Eric Jamison/AP Casey Kasem is in the late stages of Lewy Body Disease, a progressive form of dementia that robs many patients of the ability to walk and talk. The judge overseeing Casey Kasem's family feud reversed course Wednesday and revoked an earlier decision ordering doctors to artificiall! y feed and hydrate the radio icon.
"You have blood on your hands," Kasem's wife of 34-years Jean Kasem said as she stormed out of the Los Angeles courtroom following the decision.
"You just imposed a death sentence," her lawyer Steve Haney added as he followed her out.
Judge Daniel S. Murphy said he changed his mind after receiving medical records from St. Anthony's Hospital near Seattle saying the ailing "American Top 40" host was not responding to artificial nutrition and fluids, leading to painful complications.
"It would be acutely harmful for Mr. Kasem to have nutrition and hydration restored at this time," the judge said. "This was at the advisement of doctors at St. Anthony's."
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Jean Kasem told the judge her husband expressed his wish to live using eye and eyebrow movements during a five-minute meeting at the hospital last week. The judge upheld an earlier conservatorship granted to eldest daughter Kerri Kasem and said she can continue calling the shots during her dying dad's final days.
He said Jean did not act "in the best interests" of her sick, 82-year-old husband when she removed him from a "skilled" California nursing home at 2:30 in the morning May 7 against doctors orders and took him to a private residence in Washington State.
Jean, 59, gave an impassioned speech to the judge before his Wednesday order claiming she and her daughter Liberty Kasem have been terrorized by Kerri since last year.
"We have lived in sheer horror of this girl," she said, pounding her fist on a courtroom table over and over.
Ted S. Warren/AP The judge said Kerri Kasem can continue calling the shots during her dying dad's final days. She claimed her husband expressed his wish to live using eye and eyebrow movements during a five-minute meeting at the hospital last week.
"They had to pry his hands off me," she told the judge under penalty of perjury.
"(Kerri) has had in her possession her father less than a week and decided to stop all medication and kill him," she testified.
Kerri's lawyer Troy Martin vehemently disputed that claim.
"Nobody wants Mr. Kasem to die. This is without question the most difficult thing I have ever had to do and Kerri has had to do," Martin told the judge Wednesday.
He said doctors at St. Anthony's did try artificial hydration, and "it resulted in Mr. Kasem almost drowning."
"This is very, very heart-wrenching," Martin said. "(Mr. Kasem) is receiving morphine drips. Hydration might be a terrible way to die, but he's receiving medication to keep him comfortable."
Casey Kasem, the voice of Shaggy on the TV cartoon "Scooby Doo," is in the late stages of Lewy Body Disease, a progressive form of dementia that robs many patients of the ability to walk and talk.
Ted S. Warren/AP Jean Kasem (c.) waits with her attorney Joel Paget (r.) and her daughter, Liberty Kasem (l.), before appearing in court on May 30. He was admitted into intensive care June 1 in critical condition with an infection related to a "serious" bed sore, the hospital said in a statement last week.
"We have tried everything to keep him alive. We did put him back on fluids, but we had to take him off again because his lungs were filling up. It sounded like he was drowning. It was excruciating to watch," Kerri, 41, told the Daily News Monday.
"The feeding was backing up because he can't digest," she said, her voice choking with emotion. "This is breaking my heart. We're been trying for nine days to keep him alive. There's nothing we want more than for our dad to be here with us."
ndillon@nydailynews.com
Source : http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/judge-reverses-order-casey-kasem-feeding-fluid-tubes-article-1.1825866
