Family Wins Another Round In Court To Keep Man Alive

HOUSTON -- The family of Spiro Nikolouzos won another legal round in court Tuesday in its fight with a Houston hospital to keep him alive, Local 2 reported.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the 14th Court of Appeals issued an injunction for St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital to not touch the 68-year-old's life support. The decision came after an appeals court earlier in the day dissolved an emergency injunction issued Saturday because the appeals court has a specific way it assigns cases to one of two courts.

"This was literally a matter of life or death," Local 2 legal analyst Brian Wice said. "It's a process that's in place for a very simple reason -- to keep the litigants from choosing a particular court of appeals where they may think they'll find some home cooking they might not find in the other court."

The First Court of Appeals granted an emergency injunction Saturday morning to keep Nikolouzos on life support after a judge denied a temporary restraining order following three hearings Friday.

A new hearing date was not immediately set.

The patient's family has cited opinions from medical experts not associated with St. Luke's, who say his condition does not meet the criteria for brain dead.

The family has been involved in a court battle with St. Luke's Hospital since March 1, when doctors notified it that life-sustaining care of the husband and father would be halted in 10 days after they determined he was brain dead.

On Wednesday, Lindsay denied the family's first request for a temporary restraining order.

The order would have prevented the hospital from stopping the ventilator and artificial feedings that keep him alive and allowed the Nikolouzos family time to find another facility to care for him.

A state law passed in 1999 gives hospitals the authority to remove patients from life support, but requires they give the family 10 days notice to find another facility.

Nikolouzos has been an invalid since 2001, when he experienced bleeding related to a shunt in his brain.

Jannette Nikolouzos had cared for her husband at their Friendswood home, feeding him through a tube in his stomach. On Feb. 10, the area around the tube started bleeding, and Jannette Nikolouzos rushed her husband to St. Luke's for emergency care. He was then placed on a ventilator.

St. Luke's officials said they couldn't talk specifically about the case, since Jannette Nikolouzos did not give the hospital permission to discuss her husband's care.