[way2gomom]

Abbie Dorn: Severely disabled woman wins the right to spend time with her triplets - latimes.com

This story made me cry... and I think part of it is from the picture that is right under the byline. It's a beautiful, framed photo of Abbie Dorn and her father on her wedding day. The story that follows is just heartbreaking.

After an acrimonious yearlong legal battle, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that a paraplegic woman who communicates largely by blinking has a legal right to see her 4-year-old triplets.

In a 10-page tentative ruling, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Frederick C. Shaller said that even though Abbie Dorn, 34, "suffers from a profound brain injury that had led to her near total and complete disability," it would be in the children's best interests to have a relationship with their mother.

A cascade of medical errors during the triplets' 2006 delivery starved Dorn's brain of oxygen and left her in a minimally conscious state. A court-ordered neurologist testified last week that Dorn can perceive sounds and images and blinks "to signal yes or no answers" although "it was difficult for me to get her to do that reliably."

Two years after the triplets' birth, their parents divorced. Except for a four-day visit in December, kept secret even from the judge, Dorn had not seen her children since 2007. She had not held them since the day they were born.

Dan testified during a hearing last week that he believes Dorn is in a vegetative state, "100% not there," and that the children would get no benefit from a relationship with her. Early on in the legal battle, he argued that it would be detrimental for the children to see their mother. He told them nothing about her until they were nearly 4, and he removed all pictures of her from the house.

Shaller ordered Dan to set up a shelf or table that is "open and available to the children 24 hours a day, 7 days per week in his home devoted to the children's mother" and to place photographs and other mementoes of her on it.

I'm glad that it worked out for both parties. Do you think this situation will work?

[Mom2Froggy]

That story makes me sad. I can't believe the father wanted to basically erase the mother!

I'm glad she gets to see her kids, and vice versa. I don't see any harm from it, so long as the father doesn't be a giant *** about it.

[way2gomom]

I don't know about you, but it made me sad that they were divorced after everything that happened. He believes she's in a permanent vegetative state, so there's no way he could think she agreed to the divorce. I mean, I'm not in a situation like that myself, but I can't imagine giving up on your spouse like that.

I liked the part in the judgement where the judge said the kids had to have a shelf of something at home that was at their level and filled with pictures and mementos of their mom. The article also mentioned that they had visited for a few days in December, although no one had told the judge about it. I mean, I guess it means he's willing to try, but it seems like he's so ready to just totally erase her existence like you said!