From today’s Los Angeles Times, Maria L. La Ganga writes:
Abbie Dorn lies in a hospital bed in her parents’ home on the South Carolina coast. A halo of dark curls frames her pale face. The pump for her feeding tube clicks softly in the quiet room.
Yaakov Cohen, her older brother, settles into a folding chair by her side and begins to read. The subject is accounting. Interest payable. Bonds issued at a discount. Five-year amortization schedules.
Abbie begins to cry. Yaakov smooths her forehead, “I know this is a little boring, Abs.” She calms. He reads. Yaakov is working toward an accounting degree. Abbie once kept the books for her in-laws’ Los Angeles real estate business.
That was before she checked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center nearly four years ago to deliver triplets — a procedure so fraught with medical error that she is no longer able to move or speak.
…She had just finished chiropractic school in Atlanta. He hoped to expand the family business, which his grandfather launched during the Great Depression. They wanted children right away and dreamed of raising their Orthodox Jewish family in the tight-knit Los Angeles Lubavitcher community.
The husband hung around for a year after she was declared brain dead. He’s painted as a monster in this Los Angeles Times article, but nobody I know of in the Lubavitch community regards him that way. He has a good reputation. He’s been placed in a horrible situation.
A Google search reveals that Maria L. La Ganga is Facebook friends with her subject Abbie Dorn.
Dan Dorn made a big mistake in not talking to the reporter. His point-of-view is not well represented in the story because of this decision.
