[Editor’s Note– representatives of St. Luke’s are being contacted and offered an opportunity to submit their perspective on this issue for publication on LST.]

UPDATE: I have received an email from Andrea’s sister, Melanie, as well as talked with her on the phone.

I asked Melanie if the "deal" St. Luke’s offered in terms of paying for Andrea’s transportation to Illinois was correct. She wrote to me:

Yes, it’s true.  We don’t want Andrea to be moved so far away from her family in Texas, but we are so frightened that another Texas hospital will start the futility process on her again, I think we have no other choice.

Think about that folks, the family is FRIGHTENED to have their sister in a Texas Hospital.

So, here we are, in Texas, having to move our sister to a hospital across the country.  One way or another, I guess, this will break our family.  What a horrible decision to have to make.

This should bring a chill to everyone’s spine. 

The family will probably end up taking "the deal" and have Andrea transported to Illinois at St. Luke’s cost.

I hope my family fights for me like Andrea’s family has fought for her.

According to Melanie, Andrea does come out of her drug induced slumber from time to time and "mouths" to her family that she is "scared", "I love you" and "I miss you"!

I don’t know about you, but my heart is just breaking for these people………….

There is Breaking News in the Andrea Clark case, in which I wrote about here the other day.

Hyscience has the tip:

We’ve just received breaking news from a representative of the family of Andrea Clark about incredible and reprehensible actions underway by St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas.

The family learned of a facility in Illinois that is willing to accept Andrea and offer her the opportunity to live, an expensive move that would require Andrea to be far removed from her family.

However, placing corporate greed ahead of all patient interests and the interests and wishes of the family, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital has just notified the family that they are willing to pay the almost $17,000 to move Andrea to Illinois if they will immediately - that’s TODAY, move Andrea out of St. Lukes to the Illinois facility. If the family waits until tomorow to decide, St. Lukes will only pay half. And if the family can’t make a decision by tomorow, the hospital may consider to pay absolutely nothing. In other words, the hospital is attempting to force Andrea out of the hospital in order to stop the financial drain of the cost of her care.

Meanwhile, the family is struggling to find a facility in Texas that will accept Andrea, who has insurance, but is being squeezed also by the insurance company. Is this fair?

The family needs time to make such a momentous decision, one that places their mother and sister far away from them and a patient that needs her family far removed from home. Although moving Andrea to Illinois is better than the alternative - essentially being euthanized by St. Lukes Hospital in Texas under an incredible law that encourages murder for profit, the family deserves time to descide.

Please call St. Luke’s: 832-355-100; tell them how you feel about this (politely and calmly).

Then pray for Andrea and her family. They need it.

I am trying to get more information in the meantime.

Please make sure anyone that has been interested in this story gets this information.

Thanks to Rorschach for the tip!

UPDATE: National Review weighs in.

Here is more information written by Melanie, Andrea’s sister, from a post in the DU.