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By DAVID WEISS [email protected]
Friday, January 16, 2004     Page: 1A

WILKES-BARRE – A judge late Wednesday afternoon gave a local hospital
permission to force a woman to deliver a baby via Caesarean section against
her will.
   
Doctors warned the expectant mother that not having a C-section could kill
her and/or her child. But against doctor’s orders, Amber Marlowe left the
hospital.
    Hours later, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital received legal permission to
become guardian of the fetus and perform the C-section if Marlowe returned to
the hospital.
   

   
Marlowe never returned. She gave birth vaginally Thursday morning at Moses
Taylor Hospital in Scranton to a baby girl, her and her husband’s seventh
child. Court papers said it was her seventh pregnancy in seven or eight years.
The Marlowes said the mother and infant are healthy.
   
Attorneys for General Hospital sought the highly unusual action through a
lawsuit because its doctors said Marlowe, who went to the hospital Tuesday
night, adamantly refused to deliver the fetus by C-section because of
“religious” beliefs.
   
Her refusal came after warnings by doctors that a vaginal delivery could
result in death for the fetus because it was expected to weigh 13 pounds. They
also were concerned with complications Marlowe had in other pregnancies.
   
The hospital was acting to “preserve and protect the rights of (the fetus)
regarding its health and survival,” the hospital’s attorney, Mary G.
Cummings, wrote in court papers.
   
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Conahan late Wednesday
afternoon approved the request.
   
Marlowe’s husband, John, said the hospital made up the story, including the
part about the religious beliefs and the fetus’ size, after its staff was
“arrogant” in trying to force Marlowe to have a C-section.
   
His wife was initially cleared to give a vaginal birth at General, but
doctors held her at the hospital for 13 hours, telling her “horror stories”
in trying to change her mind, he said.
   
“They just kept telling me to do a Caesarean section,” Amber Marlowe
said. “They were forcing me in to it.”
   
The events began to unfold Tuesday when the Marlowes, of Academy Street in
Plymouth, first went to Mercy Hospital in Wilkes-Barre to give birth.
   
According to Cummings’ court papers, which identify the Marlowes as Jane
and John Doe for confidentiality reasons:
   
The couple went to Mercy Hospital where the staff advised them a C-section
should be performed for the protection of the mother and fetus.
   
The couple refused, insisting the fetus be delivered vaginally, and left
the hospital.
   
Later, the couple went to the emergency room at General Hospital, which is
part of Wyoming Valley Health Care System.
   
Drs. Lynne Coslett and Stephen Zeger on Tuesday and Wednesday repeatedly
told the Marlowes a C-section was necessary.
   
But the Marlowes again refused.
   
“Jane Doe and John Doe have made it clear that they are adamant that they
will not consent to a C-section, regardless of the danger that a vaginal
delivery presents to Baby Doe,” Cummings wrote. “There exists the imminent
threat of irreparable harm to Baby Doe in the absence of an immediate order.”
   
John Marlowe said the hospital’s request is full of “lies,” and is
considering taking legal action against General Hospital.
   
He said his wife wanted a vaginal delivery because all of her prior six
births were done that way, including births of children larger than her
newborn. A friend of Amber Marlowe also died from a C-section, making her wary
of the procedure, the couple said.
   
“It’s up to the mother,” said John Marlowe, who has lived in the area for
just more than one year. “They insisted she have a C-section.”
   
Amber Marlowe said she had no religious concerns about the procedure. John
Marlowe said his family practices typical Christianity, and he does not belong
to any radical sect.
   
The hospital court papers also say during a prior Marlowe birth, a fetus
suffered a “shoulder dystocia.” That’s an obstetric emergency that can
severely injure the mother and fetus.
   
That, John Marlowe said, is also untrue. So is the allegation that the
ultrasound showed the fetus at 13 pounds, he said, adding the test showed the
infant was just more than 11 pounds. The infant weighed less than 13 pounds at
birth, Amber Marlowe said.
   
John Marlowe did not want the precise weight revealed, and he refused to
reveal his or his wife’s age. The couple has been married for more than nine
years, John Marlowe said.
   
Conahan’s court order gave the hospital permission to notify the Marlowes
of the court order if they had returned to General Hospital. Cummings said the
ruling was the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.
   
David Weiss, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 831-7397.
   
CUTLINE:
   
TIMES LEADER STAFF PHOTO/PETE WILCOX
   
Less than 24 hours after a hospital tried to force Amber Marlowe against
her will to have a Caesarean section, she gave birth vaginally to a daughter.
The child is the seventh for Amber and John Marlowe.