, however, we engage family members in every step of the treatment process, and discuss the changing goals of care, which are all focused on patient comfort and dignity,” Washington Hospital Center’s statement reads.
Bennett said her family was also told by the hospital that it had the “moral imperative” to make the decision that it did.
Some medical professionals told WUSA9 moral imperatives can come into play when they have to make certain ethical decisions. For example, the book Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees, published by Johns Hopkins University, reads “more than a professional obligation, the relief of pain has traditionally been considered a moral imperative.”
However, Washington Hospital Center did not comment specifically on what may have led it to allegedly make certain decisions in Harper’s and Garcia’s cases.
A Washington Hospital Center spokesperson did say in both cases, the resources needed to provide life support to patients at the facility were not scarce.
Both families also said neither Garcia nor Harper had any medical directives asking for them to be taken off life support.
The Patient Advocate Foundation works with patients and their families to navigate healthcare issues. A spokesperson for the group told WUSA9 Thursday it has not heard of similar cases like Garcia’s or Harper’s during the pandemic.
Bennett said her family is still trying to find an attorney to represent its interests following Harper’s death.