Bid to end life support was quick

The state Department of Social Services sought to remove life support from brain-damaged Haleigh Poutre eight days after she was hospitalized and within six days after obtaining temporary custody of her, according to a legal brief made public yesterday.

Previously, DSS had only publicly acknowledged that it sought the court order within three weeks of when the 11-year-old girl was brought to a Westfield hospital on Sept. 11 after an alleged beating by her adoptive mother and stepfather. The agency has been under fire for acting too quickly to remove the girl's life support and missing signs of past abuse.

The day after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Jan. 17 that the agency could withdraw life support, DSS said Haleigh was breathing on her own and responding to commands and moved her Jan. 26 to a rehabilitation hospital in Brighton. Doctors there say her condition is stable, and they are conducting tests to evaluate her chances for recovery.

In the brief filed with the Supreme Judicial Court, which was made public at the request of lawyers representing the Globe and the The Republican in Springfield, the agency outlined its reasons for seeking a court order on Sept. 19 to end the girl's life.

It said that Haleigh, during her first week in the hospital, was ''unresponsive." On Sept. 17, the child's ''intracranial pressure increased, and she was diagnosed as having a stroke of the entire right side and most of the left side of her brain." Due to those strokes and her brain trauma, the brief said, ''the child has no hope of meaningful recovery."

''She currently has the least amount of brain function that a person can have and still be considered alive," said the brief filed by DSS lawyer Virginia Peel.

The motion to end the child's life was backed by a court-appointed lawyer for Haleigh, who has been identified by parties in the case as Marybeth Sullivan-Kass. She has not returned calls from the Globe.

DSS presented the brief as a redacted document, meaning that the agency may have deleted portions. DSS filed its brief with the state's highest court when the girl's stepfather, Jason Strickland, who could face murder charges if Haleigh dies, appealed a lower court order to remove the child's life support. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled the stepfather could not have a say in the child's medical care and supported the Oct. 5 ruling by Juvenile Court Judge James Collins allowing Haleigh's life support to be withdrawn.

DSS lawyers also defended the decision not to consider the religious background of Haleigh, a factor the stepfather's lawyer argued should be weighed. Haleigh periodically attended a Catholic parish in Westfield. DSS said the stepfather failed to prove whether Haleigh accepted the Catholic view that generally describes as immoral the withholding of a feeding tube for sick patients.

The stepfather's end-of-life arguments were made by Springfield lawyer Jack Egan, who said he did the legal work for free because he is a devout Catholic who opposed the removal of Haleigh's feeding tube. Egan also does extensive work for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

DSS said Haleigh's religious background was not relevant in judging whether she would have wanted to continue to live. It described Collins's order allowing the removal of all life support as a ''reasonable decision."

Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com.