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Joni Mitchell Could Be Leaving The Hospital Soon
Joni Mitchell at a Pre-GRAMMY Gala on February 7, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell may be released from the hospital soon, her attorney says. However, she won't be able to make her own decisions about her medical treatments.During a court hearing today, Judge David S. Cunningham III granted Leslie Morris, Mitchell's close friend of 44 years, a conservatorship over the 71-year-old singer's medical care, the AP reports. While Morris now has the right to talk to Mitchell's doctors and make medical decisions for her, she won't have any control over the singer's finances.
"I believe that it is very necessary," Mitchell's court-appointed attorney Rebecca Thyne told the judge.
The details surrounding Mitchell's health has been a little murky since she was rushed to UCLA Medical Center on March 31 after fainting in her Bel Air home. Earlier reports said that the "Yellow Taxi" singer was in a coma, but her official website published a statement last week saying that Mitchell "comprehends, she’s alert, and she has her full senses." Her medical condition wasn't discussed in the hearing today.
When Morris filed legal documents to serve as Mitchell's conservator, she said that she had to do it since Mitchell was "so impaired as to be incapable of being assessed." Also, Morris said that there weren't any other close relatives of Mitchell's who could make these medical decisions for her.
In January, the music icon was announced as the face of Saint Laurent's fashion campaign. Most recently, she's had to put her singing career aside because she says she suffers from a mysterious condition called Morgellons. While medical researchers believe that it's more of a psychological rather than medical condition, the people who do have it believe that it causes fibers to come out of the skin and cause tingling sensations and lesions.
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