Parents rally activists in final battle to keep daughter alive [Terri Schiavo]

Times online.co.uk ^ | 2/21/2005 | Jacqui Goddard

[bjs1779]

...Mr Schiavo, who lives with a girlfriend by whom he has two children, plans to withdraw the gastric tube through which his wife is fed when a temporary court order barring him expires tomorrow. He insists that his wife once told him that she would not want to be kept alive should she ever suffer brain damage, although he recalled the conversation three years after her collapse and only after winning $1 million in medical negligence damages relating to her early care....

[Ohioan from Florida]

Yes, Michael is a nurse in the emergency room at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater. Pinging 2 others who can tell you if this is the right hospital or if I've confused it with another one.

[Ciexyz]

This is a dark and depressing time for supporters of Terri, now that the Schindlers have lost their final appeal to keep her alive. Dear Lord in heaven, please change the hearts of the judges and the people in power, who have the power to prevent this euthanasia!

We must always remember, the Lord is in control.

[Ohioan from Florida]

Terri didn't have those other diseases. Yet, the bone scan was not investigated as far as we know as to where the trauma came from.

[Freepertwo]

True, but the court's decision in Nazism...and a dangerous slip down that slope.

[Theodore R.]

So much for that old song about the "land of the free and the home of the brave." Who can seriously still believe that?

[Future Useless Eater]

Thanks BB for the link to the EWTN broadcast in post 69. They have the whole hour long show on the internet, and I've never seen one work so well over my very slow dialup connection before! (for me, it fired up using RealOne Player version 2.0 ).

I've never watched EWTN before but these two upbeat programs that covered Terri may have gotten me hooked to their channel. It will at least be added that to my 'favorites' list.

---

TRANSCRIPT of the SCHIAVO segment:

[I am including timestamps so if you download the real media file, you can fast forward to specific parts.]

17:07
MODERATOR: We will go now to Father Frank Pavone, He's the 
national director of the priests for life
17:13
and he's going to join us, talking again about Terri Schiavo, 
whos really in a state, well, judicial state sanctioned act. 
17:21
She'll be forced to starve to death, and Father Frank, 
welcome to Life on the Rock. 
17:26


Father Frank: Thank you, its good to be with you.  
17:28
Moderator: hey, Father Frank, first of all, could you kind of give us a status, 
17:34
I know certainly within the last couple weeks, you have seen Terri herself?
17:38
When you walk in the room, when you are there with her, 
17:40
tell us a little bit about what happens...
17:44

Father Frank: Yes, well I visited Terri for the 2nd time Sunday February 6th. 
17:50
She is VERY responsive, very alert, we spoke with her, I was with her parents
17:56
and she follows everything that is happening, with her eyes, 
17:59
she smiles, her dad leaned over and kissed her, and she returned the kiss, 
17:04
she tried to vocalize, she cannot pronounce the words, 
18:07
but you can hear her voice,  trying to form words and sentences,
18:14
Terri is... what most people dont understand, is Terri is HEALTHY. 
18:18
She has suffered a brain injury, but she is NOT a dying patient,
18:21
she is not in a coma she is not hooked up to life support, 
18:26
she has a small simple feeding tube which sustains her nourishment, 
18:31
she has NOT requested death or suicide, and unfortunately
18:36
as you said, she's under this THREAT of death, which 
18:40
we'll talk about in a moment. But she is
18:43
AMAZINGLY responsive. I prayed with her, and she closed her eyes
18:47
during the prayer, and then opened her eyes up again. 
18:50
And I told her many many people, Terri
18:53
are thinking about you and praying for you
18:55
and you have lots of friends around the country.

18:58
MODERATOR: Now what can, in particular, young people, they hear about 
this type of thing, and you also hear the other side saying, quote unquote,
19:08
that this is an act of MERCY, on their part, she's been this way for TWELVE years...
19:13
I think young people can get confused when they hear stuff like that,
19:15
that she is in this 
19:18
perpetual vegetative state... that she's in a coma... 
19:21
and its been going on for 12 years... and it would be an act
19:25
of mercy to, quote unquote "let her end her life" ...
19:28
How do young people process that, and what can they 
19:31
then do?

