91-year-old who wanted to ‘stay alive’ dies after being removed from life-support

January 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Arline Lester, the 91-year-old woman from Long Island whose son recorded a video of her pleading for her life, died yesterday after being removed from her ventilator and feeding tube.

The killing of Arline Lester was shrouded in secrecy after judge Julianne Capetola allegedly issued a secret gag order forbidding the parties, attorneys or witnesses from communicating any details of the case.

The gag order, which was never made public, was reported to have been issued out of concern for the privacy rights of Arline Lester, but sources close to the family tell LifeSiteNews that the gag order was simply a way to cover up the inevitable killing of a woman against her express wish to live. Attempts, including in-person visits to the court of Judge Capetola by the Personhood Alliance to obtain the gag order in order to verify its existence, content, and scope were unsuccessful.

LifeSiteNews can also confirm that the secret gag order was used to threaten pro-life organizations such as LifeSiteNews and the Personhood Alliance who had re-posted the video recorded by Ed Lester and first published by local NY media outlets. Neither the NY Post nor the Personhood Alliance took down the distressing video, not having been able to confirm the existence or scope of the alleged gag order. Parties, witnesses and attorneys related to the case that were contacted refused to comment for fear of the secret gag order.

Family sources, who refused to give any details of the court proceedings and who requested anonymity for fear of being held in contempt of court, told LifeSiteNews that Arline Lester died yesterday after having her respirator removed while being put on aggressive "palliative sedation," a term that refers to aggressive pain medication that inevitably leads to the death of the patient.

The case of Arlene Lester is especially alarming at a time when NY's Democrat control legislature is considering openly legalizing assisted suicide. Many pro-lifers worry that if the courts are willing to enforce an old "living will" against the express wishes of an elderly woman who was conscious enough to orally communicate them, then what guarantee will there be that people who change their mind at the last moment about assisted suicide will have their right to life respected and protected?

For the last weeks, Arline Lester's two sons had engaged in an acrimonious battle in the Nassau County Supreme Court over two competing "living wills". The first will, signed decades ago, directed that no life support be administered in case she was incapacitated. The second will was drafted recently after Arline suffered medical complications for which she required the insertion of a feeding tube and ventilator at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

The son who was taking care of Arline, Edward, told ABC7 NY that his mother had asked him for help to revoke her "living will" seventeen times after which he helped her hire a specialized attorney who drafted the new living will. In other comments to News12, Edward stated that "My mother's perception of a living will was, 'If I'm a vegetable, if I'm brain dead and I'm laying there...pull the plug,' but that's not the situation we have now." To support his claim that his mother's clear wish was to live, Ed released a video where Arline clearly communicates that she did not want to die, but instead wanted to live.

As the NY Post reported, the other brother, Kyle Lester initiated the lawsuit asking a judge in Nassau County Supreme Court to declare him Arline's sole guardian, acknowledging that he hoped to take her off life support — but maintaining this is what their mother wanted.

Once the dramatic video of Arline mouthing the words "I want to live" was published by the NY Post and other publications, the court issued the secret gag order, prohibiting any of the parties, witnesses or attorneys from sharing details of the case with the press.

From that point forward, the repeated attempts from the Personhood Alliance to be shown the gag order or be given any information on the status of the case or medical condition were denied by Judge Julianne Capitola's court.

Full Article & Source:
91-year-old who wanted to ‘stay alive’ dies after being removed from life-support 

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Son Pleads With NY Court: Let My Mother Live

91-year-old LI woman mouths ‘I want to live’ on video amid legal battle 

Son Pleads With NY Court: Let My Mother Live

by Sarah Quale

NEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) - Two brothers in New York are battling for the fate of their mother — one to saveher life, and the other, to hasten her death.

New video evidence and a handwritten plea reveal 91-year-old Arline Lester of Long Island, New York wants to live, but that decision is now in the hands of a judge.

Despite using a respirator and feeding tube, Lester said in the video presented to the Nassau County Court by her son Edward that she desires to continue living. Edward is battling his brother, Kyle, who says his mother's living will, drafted in the 1990s, expresses her desire not to be kept alive by artificial means.

Kyle brought the case before the court to ask for sole guardianship over his mother so he can have Arline's feeding tube and respirator disconnected, which would lead to her starvation and suffocation.

