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Vegetative Child Loses Home Nurses

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Eve Edelheit
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

After a near-drowning,  9-year-old Selah Clanton of Zephyrhills can’t walk, talk or eat; she has to have a feeding tube and trach to live. Doctors say she is in a vegetative state, akin to that of Terri Schiavo, a Clearwater woman whose fate became the center of a legal storm that raged until her death in 2005.

Unlike Schiavo, Selah’s family is united in the belief they must keep her alive, whatever it takes.

But as the Tampa Bay Times reports, the family's insurer, Florida Blue, has stopped paying for home-care nurses for the girl. Her parents say they can’t cope without the help, since they have three other special-needs children.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.