Mary Jane and Lisa Gott.
Lisa Gott is sustained with a respirator and feeding tube.
Posted on 03/22/2005 5:55:13 PM PST by nickcarraway
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A Port St. Lucie woman who has a daughter on life support said Sunday she sympathizes with Terri Schiavo's parents.
Mary Jane Gott's daughter Lisa had a heart attack at 38 and has been in a vegetative state ever since.
Lisa Gott is fitted with a feeding tube and respirator and is being cared for in a Staten Island, N.Y., nursing home. Her mother said she could never take her daughter off life support.
"When God is ready to put his arms around her and take her, she'll go, and not until then," she said.
Gott said she has been praying for Terri Schiavo, hoping that she will be given a chance to live.
"This woman (her mother) carried this child, she gave her life, isn't she entitled to have any say-so in what happens to her child? This is her child. It's not fair."
Doctors believe a potassium imbalance in 1990 caused Schiavo's heart to temporarily stop, cutting off oxygen to her brain. She has been in a persistent vegetative state ever since. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has said his wife told him years ago that she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means. Schiavo's parents believe otherwise, and want her kept alive. The two parties have engaged in a protracted legal battle over their own legal standing in the case to decide her fate.
Gott said she doesn't understand Michael Schiavo's actions.
"How do you think this mother feels, that she has to see her daughter laying there like this," she said. "He's gotten on with his life. All they're asking for is a chance to help their daughter."
She said her son-in-law takes care of her daughter.
"He has a life, he's entitled to a life, I don't begrudge him that, but he takes care of my daughter and my grandchildren."
"I would give my soul if I could see my daughter's face light up like Terri's does when her mother comes in there. She smiles, she follows directions with her eyes, she grunts. My daughter doesn't do any of this."
"Unless you walk in my shoes, you don't know how I feel," she said. "Everybody should sit down and ask one question: Could you do this to your child? Could you do it? See how many people say yes."
ping
And she along with all the other families with similar burdens can now wonder when they will come for their loved ones. What a terrible nightmare.
Kinda cocky attitude don't you think? I mean, we have all kinds of courts [state, federal, you name it] that seem to think otherwise ...
Should this mom have the right to remove the respirator? She seems to be in a different state than Terri. Poor thing. I didn't realize a heart attack could do that. Thought you either died or got better.
A respirator and a feeding tube! Good Lord! Some federal judge somewhere must be drooling with anticipation.
I wonder who they will go after first. These poor people or the quadroplegics who can't breathe without respirators. This is all so sick!
Not in the least.
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