Pregnant Woman To Be Disconnected from Life Support
MARQUEZ: Now, police in Maryland have now revealed the names of the two people killed in the shopping mall incident there. They are Brianna Benlolo, 21 of College Park Maryland, and Tyler Johnson, 25 of Elicit City, Maryland. Both killed when a man opened fire with a shotgun. They do say the victims are a male and female, both in their 20s, of course. They both worked at this same stores Zumiez store in that mall. The shooter also dead. Apparently he killed himself. Police have not released the motive for the shooting yet. For a Texas family, bittersweet victory in court. A judge has ruled Ft. Worth must disconnect a pregnant brain dead woman from life support. It's what her family has wanted all along. CNN's Nick Valencia is outside John Peter Smith Hospital in Ft. Worth. Nick, the hospital has until Monday afternoon to turn that ventilator off. Could there be more delays though?</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There could be. They have until 5:00 p.m. on Monday to file an appeal. Two very crucial facts agreed upon by both sides yesterday. One is that since November 28th, Marlise Munoz has been legally brain dead. The other is that the fetus is not viable. The court records didn't expand on whether or not that lack of viability was because of the age of the fetus or abnormalities. All along, JPS Hospital maintained they've been following state law and they have done nothing wrong because there's no legal precedent for them to have gone off of. What's interesting to note, Miguel, is that one of the co-writers of that law, who is now a Southern Methodist University professor, he says the hospital, they got it all wrong.</s>TOM MAYOR, PROFESSOR, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: And so I don't see how we can use a provision of the law that talks about treating or not treating a patient in a case where we really don't have a patient. That's not a question of philosophical speculation. Dead is dead, in Texas and in all 50 states.</s>VALENCIA: It has been an agonizing weekend for the Munoz family, as well as for Erick Munoz, whose anguish was evident on his face in yesterday's court proceedings. He had to hear a lot of very graphic and gruesome details, and he himself bringing out some of the most graphic details saying his wife is, when he looks in her eyes, she's soulless, she's no longer there. Every time he touches her, her bones crack, and that he can smell the decaying organs coming from her flesh. And it's a very graphic situation for the family, and to have to relive these very painful details in the courtroom. Erick Munoz isn't commenting to the media, but early, on he was talking to the local media and he was very upset. He doesn't understand why the hospital has, up until now, refused to take his wife off that ventilator. He says, in his words, "that the hospital is conducting a science experiment" -- Miguel?</s>MARQUEZ: Just horrific. Nick Valencia in Ft. Worth for us. Thank you very much. Now, lawyers for Marlise Munoz' family and those representing Ft. Worth's John Peter Smith Hospital squared off in court on Friday, making their case as to why the Texas mom should be kept on life support or be allowed to die. Joining me now to discuss this is criminal defense attorney, Holly Hughes; and Dr. Jeff Gardere, a psychologist and assistant professor at the medical school. Holly, how likely is it that the hospital or the local D.A. there will appeal the decision?</s>HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY & FORMER PROSECUTOR: At this point, Miguel, I don't foresee them going any further because one of the most important things the hospital finally admitted in court on Friday was that the fetus itself is not viable. The law that they were relying on in Texas says you cannot withhold or withdraw life- saving support from a patient. And as the professor, who helped author that law, pointed out, there was no patient here. Even if the hospital were to argue that perhaps the fetus was the patient, by admitting that fetus is no longer viable and that could be from the oxygen deprivation that the mother experienced, they're basically conceding there is no one left to save. So I don't foresee them taking issue with this. I think they just need to let the family do what they need to do to start the healing process.</s>MARQUEZ: Jeff, I cannot imagine a more difficult situation for a family to be in. Can this family -- they must be waiting to see what happens before 5:00 p.m. But can they finally begin to say good-bye?</s>JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: I think they can and I think they have said good-bye some time ago. But this is finally the vindication. What we're looking at here is something called substituted judgment, where the husband said, listen, my wife and I, we're paramedics so we knew what it would be like if someone were on this life support. She didn't want that. And because I knew her better than anyone else, I know that she wouldn't want to live in this way. To the credit of the hospital, what they were trying to do, Miguel and Holly, is simply try to save the fetus. That is an ethical thing, which is the proper thing to do. But they found out that that fetus was not going to be normal. That information finally came out. So really, there was no other recourse but to just go ahead and pull the plug at this point.</s>MARQUEZ: Holly, there's been a lot of medical bills, clearly, with the treatment that she has received and the attempt to keep the fetus alive. Do you have any sense of whether the Munoz family will be getting a bill for all of that?</s>HUGHES: Well, I think, given the nature of this case and the high profile, even if the hospital does attempt to bill them, if the insurance has been exhausted and limits have been reached, there may be a lawsuit, because it was not the Munoz' family decision to keep that life support up and running. So I think they have a very strong argument that this decision was taken out of their hands and the hospital should be responsible for bearing those costs.</s>MARQUEZ: Jeff, the hospital was sort of in the middle of this, between the family and Texas law, and they were a public institution trying to do the best it can.</s>GARDERE: Sure.</s>MARQUEZ: But what can it be like for the staff there to have to care for this woman and know all of this fear and frustration is surrounding this?</s>GARDERE: My guess, not knowing those individuals, but knowing that they are medical care providers and they believe in the sanctity of life, is that they were very torn about this. They knew that this woman was cortically dead, brain dead. There was no reason, no hope in keeping her alive. The only thing they wanted to do is make sure this fetus could stay alive and develop normally. We've seen this happen before, but this started with people who were perhaps 18 weeks into the pregnancy. She was about 16 weeks into the pregnancy. Only half of the fetuses who have gone through this whole procedure where the mother has been cortically dead have come out normal. The other half have not. And then they found out, eventually some information was released that this child, if born, if born, would not be normal. The child would have had developmental, vast developmental disability. It's a tough situation for everyone involved. There are no bad guys here. It's just everyone suffers through something like this.</s>MARQUEZ: Heartbreaking to think of.</s>GARDERE: Absolutely.</s>MARQUEZ: Jeff, Holly, thank you very much for your help this afternoon.</s>GARDERE: Sure.</s>MARQUEZ: American pride on display but not outside Olympic venues. Up next, why U.S. athletes have been told to keep their uniforms out of sight when they're not competing at next month's games.