But Edward has produced recent evidence that, he says, supersedes his mother's original living will and shows her health improving. And Arline herself has expressed clearly that she wants to live.

In a November video recorded at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, Arline mouthed the words "I want to stay alive," and nodded her agreement with several life-affirming statements made by Edward.



Before Nassau County Court Judge Julianne Capetola issued a gag order on Monday, forbidding the brothers from speaking to the media about the case, a family member indicated that Arline "is able to communicate her wants and needs through shaking her head."But on New Year's Day, her 91st birthday, Arline regained her speech.

Another video, filmed over the weekend, was made available to the Personhood Alliance before the gag order went into effect. The video shows Arline alert and speaking on her own. When asked if she is in pain, she shakes her head no and clearly says, "Thank you."

Edward told a local ABC News reporter, "You can have respiratory failure and improve and be back to normal. You can have a feeding tube and improve and be back to normal."

Edward explained that his mother recently had her leg amputated, but that amputation is not fatal.

"She wants to live, and we're here to see that she does," he emphasized. He also told the reporter that his mother made him her power of attorney in November and "wrote 17 times on a piece of paper that she wants to revoke that 1991 living will."

Arline was also recently evaluated as mentally capable of making her own decisions. But her son Kyle is petitioning the court to grant him sole guardianship over his mother in order to withdraw life-sustaining nutrition and hydration and cause her early death.

Edward and Kyle, along with other witnesses for both sides of this case, are being heard during trial all this week in Nassau County Court.

The Personhood Alliance has set up a fundraiser, using an ethical alternative to Go Fund Me, to raise money for Arline's legal defense.

Full Article & Source:
Son Pleads With NY Court: Let My Mother Live

See Also:
91-year-old LI woman mouths ‘I want to live’ on video amid legal battle

91-year-old LI woman mouths ‘I want to live’ on video amid legal battle

By Israel Salas-Rodriguez and Laura Italiano



She can only mouth words and nod her head, but a bed-bound, 91-year-old Long Island woman has made herself clear — she does not want to be taken off the machines that keep her alive.

At least that’s according to her eldest son, who is set to face off against his brother in Nassau County court Monday, arguing he wants to keep their mother on a ventilator and feeding tube, while his sibling hopes to pull the plug.

“The bottom line is, my brother wants to kill her, and I want her alive,” Edward Lester, 62, told The Post last week from mom Arline Lester’s room at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

As part of the heartbreaking legal tug of war, Edward submitted video he says was taken in November showing their mother even mouthing the words, “I want to live.’’

Arline, who taught math for 25 years at PS 125 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, has been physically incapacitated since suffering a string of circulation and breathing problems over the past 11 months, Edward said.

His brother, Kyle, 58, a lawyer and CPA from Dix Hills, has asked a judge in Nassau County Supreme Court to declare him her sole guardian, acknowledging that he hopes to take her off life support — but maintaining this is what their mother would want.

In court papers, Kyle accuses Edward of keeping their mom alive against her will so he can stay in her Long Beach home and “plunder” her assets, including the total $5,400 she collects every month from Social Security and her public-school pension.

“Sadly, it appears that Edward Lester is keeping [the mother] alive so that he can continue to wrongfully take her Social Security, Pension and monies she has in the bank,” the younger brother alleges in a Dec. 3 filing.

Kyle has requested that the hospital take his mother off life support in accordance with a 1999 living will, in which she’d asked not to be kept alive by machines if she ever became seriously ill, documents show.

“It is respectfully requested that the hospital abide by Ms. Lester’s wishes and cease all treatments which only serve to prolong her dying,” Kyle’s lawyers said in a Nov. 12 letter to Mount Sinai, which is part of the court case.

But Edward’s lawyer, Jonathan Rosenberg, told The Post, “They want her dead, regardless of what her own wishes are.”

Edward contends in court papers that his mother has clearly changed her mind since 1999. He also denies he has a financial stake in keeping his mother alive.

In fact, should her health improve enough that she can be moved from the hospital into a nursing home, as he hopes, her income and estate — and therefore both sons’ inheritance, worth approximately a quarter million dollars to each of them — will soon be gobbled up by nursing-home costs, Edward argues.

Arline Lester

He contends that he gave up his career in Denver as a mortgage and real-estate broker to come back East and care for her.

