Court allows surgery

Press, 24 February 1978, Page 5

Court allows surgery

NZPA Washington The United States Supreme Court has turned down the request of a 72-year-old Tennessee woman that it stop doctors from amputating both her feet, which are gangrenous from frostbite.

Surgeons say the operation is nedeed to save the life of the woman, Mary Northern, but she does not believe them and does not want the operation. After holding a special closed conference on the lease, the Supreme Court refused her request that it block the amputation. Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Harry Blackmun dissented, saying they wanted to grant the stay. ! Miss Northern’s court-ap-

pointed guardian, Carol McCoy, said the decision did not necessarily mean she must undergo surgery immediately. She said two doctors must sign a new statement. that the woman is in ‘‘imminent danger”. of dying, and the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services must consent before the operation is done.

The order for the surgery was allowed by the Tennessee Chancery Court and upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Federal Appeals Court, and, finally, the Federal Supreme Court. Miss Northern has been living for 15 years, since the death of her parents, in a house that has become run down, has no heating, and

no utilities. She keeps herself warm during winter with a coal-burning fireplace in one room.

After a fire was reported at her home, the police became aware of her situation and, over her objections, had her admitted to the Nashville General Hospital. Miss Northern’s feet had become frostbitten and she later burned them trying to thaw them over the open fire. She later contracted gangrene.

The Human Services Department then acted under a Tennessee law which says if an elderly person “is in imminent danger of death” and “lacks capacity” to consent to protective services, the department can seek a court order authorising the services.