Posted on 12/20/2009 11:20:56 AM PST by wagglebee
Elmira, N.Y. -
Bobby Schindler watched his sister die in one of the most publicized end-of-life cases in the nation’s history.
Now, he’s hoping a similar case in Chemung County has a different ending.
Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo, was in Elmira Monday to show his support for Sara Harvey, who is attempting to regain custody of her injured husband, Gary Harvey.
“We’re trying to support her efforts to bring her husband home,” Schindler said.
Chemung County is the guardian of Gary Harvey, who has been in a persistent vegetative state since he fell down his basement steps in January 2006 in Horseheads. Sara Harvey was removed as her husband’s guardian in February 2007.
She claims Chemung County is trying to kill her husband, as evidenced by its request in May to remove Gary Harvey’s feeding tube. The county has said it follows the advice of doctors to make decisions in Gary Harvey’s best interests.
“I just want my husband back,” she said Monday. Ultimately, the county withdrew its request to remove Gary Harvey’s feeding tube, but a do-not-resuscitate order remains in place.
The case remains in legal limbo.
Sara Harvey lost guardianship of her husband in February 2007 after a judge found she was ill-suited to care for him and did not follow medical advice. The county attorney’s office claims Sara Harvey has a history of abusing her injured husband, an allegation she denies. Like Sara Harvey, Schindler and his family did not have guardianship of Terri Schiavo, whose husband was her guardian.
Terri Schiavo, who had been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990, died March 31, 2005, in Florida after her feeding tube was removed by a court order, a move requested and backed by her husband, Michael Schiavo. Her death culminated years of bitter legal fights between the Schindlers and Michael Schiavo. “There are animals that got treated better than my sister,” Schindler said. “All life is really sacred.”
Schindler said Chemung County should allow Sara Harvey to regain guardianship and let Gary Harvey live. “Gary Harvey is not dying,” Schindler said. “There is no reason care (should be) denied.”
Schindler, who visited Gary Harvey on Monday at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Elmira, said the county is bullying Sara Harvey.
“It’s horrible how they are treating this woman,” he said.
Sara Harvey is allowed only supervised visits with her husband.
“I went through hell, and I’m still going through hell,” she said. “The government owns my husband.”
Schindler, who has an uncle who lives in Corning, helps run a foundation that advocates for people in situations similar to Sara Harvey’s. The foundation’s Web site is www.terrisfight.org.
This is exactly what we will be seeing every day with Zero's death panels.
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I have been in shock with how healthcare works in New York as opposed to Texas. I pray I stay healthy until able to move back to Texas!
Unfortunately, Texas now has a "futile care law" where a health care facility can deem that further care is "futile", at this point the family has ten days to find another facility to provide care or all care is discontinued.
“Terri Schiavo, who had been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990”
I am SO TIRED OF THIS LIE being perpetrated on the American public.
And the hospital which is denying care often sabotages any chance of getting another facility to provide care.
I am SO TIRED OF THIS LIE being perpetrated on the American public.
A lot of us are!
I worked as a social worker at a nursing home and I was told by the director to really push for every resident to have a DNR order.
How sad! I’m glad both my parents didn’t live to see this! My mother would’ve been a candidate for the “futile care” law - we were lucky to have hospice care at home and a wonderful caregiver. It breaks my heart!
The nuns who did in-home hospice care when my grandfather was dying of pancreatic cancer three years ago were a true blessing for my grandparents and the rest of the family.
Every doctor who testified in court described her behavior in ways that are inconsistent with PVS. The ones that her estranged husband bribed (with her rehab money) testified that she performed various tasks which PVS patients are incapable of performing, then had the audacity to say she was PVS, without even making any claims of symptoms to support that claim.
I find it interesting that all of the FReepers who were so thrilled to see Terri get murdered are so silent now (though a lot of them were banned).
I would love to have one of them explain why it is acceptable for an estranged, adulterous and probably abusive “spouse” can murder someone but the government cannot.
I was not yelling at you, I was just yelling in your general direction. That is what I tell my husband! Lol!
I know. :-)
I wasn’t a Freeper when Terri was murdered. But some of those Freepers are still around, maybe not the same ones but the same type. I had an argument with a couple of them the other day.
There was a pack of rabid harpies who couldn't seem to understand why anyone would want Terri to live, of course they were also complaining that conservatives had their "foot on the neck" of the GOP because conservatives oppose things like abortion.
Here's a great example of how the noose tightens: suppose the "medical advise" is "withhold nutrition and hydration." You violate that, and they'll find you "ill-suited and refusing to follow medical advise...."
advise >> advice.
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