In his mother’s “I want to live” video, filmed Nov. 7 from her hospital bed, Edward asks Arline, “You have no leg, right?” referring to a recent amputation of her left leg due to circulatory problems. She nods yes.

“You understand that?” he asks.

Again, she nods yes.

“You have a feeding tube in you, you understand that, right? You have a tracheotomy, you have the thing breathing for you?” Edward asks his mom.

His mother nods yes each time.

Edward then urges her to mouth the words, “I want to stay alive,’’ just to be absolutely clear. She does.

“With everything wrong with you, do you still want to stay alive?” he asks again, gently.

Yes, she nods.

Six days after the video was taped, on Nov. 13, Lester executed a living will, in the presence of an elder-law lawyer, that states, “I wish to be treated aggressively for all conditions” and directs doctors “to continue to prolong my life as long as possible within the limits of generally acceptable health care standards.”

On Nov. 15, “The hospital staff conducted a competency hearing” administered by a psychiatrist, and “she was determined to be competent,” Edward’s court papers assert.

Kyle Lester declined comment to The Post on Sunday.

Edward insists that there’s still a chance their mother’s health will improve.

Two weeks ago, a resident doctor at Mount Sinai, Dr. Varun Devaraj, told Edward that his mother “will squeeze his fingers when told, and shake her head yes or no to respond to questions,” his court papers say.

Devaraj “states that her actual prognosis is good and he is not discounting her ‘eventual improvement,” the papers say, including the possibility she could be weaned off the breathing machine, as she has been twice before.

“I’m not giving up,” Edward said.

“I know there’s no happy ending to this story, I know what time it is,” the son said. “But I think as a matter of fairness, this woman is a tough woman from Brooklyn, and everybody deserves to live their life out.”

Full Article & Source:
91-year-old LI woman mouths ‘I want to live’ on video amid legal battle

California Judge Rules Wife has Legal Right to Remove Husband’s Life Support

San Francisco, CA (Law Firm Newswire) August 29, 2018 – A Los Angeles Superior Court judge recently found that a wife in California had the legal right to decide whether to end treatment for her husband who was in a permanent vegetative state.

Judge Mary Thornton House decided in her ruling that if an unresponsive individual does not have an Advance Health Care Directive, their spouse can make end-of-life decisions for them. The case concerned Juan Fernando Romero of San Gabriel Valley, California. He was found to be in a persistent vegetative state without any likelihood of recovery after sustaining serious brain damage in 2015.

“This case highlights how important it is for every adult to complete an Advance Health Care Directive. The document allows you to control your health care decisions by appointing an individual to carry out your wishes in case you become incapacitated,” said nationally known estate planning attorney Mark Gilfix. “It provides clarity for your loved ones so they can honor your preferences for end-of-life decisions. Without an Advance Health Care Directive, there is likely to be confusion, guilt and possible legal challenges for family members.”

In 2016 Ana Romero, Juan Fernando Romero’s wife, sought to disconnect his feeding tube and life support. His parents and sister filed a lawsuit against Mrs. Romero to obtain control of his end-of-life decisions from her. In order to keep Mr. Romero on life support, they asked the court to appoint Mr. Romero’s sister as the health care proxy. Mr. Romero died of natural causes at age 37 in June 2017 before the case concluded.

The family’s attorneys argued Mrs. Romero had no legal decision-making authority. The family also said removing Mr. Romero’s life support would go against his religious beliefs.

However, House ruled Mrs. Romero had the authority to make end-of-life decisions on her husband’s behalf as he had previously discussed with her the issue of not prolonging death. The judge dismissed the family’s claims that they had seen Mr. Romero show signs of consciousness. She cited expert testimony from a doctor who concluded his limited brain function meant that he would remain permanently unconscious with no chance of recovery.

“As his spouse, Ana is the presumptive health care surrogate for Juan Fernando in light of his incapacitation,” House wrote. She said his immediate family never spoke about his preferences in case of incapacity.

The judge also noted that there is ambiguity in the state law when it comes to determining who has the legal right to make decisions for an incapacitated individual. However, she ruled that Mrs. Romero fully complied with California’s Health Care Decisions Law as her husband’s surrogate.

This case and its outcome are reminiscent of the Drabick case from years ago. Attorneys responsible for a similar outcome in that matter were Myra Gerson Gilfix and Michael Gilfix.

Full Article & Source:
California Judge Rules Wife has Legal Right to Remove Husband’s Life Support