Food and Fluids Withheld from North Carolina Woman for Three Days.(mother of cerebral palsy sufferer Tina Cartrette in court case)(Brief Article)

Unfortunately, Robert Wendland is not the only disabled person whose guardian is seeking to withdraw nutrition and hydration. Tina Cartrette, a 29-year-old North Carolina woman who suffers from cerebral palsy, was denied food and fluids for three days before the state's Governor's Advocacy Council for People with Disabilities intervened.

In a December 12 ruling, Mecklenburg County Superior Court clerk Mark Gott said that Cartrette's guardian, her mother Dianne Arnder, "potentially harmed" her daughter by ordering her life support removed, since she is not terminally ill. Gott cited North Carolina law, saying it does not allow a "deliberate act or omission to end life other than to permit the natural process of dying," the Charlotte Observer reported.

As Cartrette's new guardian, Gott appointed Don Austin, an employee of The Arc of North Carolina, an advocacy agency for disabled people. Tina Cartrette remains in the hospital in serious condition.

Cartrette, who is unable to walk or talk, has lived in nursing homes since she was five, according to the Observer. Her mother reportedly visited her only two or three times a year. According to the caregivers who worked with her every day, she could "recognize her name and track their movements with her eyes," the Observer reported. She was admitted to Carolinas Medical Center on November 8, suffering from a urinary tract infection, which caused a high fever and seizures.

Cartrette needed to breathe with the help a ...