Father Pavone: Well first of all in regard to Terri herself,
19:36
her life can still be saved, because there are a lot of things that can still happen
19:40
basically right now centered in the state of Florida, 
19:44
and therefore anybody who knows people in Florida, 
19:46
should urge them to contact the Governor, and also their state legislators in Florida,
19:52
and ask them to do everything possible to save Terri's life.
19:56
Now the legal situation is pretty complicated, 
19:59
but the bottom line is, that things can still be done. 
20:02
And if people want to get updates and 
20:06
action alerts as things develop, especially over the next few weeks, 
20:09
then they can go to our website at priestsforlife.org 
20:12
they can read about what's currently going on, 
20:16
and they can sign up to get updates, because there may be
20:18
some prayer vigils taking place, in florida and things like that. 
20:21

MODERATOR:
What do you think of, and where you see this, perhaps euthanasia itself,
20:28
going in this country, and is this something we need to be
20:31
concerned about? In my mind, it seems like
20:33
there is already a really structure-ized,
20:36
like passive euthanasia thats out there already.
20:39
Do we need to be worried about this?
20:41
Father Pavone: Well, very much so, 
20:43
and Terri's case is going to decide that question that you just raised, 
20:46
because, if SHE can be put to death, than ANYONE who 
20:50
somebody ELSE says is not happy, because remember, Terri is not complaining, 
20:57
She's not saying she's not happy, and, you know, its a terrible act of 
21:01
judgemental superiority when we look at somebody else life and we say
21:05
oh well, they really shouldn't be in that situation. 
21:09
Who are we to decide what another person's happiness, or value is? 
21:14
And thats the crux of the matter, that we DONT decide that.
21:17
Because IF someone like Terri can be killed, 
21:20
then thats going to affect THOUSANDS of others, 
21:24
who, just because someone else says they're not
21:26
productive, they're not valuable, 
21:29
and if she can be killed because of what WE think is her suffering,
21:32
well then so can a teenager who has just flunked a course, 
21:36
got kicked off the football team, 
21:38
lost his girlfriend... you know, to him, the world is falling apart
21:41
And you know, does HE have a right to end his suffering by ending his life?
21:45
We usually have suicide hotlines and councelors ready 
21:49
to help a person like that. And, ah, so we're at a crossroads here,
21:55
there's no question about it. 
21:57

Moderator: Yes it certainly is, I wanted... Thank you Father Frank. 
First of all, thank you Father Frank for joining us
We appreciate it, and all of you out there, 
we have to get down on our knees, its lent, a time of prayer...
pennance, and charity, and I think the greatest act of charity 
we could give to Terri is that she's allowed to live.
22:14

Moderator: Its UNBELIEVABLE to me how, in this "civilized country" 
(he makes double quote signs with his fingers)
that we live in, that this could really happen here, and
to have her spouse pull that thing out, and
they're not going to FEED her. She's not going to die of
like a brain hemmorage, or cancer that's going to consume her somehow, 
she's going to SLOWLY die over time. Dehydrate, and starve to death. 
Its really just mind boggling.  
22:36

Moderator: If you want to know what you can do specifically,
the schindlers who are Terri's parents, they have a webpage, 
terri's fight dot org. (he spells it out and it is shown on screen) 
Go onto that, and you'll get all kinds of information, 
and I know even today [probably taped Thursday the 17th]
there was a news conference with the father, mister Schindler, who is
fighting to save, as any man would, please god, his own daughter, he said that
back in 2000, he goes, I was going to give every ounce of energy I had 
to save her life, and he says I still have a lot of ounces left, 
and I'm going to do it. 
This TUESDAY [Feb 22nd] is D-Day for Terri and her family.  

23:21
(he turns to 2nd moderator) If you wanted to comment on that?

