LOS ANGELES -- A Myrtle Beach mother who is unable to move or speak - and possibly to understand - is the focus of an unusual, emotional court case to decide if she has visitation rights with her 3-year-old triplets.
A trial is set to start next month after a Los Angeles County judge on Tuesday ruled the parents of Abbie Dorn can fight on her behalf for the right to see her children.
"They're not going to parent," Superior Court Judge Rudolph A. Diaz said. "They only want a right of visitation. They have the right to pursue that."
Dorn's father, Paul Cohen, called Tuesday's decision "a good step in the right direction.
"We are grateful to the judge for his decision," Cohen said Wednesday from his Myrtle Beach home. "We are hopeful to get our daughter visitation rights with her children."
Dorn, 34, gave birth to a girl, Esti, and boys Reuvi and Yossi in 2006 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She suffered brain damage from complications of blood loss after a doctor nicked her uterus during delivery, according to a malpractice lawsuit that was settled for nearly $8million.
Dorn was left unable to move, talk, eat or drink, and now lives with her parents, Susan and Paul Cohen, in Myrtle Beach. She receives hours of daily therapy at a cost of about $33,000 a month, funded by themalpractice settlement.
She and her husband, Dan Dorn, divorced, and he lives with the triplets in Los Angeles. He has refused to allow the children to see their mother, arguing that a visit would be too traumatic for the youngsters.
His attorney, Vicki Greene, has said her client also worries that the children would feel guilty if they saw their mother and knew their birth led to her condition, although he would not object to them visiting her when they are older.
Dan Dorn is seeking child support from his ex-wife, with the trial on support, custody, visitation and other issues scheduled for May 13.
Abbie Dorn has only seen the children - if she can see them at all - through photos that flash in a digital frame across from her hospital bed in her parents' home.
Paul Cohen said the last time his daughter physically saw her children was in October 2007. Since then, he has been bringing photos of the children back to her from his trips of visiting the children.
"Hopefully she can start to see them with a webcam," Paul Cohen said. "We would like for them to come to Myrtle Beach and see her. A mother has to see her daughter. She gave birth to them. We believe it will help her physical condition. She knows she has children. No matter what condition she is in, a mother needs to see her children."
Dan Dorn contends his ex-wife is in a vegetative state and is incompetent to have visitation rights. The Cohens, who are their daughter's conservators, say their daughter communicates with them by blinking in answer to questions.
"I ask her, 'Do you want to see your children?'" Susan Cohen told the Los Angeles Times. "And she gives me a long blink."
Her mental state is one of the unusual issues at the heart of the visitation dispute.
In a 2007 medical report, a neurologist described Abbie Dorn's condition as permanent and said many of her mental functions were too impaired to be assessed. Her acupuncturist, however, has contended she has demonstrated a basic ability to comprehend and communicate.
"There is no evidence that Abbie Dorn can communicate," lawyer Greene argued at Tuesday's hearing. "This is a classic case of grandparent visitation. If you give them standing, what's to stop them from coming in and saying, she blinked, you need to take the kids to a different school?"
Abbie Dorn's attorney, Lisa Helfend Meyer, argued that her client has a fundamental right to representation because she cannot speak for herself.
"Abbie is alive. She is entitled to pursue visitation," the attorney argued. "If she is denied the opportunity, she is denied equal protection under the law."
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