| ||||||||||
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... |
SB80 would require genetic test for unexplained deaths under 40 By Nancy Royden, LRC Frankfort, KY - Legislation that would require genetic testing when a young person dies inexplicably received approval Thursday from the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Senate Bill 80 is essentially an attempt not only to bring closure to families who have suffered the death of a young loved one, but as well as an effort to give them certain information that might in fact save lives," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville. The legislation calls for the state medical examiner's office to conduct a genetic test when a postmortem examination of someone under 40 does not determine the cause of death. If the genetic test reveals a cause, coroners must note that information on the death certificate. Wheeler introduced committee members to Tracy Fletcher, whose daughter passed away in 2018 from a cause that remained unknown until two years later. "Shantell was a 19-year-old, full of life, young lady, very athletic all through school," Fletcher said. "Loved her car. She was a car enthusiast. She worked on that car many hours to get it where she had it. Loved to be beautiful, but yet she was a tomboy." Fletcher recalled the terrible time when her daughter was found unresponsive. "There was no one there that night to help her...No one can find anything that night. There was no evidence. They just said she looked like she laid down to sleep. She was a beautiful little girl," she said. Losing a child at a young age and not understanding why can be exacerbate the grief, Fletcher said. The autopsy results came back as undetermined, and Fletcher, a nurse, said she tried to understand what happened by searching online. "As a parent, to not know what happened to your child at the age of 19, it's not just devastating you lost them, but it's the what-ifs that can drive you insane. And we went through a lot of the what-ifs," Fletcher said. Not only could the legislation help families find answers to heart-wrenching questions about their loved ones, but also it could inform surviving family members of possible health problems they might encounter themselves. Once it was determined her daughter passed away from a genetic disorder, Fletcher consulted a cardiologist and he referred her to the University of Virginia. That's where the family ended up getting cardiac workups. At the university, they met Matthew Thomas, a pediatric genetic counselor. Thomas testified to the committee virtually and answered a question from Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, about the possibility of opting out of the genetic testing. "In my experience, medical examiners generally have the responsibility of investigating what the cause of death is, and there's not a regular communication with families about what they want to opt in and out of," he said. "That certainly can be something that's considered, but in this situation, the purpose of the testing is to find out why somebody died and protect the family from that ever happening again." Wheeler said there is no opt-out option in the bill, but he would not mind adding one. The bill is also known as the Micah Shantell Fletcher Law. This story was posted on 2022-02-11 09:38:17
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic News:
Cloudy on Friday with strong winds, high 67F 7-County Area Courts for Fri 11 Feb 2022 KY General Fund and Road Fund receipts for January 2022 Kentucky to build electric vehicle charging network Ribbon Cutting at HOPE Counseling Services on Monday KY First Lady: Shop & Share on Saturday, February 12 Sunny today, high 52F 7-County Area Courts for Thu 10 Feb 2022 Plan for a safe ride home from Superbowl parties Mostly sunny today, high 58F View even more articles in topic News |
|
||||||||
| ||||||||||
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
|