MSNBC: Doctor who stunted disabled child commits suicide
AndrewJ
By Linda Dahlstrom
MSNBC
Updated: 6:24 p.m. ET Oct 10, 2007
SEATTLE - The doctor at the center of a controversial procedure which
stunted the growth of a severely disabled girl has committed suicide.
Dr. Daniel F. Gunther died from toxic asphyxia from inhaling car
exhaust, said Greg Hewett of the King County Medical Examiner's
Office. His time of death was listed as 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 30. The 49-
year-old was a pediatric endocrinologist at Children's Hospital and
Regional Medical Center in Seattle and an associate professor of
pediatrics at the University of Washington.
In 2004, Gunther and his colleague Dr. Douglas S. Diekema performed a
hysterectomy, removed the breast tissue and started hormone treatment
to permanently halt the growth of a 6-year-old disabled girl so her
parents could continue to care for her at home. The doctors wrote
about the procedure, which was performed at Children's Hospital, in
the October 2006 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine.
News of the procedure last fall sparked debate about the ethics of the
treatment both online and in the medical community. One poster on
MSNBC.com's message boards called the procedure "offensive if not
perverse." Others supported the decision: " I feel like everything
[the parents] are doing is intended to be in the best interest of
their child."
The girl, identified only as Ashley, had feeding problems shortly
after birth and showed major developmental delays. Her doctors
diagnosed her with severe brain damage and don't know what caused it.
Her condition has left her in an infant state, unable to sit up, hold
a toy or talk. Her mother called Ashley her "pillow angel" and said
the procedure kept her a more manageable and portable size that would
allow her family to continue to care for her at home.
In May, Children's Hospital admitted it broke state law by not having
a court review the proposed treatment and allowing the surgery to
proceed. The hospital blamed the lapse on "internal miscommunication."
State law requires a court order before sterilizing a child.
The hospital has since promised to develop policies to require court
orders for such procedures and appoint a disability-rights advocate to
its ethics board.
Children's had no comment on Gunther's death, said hospital
spokesperson Jennifer Seymour. The University of Washington Medical
Center also would not comment.
The King County Medical Examiner's office declined to say whether
Gunther had left a note.
"You just can't know what leads people to suicide," said Art Caplan,
director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania
bioethicist and MSNBC.com columnist.
"But it's certain that Ashley X's case caused a seismic wave
throughout pediatric medicine and the world of disability. It raised
difficult and challenging questions about what's in the best interest
of children and young adolescents with disabilities. The controversy
is going to continue to go on and I think that Dr. Gunther's voice
will be sorely missed."
Ashley's family thanked Gunther profusely on their daughter's blog,
last updated on March 25, 2007, saying, "Special thanks to Doctor
Daniel F. Gunther, without whose courage, confidence, knowledge, open
mindedness and unwavering support the treatment would not have been
realized and the idea would have remained just an idea. We know that
many endocrinologists would not have ventured into such new territory.
It is our, and Ashley's luck, that we knocked on the right door."
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21225569/
-- Last fall's report on this case creeped me out. This is a sad, sad
coda.