'Brain dead' Mass. girl shows responses

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Jan. 19 (UPI) -- One day after Massachusetts' Supreme Court ruled doctors could remove the feeding tube from a brain-damaged 11-year-old girl, she showed signs of response.

Haleigh Poutre has been comatose since Sept. 11, and is in the custody of the state Department of Social Services, which petitioned the court to remove her feeding tube and allow her to die. The court agreed on Tuesday, but the girl began showing responses Wednesday in a Springfield hospital, the Boston Herald reported.

DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro would not say how the girl was responding, but said despite court approval, removing the feeding tube has been put off.

The girl's adoptive mother and stepfather were charged with assault for alleged abuse of the girl, but her adoptive mother later died in what was either a double suicide or murder-suicide, the report said.

The girl's stepfather, Jason Strickland, could face a murder charge if the girl dies. He fought the state court to keep her on life support.