A comatose immigrant woman died after she was discharged from Georgetown University Hospital and removed from her feeding tubes—against the wishes of her family—in a case that has raised concerns about the impact of finance on medical care.
Rachel Nyirahabiyambere was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital, an institution “in the Jesuit tradition,” after she suffered a debilitating stroke in April 2010. When she remained comatose and unresponsive, and family members failed to arrange for her transfer to a hospice facility, the hospital petitioned for a court-appointed guardian to arrange for her future. That guardian, whose appointment the woman’s family members opposed, arranged to have Nyirahabiyambere moved to a nursing home, where her feeding tube was removed, leading inevitably to her death.
