Reply #20: Hospital set to remove Houston man from life support

[NNN0LHI]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/042805_APlocal_lifesupport.html

4/28/05 - SAN ANTONIO, TX) — A man in a persistent vegetative state whose family battled with a Houston hospital to stop his removal from life support is set to be removed from support Tuesday at a San Antonio hospital, his family said.

The family of Spiro Nikolouzos, 68, has vowed to keep him on life support and is trying to get him moved back to the nursing home where he was sent after leaving the Houston hospital. A nursing home official said Thursday they would take him back.

"I'm not going to let someone take his life support away now," said Nikolouzos' wife, Jannette. "They're trying to play God and I won't let them. I'll get him out of there if I have to get an ambulance myself."

Experts have highlighted his ordeal as one of a handful of cases to test a 1999 Texas law signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush. When a hospital and family disagree, the Advanced Medical Directives Act requires that the hospital wait 10 days before discontinuing life support to give relatives time to arrange for a transfer.

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