Court Widens Order to Bar Heroic Steps for Patient, 75

A court order preventing a Reseda nursing home from using “heroic” medical means to prolong the life of a man dying of a brain disease was extended Thursday and language was added that prevents the home from giving the patient antibiotics for a pneumonia infection.

The order also grants immunity from prosecution to the nursing home and its physicians, even though their actions or inaction might cause the patient’s death.

A temporary restraining order was granted by Superior Court Judge Jack M. Newman a week ago after Lydia Cantor, the 75-year-old patient’s former wife and current legal guardian, sued Convalescent Center of Reseda, asserting that medical care had been given to Jacob Jack Cantor against his wishes and without her consent.

Newman said at a hearing Thursday afternoon that he will decide at a Dec. 24 hearing whether to grant a preliminary injunction to ensure that Lydia Cantor’s requests continue to be upheld.

Signed ‘Living Will’

Jacob Cantor in 1981 signed a “living will” requesting that no “medications, artificial means or heroic measures” be used to keep him alive. Afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, he later lost all ability to communicate and to feed or care for himself, according to papers filed by his physician.

Lydia Cantor said in her suit that, on several occasions, the home gave antibiotics to Jacob Cantor for a pneumonia infection and at one point transferred him to a nearby hospital for treatment, all without her consent.

‘Interfere With Dying’

Referring to her former husband in a statement filed Thursday, Lydia Cantor said, “Jack . . . would not want, under any circumstances, anything including antibiotics administered . . . which would only interfere with the natural process of dying.”

Attorneys for the nursing home and Jacob Cantor’s physician, Dr. Richard Weiss, did not object to the court order as long as it also protects their clients from criminal or civil liability. “We want the order,” said Jay Hartz, representing the nursing home.

Threat of Charges

Hartz and attorneys representing Lydia Cantor and Weiss all said that immunity is needed because nursing home inspectors for the county Department of Health Services continue to threaten to file charges if, for example, a feeding tube or ventilator is not provided for a patient who needs it--even if the patient requested in a “living will” that such measures not be used.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Earl Plowman, representing the county Department of Health Services, which inspects nursing homes under contract to the state, denied that any effort is being made to prosecute anyone for acceding to Jacob Cantor’s request to die.

But Plowman and Deputy Dist. Atty. Dino Fulgoni, who also testified at the hearing, both said after the hearing Thursday that if they sense criminal wrongdoing in such a case, they will disregard any court-ordered immunity.

As an example, Plowman said, “Sooner or later,” a case will appear in which a living will was obtained fraudulently or with coercion.

“We’re not even investigating this particular case,” Fulgoni said. “But if there is some hanky-panky in the future, we don’t want to be enjoined in advance from looking into that.”