2nd Moderator: Yes, well we all need to pray, it seem like.. 
well is this really at THAT point?  God is great, and he needs 
intervention to change hearts.

23:30
1st Moderator: You know theres a lot of people praying for the conversion 
of her estranged husband, that is Michael Schiavo, and we want to pray 
as well that he might see the light here, and that the lord might change 
his heart.  So keep that in mind, We're going to be back in just a minute here, 
to the Rock House. [he changes the subject]

[He gives their call-in number. Apparently whenever this is shown the 1st time
 on Thursday evenings, it is live and you can call in: 1-800-221-9460 
 and he gave their email: rock@ewtn.com  ]

24:20
...END OF SEGMENT

---

SOMEONE ASKED ABOUT SAVING THE BROADCAST TO A FILE: I tried a couple of ways but the files I ended up with seemed corrupt. Maybe write to rock@ewtn and ask them to SAVE that whole broadcast somewhere. They might also be willing to clip out just the SCHIAVO segment and place THAT to a separate file.

             

[STARWISE]

I hope you don't mind, but I sent your beautiful prayer to Gov. Bush, begging for his courage to do the right thing. God Bless Terri and her family in these painful hours. It's truly like waiting for a cruxifiction.

[MarMema]

I like this one.

[MarMema]

Yes, that's Felos's son. You're very good at finding articles!

Kind of scary that his son is linked to a wierd death incident news-item. As if demons were a family value for them or something.

[MarMema]

Thanks for posting this.

[Pegita]

Thank you, STARWISE, for every effort on her behalf. I need this verse today ... "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7.

[California Patriot]

"makes me sick."

Exactly. That's why we need to make THEM sick, for a change.

[California Patriot]

I have made these calls, just today. Even if they seem to have no impact, we've demonstrated our seriousness about this and troubled the consciences of some Republican "leaders." Everything we do matters.

[STARWISE]

I need that, too, for Terri and other reasons. Thank you.

[LadyPilgrim]

I was watching FOX last week and Felos was on with Martha whats-her-name and he said exactly the very same thing!
I think it's called "talking points". ;-/

[STARWISE]

Rest in peace, but my heart is also saying, "just rewards." I believe SO strongly in karma .. it does come back to us.

[Txsleuth]

I, too, believe in karma---very strongly, but I am praying as hard as I can that this evil, evil little man will come to he senses before it is too late for Terri---

I watched War Stories will Ollie North last night, and his show was about the injuries that our troops are suffering and the way they are rehabilitated. There was a man that was burned terrible during the Vietnam war, before he could completely heal from that, he contracted a fungal virus that took his arm, shoulder and half of his face---

After all of the pain of a burn injury, the loss of limbs, and the dozens of surgeries to try to reconstruct his face, he told Ollie that there "obviously a reason he had to go through that"--he said, of course, he wished he didn't, but he went on to get married, get a Master's degree and is now running some kind of help center---

I guess what I am saying is, I think that this whole episode and poor Terrie's life has been useful, and though we may not know how, why, who and when it will be known, it will be---in God's time, in God's way, for His reason.

But, woe to her husband, for hell will surely be waiting for him, eagerly.

[AnimalLover]

I've made all the calls too and all I hear is that "we
have done everything we can" - legislative cannot interfere
with judicial - unless of course you are an endangered
species.

I am in California and at this time our legislature is
working on an "assisted death" bill. Looks like this case
is wanted as a test case.

How about the police and nurses there at the hospice?
Surely they are aware of what is going on - how can they
stand by and do nothing?

Just heard, Sean Hannity will be in Fort Myers, Fla., this
coming weekend with Neil Boortz(?) - anything with Neil? I for one will boycott Florida for everything if Terri is put to death.

[BykrBayb]

Thank you so much for the transcript, and your experience with trying to save it.

[Salvation]

**although he recalled the conversation three years after her collapse and only after winning $1 million in medical negligence damages relating to her early care...**

If only more people knew about this!