LA judge says parents of disabled woman can seek ruling for her to visit her children
By APWednesday, April 21, 2010
Ruling sought for disabled daughter to visit kids
LOS ANGELES — A mother who is unable to move or speak — and possibly to understand — is the focus of an unusual, emotional court case to decide if she has visitation rights with her 3-year-old triplets.
A trial is set to start next month after a Los Angeles County judge on Tuesday ruled the parents of Abbie Dorn can fight for their daughter’s right to see her children.
“They’re not going to parent,” Superior Court Judge Rudolph A. Diaz said. “They only want a right of visitation. They have the right to pursue that.”
Dorn, 34, gave birth to a girl, Esti, and boys Reuvi and Yossi in 2006 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She suffered brain damage from complications of blood loss after a doctor nicked her uterus during delivery, according to a malpractice lawsuit that was settled for nearly $8 million.
Dorn was left unable to move, talk, eat or drink, and now lives with her parents, Susan and Paul Cohen, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. She receives hours of daily therapy at a cost of about $33,000 a month, funded by the malpractice settlement.
She and her husband, Dan Dorn, divorced, and he lives with the triplets in Los Angeles. He has refused to allow the children to see their mother, arguing that a visit would be too traumatic for the youngsters.
His attorney, Vicki Greene, has said her client worries the children would feel guilty if they saw their mother and knew their births led to her condition, although he would not object to their visiting her when they are older.
Dan Dorn is seeking child support from his ex-wife, with the trial on support, custody, visitation and other issues scheduled for May 13.
Abbie Dorn can only see the children through photos that flash in a digital frame across from her hospital bed in her parents’ home.
Her mental state is one of the unusual issues at the heart of the visitation dispute.
Dan Dorn contends his ex-wife is in a vegetative state and is incompetent to have visitation rights. The Cohens, who are their daughter’s conservators, say their daughter communicates with them by blinking in answer to questions.
“I ask her, ‘Do you want to see your children?’” Susan Cohen told the Los Angeles Times. “And she gives me a long blink.”
In a 2007 medical report, a neurologist described Abbie Dorn’s condition as permanent and said many of her mental functions were too impaired to be assessed. Her acupuncturist, however, has contended she has demonstrated a basic ability to comprehend and communicate.
“There is no evidence that Abbie Dorn can communicate,” lawyer Greene argued at Tuesday’s hearing. “This is a classic case of grandparent visitation. If you give them standing, what’s to stop them from coming in and saying, she blinked, you need to take the kids to a different school?”
Abbie Dorn’s attorney, Lisa Helfend Meyer, argued that her client has a fundamental right to representation because she cannot speak for herself.
“Abbie is alive. She is entitled to pursue visitation,” the attorney argued. “If she is denied the opportunity, she is denied equal protection under the law.”
Information from: Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com
Tags: California, Los Angeles, Malpractice, North America, Settlement, United States
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April 30, 2010: 3:29 pm
As I see it, if the children grow up around their mother, they will know nothing but what is and as they mature, questions & answers will simply be accepted as the situation is all they have ever known. Children are very forthright and accepting! However, if the children are introduced to their mother later in life, then certainly it may be expected that the vision will be over-whelming as their older selves struggle to accept the impact of association with their birth resulting in their mother’s disability. I think it would be much more traumatic to hide their mother from them; that will only lead the children to believe that they are somehow culpable and fuel guilt where none should exist. I’ve discussed this with my eldest son to gain a youth’s perspective and he agrees; it would be more difficult to adapt to the situation as an older individual. For the children to be kept apart from their mother is parental alienation. There are so many considerations: What if mom dies without her or the children ever seeing one another? The anger that will build amongst the children who have been distanced from their mother will be huge. So many lives are affected by unduly punishing a mother without any grounds. Imagine, going through birth, your entire life changes in a moment and you awaken to an unending nightmare where your children are kept from you through no fault of your own!! Most of all: Who says Mom CANNOT think for herself..? Mom is demonstrating that she, indeed, wants to see her children by communicating the only outward way she is able to; with blinking. Ugh, infuriating!! This situation of alienation is unethical and so immorally incorrect… It should be a given that mom and children connect. - VM “What she said”. I couldn’t have given a more coherent view. GL |
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April 28, 2010: 9:51 am
As I see it, if the children grow up around their mother, they will know nothing but what is and as they mature, questions & answers will simply be accepted as the situation is all they have ever known. Children are very forthright and accepting! However, if the children are introduced to their mother later in life, then certainly it may be expected that the vision will be over-whelming as their older selves struggle to accept the impact of association with their birth resulting in their mother’s disability. I think it would be much more traumatic to hide their mother from them; that will only lead the children to believe that they are somehow culpable and fuel guilt where none should exist. I’ve discussed this with my eldest son to gain a youth’s perspective and he agrees; it would be more difficult to adapt to the situation as an older individual. For the children to be kept apart from their mother is parental alienation. There are so many considerations: What if mom dies without her or the children ever seeing one another? The anger that will build amongst the children who have been distanced from their mother will be huge. So many lives are affected by unduly punishing a mother without any grounds. Imagine, going through birth, your entire life changes in a moment and you awaken to an unending nightmare where your children are kept from you through no fault of your own!! Most of all: Who says Mom CANNOT think for herself..? Mom is demonstrating that she, indeed, wants to see her children by communicating the only outward way she is able to; with blinking. Ugh, infuriating!! This situation of alienation is unethical and so immorally incorrect… It should be a given that mom and children connect. - VM |
Geoff Langhorne