Save Joshua Barras from Starvation!
Save Joshua Barras from Starvation!
- Important update: We have seen that many individuals have donated to the petition to assist in furthering it’s reach, while it is very appreciated and we are extremely grateful for everyone’s generosity and assistance, we ask that no further donations be made towards the petition. Donations made on this site do not go to the family they go to change.org to help them promote petitions and due to Josh not having received any adequate treatment we feel donations would be better utilized towards getting him the treatment he needs when the time comes. Thank you again for everyone’s continued support of Joshua and Kelly, we will continue to update with information as we receive it. Josh is currently awaiting a court ordered neurological assessment before a new court date will be scheduled.
Please join Justice for Josh Barras, exposing the truth to save Josh Barras, and Fight for Josh Barras on Facebook to receive updates on upcoming fundraising efforts for Josh’s treatment.
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Join us in fighting for the right to treatment of a man suffering from Anoxic Brain Injury
On behalf of Joshua Barras and the Barras family, myself and a group advocating for Joshua Barras are starting this petition to request that the State of Louisiana remove the current guardian or “curator” Maegan Adkins-Barras from having control of Joshua Barras’ medical and financial affairs. We also request that in the interim of court proceedings Joshua Barras’ mother Kelly Barras who is seeking to assume guardianship of Joshua Barras be allowed to seek treatment and adequate therapy for him. With every day that passes, Joshua loses critical time to receive therapies that could improve his quality of life. Not receiving prompt therapy can lessen his chances of making progress towards recovery.
Joshua Barras’ Story
Joshua Barras suffered an anoxic brain injury in November of 2018. The anoxic brain injury Joshua sustained has resulted in him being in a state described as minimally conscious by those close to him. He has resided in a nursing home since his injury.
Joshua’s wife, Maegan Barras, wishes to end the life of Joshua Barras via starvation and dehydration through the removal of his feeding tube. However, Joshua Barras is in stable condition and is currently receiving no life sustaining measures other than nutritional assistance. Joshua has never indicated that he would not wish to receive treatment either written or verbally prior to any life ending measures being enacted if placed in this position. Joshua Barras’ mother is currently battling Maegan’s decision in court seeking to remove her as guardian of Joshua. Joshua’s mother wishes him to have adequate treatment before any other decisions are made as to how to proceed if he is unable to recover. The court has granted a restraining order against Maegan Barras preventing her from removing Joshua from the nursing home or altering any life sustaining care. Unfortunately, the Louisiana court system has not taken prompt action in this case and Joshua’s mother is still awaiting a court date for her case to be heard. In the meantime, every day that passes with no action, Joshua is prevented from receiving treatment critical to potential recovery.
Reason’s We Believe Guardianship Should Be Awarded to Joshua Barras’ Mother
Prior to Joshua’s injury, Maegan Barras filed for divorce from Joshua for the second time in the three years they had been together. However, after learning of his attempt and current condition, Maegan Barras withdrew the divorce paperwork in a letter to the courts. Maegan Barras has stated this divorce was an attempt to receive custody back of her children under fictitious pretenses. She has stated Joshua was still in a relationship with her and was staying in her home leading up to the incident. It is our belief that regardless of the reason, from a legal standpoint a spouse who is in the process of finalizing a divorce with their partner should not be able to gain medical and financial control over their partner in the event that the partner is incapacitated during divorce proceedings.
Maegan Barras has to date not gotten Joshua Barras adequate treatment before deciding she wishes to end his life.
She has stated she has gotten him two sessions of soft chamber hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The correct Hyperbaric therapy to use for an injury such as Joshua’s is hard chamber hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Hard chamber therapy is completed in one or more sets of 40 sessions at a time, some patients in vegetative states have needed hundreds of sessions to show improvement. Individuals with severe brain injury such as Joshua need intensive rehabilitative therapy including speech, occupational, and physical therapy along with treatments such as but not limited to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, electromagnetic brain stimulation such as vagus nerve stimulation, and deep brain stimulation. Unfortunately, Joshua Barras has never had access to these treatments that could improve his quality of life.
When Maegan Barras was assigned guardianship over Joshua’s medical care and finances, she filed a survival action and wrongful death lawsuit against the Lafayette county jail where Joshua sustained his injury.
