>> MS did not know what Terri's wishes would be.....this is just so amazing? Why isn't HER statement as valid as MS's-who stands to gain, while she does not? Both are hearsay!
For THAT matter, why are the (at least TWO) people who
KNEW Terri was wanting a divorce just prior to her 'accident'
ALSO allowed to present their 'hearsay'? Its just as
valid too...
Actually moreso now, since MS has clearly
ended his marriage thru adultery, starting a new family,
and refusing any additional treatment for Terri.
Attorneys scramble to find woman in Schiavo case
Both sides want to talk with the woman whose comments turned around the case of Terri Schiavo.
By ANITA KUMAR and WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2001
The woman whose statements prompted a judge to resume feeding Terri Schiavo could not be found Friday by attorneys eager to talk to her.
Attorneys for both Mrs. Schiavo's husband and her parents scrambled to serve Cyndi Shook with a subpoena, forcing her to testify about her accusations that Michael Schiavo committed perjury when he said his wife would not want to be kept alive on life support.
The case, which made it to the U.S. Supreme Court only to be overturned by a Pinellas circuit judge, is expected to continue in full force next week, making it clear that Mrs. Schiavo's fate will not be decided quickly.
Mrs. Schiavo, 37, was fed through a feeding tube to her stomach Thursday night for the first time since being denied food and water for 60 hours.
Shook, a 31-year-old mother of two, spoke out this week when she heard people describing Michael Schiavo as a saint on a local radio show. She said she wanted to set the record straight.
Shook and Michael Schiavo were friends for about 10 months in 1992. In an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Shook said Schiavo told her he did not know what to do with his wife, who had been in a persistent vegetative state since a 1990 heart attack.
Shook says Schiavo did not know what Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted him to do with her: keep her in a nursing home or move her to her parents' home. But Shook says Schiavo was not talking specifically about whether his wife would have wanted to be on life support.
She asked him what would help him get on with his life. That's when Schiavo said, "How the hell should I know? She was 25 years old and we did not talk about it," she said.
"That's exactly what I remember him saying," Shook said. "It was more of a "I have no earthly idea what to do' kind of statement."
She said she sympathizes with Mrs. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, but insists that they're grasping at straws and twisting her words when they try to use her words to help keep Mrs. Schiavo alive.
After receiving word of Shook's statement, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada on Thursday ordered doctors to resume feeding Mrs. Schiavo while her parents pursue a lawsuit against the woman's husband. The judge did what the U.S. Supreme Court and four other courts before him refused to do.
George Felos, Schiavo's attorney, said he was considering a number of legal options but had not decided how to fight the Schindlers, or if he should appeal Quesada's decision to the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.
"Time is of the essence," Felos said. "Each day that goes by Terri is medically treated in a way she did not want to be."
Within minutes of the 8:30 p.m. order Thursday, doctors resumed feeding her through a tube for the first time since 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The Schindlers, who for years have fought their son-in-law over whether Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube should be removed, visited their daughter for about 30 minutes Friday afternoon for the first time since the feeding resumed.
"I wouldn't wish this experience on anybody," Schindler said outside Hospice House Woodside in Pinellas Park. "It's been horrible . . . What we're ultimately trying to do is keep Terri alive."
It's unlikely Mrs. Schiavo suffered any permanent damage from the lack of food and water, said Dr. Ronald Schonwetter, head of geriatrics at the University of South Florida College of Medicine.
He said she would likely have become more sleepy -- probably yawning more than usual -- but that she would have easily been able to consume food again, though less than before because her body was not accustomed to being fed.
Mrs. Schiavo has been living in the Hospice House Woodside since last year, when publicity prompted her former nursing home to evict her. Schiavo banned his wife's sister, Suzanne, and brother, Bobby, from the home Thursday after they asked employees there to feed her.
It is the policy of Hospice of the Florida Suncoast to feed patients, even after a feeding tube has been removed, if they are able to eat on their own. The Schindlers want the nursing home to try to feed Mrs. Schiavo but Felos said tests have shown she can't swallow.
Schiavo, a respiratory therapist who lives in Clearwater, could not be reached for comment but Felos said he denies Shook's allegations and questioned why she had not spoken up before.
Schiavo has been engaged to another woman for five years. He and his wife do not have children.
"I can't even express in words how hard this has been," Felos said. "It's heart-wrenching. It's a travesty."
- Times staff writer Mike Brassfield and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
http://www.sptimes.com/News/042801/TampaBay/Attorneys_scramble_to.shtml