(NBC NEWS) The judge overseeing a lawsuit seeking to force a Texas hospital to remove a brain-dead pregnant woman from life support abruptly recused herself from the case Thursday.
In a one-paragraph order issued without explanation late in the afternoon, Tarrant County District Judge Melody Wilkinson removed herself from the nationally watched case of Marlise Munoz, the 33-year-old Fort Worth paramedic whose husband has sued to have her taken off of life support.
Marlise Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant when she collapsed in November from what doctors believe was a pulmonary embolism. Her husband, Erick Munoz, has said that doctors have described her as brain-dead and that his wife was clear that she wouldn’t want to be kept alive.