With Maegan’s refusal to get Joshua treatment that could improve his quality of life, it is believed to be possible that her motive may lie in her lawsuits. It is possible Maegan Barras has found that because Joshua is covered by Medicaid, any and all care that he has received Medicaid is owed money for. If Maegan pursued the survival action lawsuit, it is likely Medicaid would take a large sum of the money awarded should she win. So it is a possibility that to counteract this, Maegan Barras decided that the wrongful death lawsuit would be more profitable as she would likely have more money awarded to her. The time allotted for filing a wrongful death lawsuit is one year in the state of Louisiana, Maegan did file in that time, however, Josh is still very much alive so her case would not be heard. Meagan Barras filed for an extension on her case on or around December 4, 2020. It is unclear if this extension had been granted, however, Maegan Barras messaged Joshua’s mother that she felt Josh was no longer there and was suffering and they should consider ending his life on December 5, 2020. Based on this evidence it can be argued that Maegan Barras may be trying to end Joshua Barras’ life to attempt to collect on her wrongful death lawsuit.
In addition to the filing of the wrongful death lawsuit, Maegan has participated in hosting several fundraisers dating from shortly after Joshua’s injury into 2021.
According to Megan Wyatt, staff writer of the local Louisiana news source “The Acadiana Advocate”, Maegan Barras raised a combined amount of $15,000 across all fundraisers. This information is supported by screenshots of her GoFundMe pages and other fundraisers that can be located via the Facebook group “Exposing The Truth to Save Josh Barras”. This money was stated by Maegan Barras to be for treatment for Joshua Barras and later, funeral expenses; however, an individual shared a screenshot within one of the Facebook groups against the euthanasia of Joshua Barras “Justice for Josh Barras”, stating Maegan sent a message asking for money and to show proof she needed this money, Maegan Barras shared a screenshot with Joshua Barras’ account being wiped of all donations and Maegan Barras account being negative despite having received settlements in the amount of $70,000 in August 2020 in connection with her wrongful arrest in 2019. It is not apparent where the donations she received for Josh’s treatment have gone. Medicaid covers basic care of Joshua so it did not go to basic care. Individuals who donated are still questioning where their donated funds are with no answers.
Questions have also been raised as to whether or not Maegan Barras has been properly caring for Joshua during his time in the nursing home.
There is video of Maegan Barras where it appears she is incorrectly performing range of motion therapy which has the potential to cause severe injury. Maegan Barras also recruited retired nurse Gary L. Mongeau aka Dr. Sensai in what looked to be an effort to push the narrative that Joshua could not recover to Maegan’s Tiktok following and in a Facebook page they created together “Maegan and Joshua’s Journey” which was later removed from the social media site. Gary was stated to be given access to speaking with Joshua’s care team by Maegan Barras, he was also said to be scheduling tests though he had no medical authority to do so. In addition, Maegan Barras had Gary perform medical assessments on Joshua multiple times by Gary’s own admission, he claimed to have recorded these test results stating that he believed Joshua had no upper level function on social media. This type of behavior from a guardian is unacceptable and raises questions regarding that guardian’s capability to make decisions regarding the individual in their care.
Additionally, Maegan has been questioned for potentially being involved intimately with other individuals during Josh’s time at the nursing home. This accusation is backed by screenshots of interactions with another individual. This raises concerns that she may not be acting in Joshua’s best interests due to infidelity. From a moral standpoint, a spouse should not have control over an incapacitated spouse’s medical care when they have breeched their commitment of marriage to be with another individual.
Join Our Cause!
As it is apparent, Maegan’s involvement and control of Joshua’s medical and financial affairs is questionable, with these concerns being raised we believe it is in Joshua’s best interests to have his mother take control of his care. It is understood that anoxic brain injury is severe and recovery is not always possible, however, it should be every individuals right to receive treatment to improve quality of life before alternatives to preventing suffering are ever considered. Joshua Barras’ mother does not wish for him to suffer, she only wants him to have a fighting chance to return to a decent quality of life and have time with his loved ones once again.
After reading this story, please consider signing this petition to assist in petitioning the courts to remove Maegan Barras as guardian or “curator” of Joshua Barras. No individual should be subjected to a spouses abuse of power and be prevented from receiving treatment when they are not in the position to care for themselves.
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Legal Life Foundation News on Josh’s Case
References
https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/courts/article_b0edc9c6-e058-11eb-b522-3b07cdcb6cff.html