Appeals Court Issues Temporary Injunction Against Hospital to Protect Baby Tinslee from 10-Day Rule

Tinslee Lewis

On Friday, July 24, a Texas Appeals Court issued a temporary injunction against Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas to prevent it from removing 17-month-old Tinslee Lewis from life support until the court makes a decision on the constitutionality of the state's "10-Day Rule."

Trinity Lewis, Tinslee's mother, sued the hospital in November 2019 to challenge the 10-Day Rule. The Texas rule allows a hospital's ethics committee to determine whether the hospital will continue providing healthcare to a patient. If it makes the decision to stop providing care, the patient's family members have a total of 10 days to find another healthcare facility willing to take the patient before the hospital stops caring for the patient and simply allows them to die.

In its decision to issue a temporary injunction against Cook Children's Medical Center, the court wrote that the 10-Day Rule is “likely unconstitutional” because it does not provide due process protections to patients and likely violates their civil rights.

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