Feeding tube removed from comatose woman at center of long-running legal battle

Associated Press ^ | 10-15-03

[george wythe]

There are experts claiming that Terry will not suffer during the starvation.

I don't know it these reports are accurate, but I do know that the judges on this case have been convinced that Terry cannot recover.

"I don't think it is widely appreciated just how damaged her brain is," said Walker, an internist, who has followed the case closely by reading the public record.

Schiavo's cerebral cortex, he said, is mostly gone. It was destroyed by the loss of oxygen she suffered when she had a heart attack 13 years ago. Once gone, the cortex cannot grow back, Walker said. The space it once occupied in Schiavo's skull is now filled with spinal fluid.

"The cortex does all our thinking," he said. "Some people argue that it's responsible for personhood. Without a cortex, you can't think, feel, have consciousness."

Schiavo is "awake but not aware," Walker said. Parts of her brain that control reflexes and other basic bodily functions still work. So she can sleep, breathe, blink and make the other moves that fuel the faith of those who seek to save her.

Her lack of consciousness is so complete that, according to Walker, if her feeding tube were to be removed from her stomach, Schiavo would not suffer. His language is chilling; the picture he leaves, almost unimaginable.

"She cannot perceive thirst or hunger. She doesn't have the brain structures necessary for that kind of perception."

[Theodore R.]

But Schiavo will not allow her to be fed by spoon, as I understand his orders. Apparently no food/water will be brought to her at all.

[Bikers4Bush]

Why do people want to allow her husband to finish the murder he started 13 years ago?

That's you, be sure to put it in writing so that they will think they are doing the right thing when they pull the plug on you and you struggle to live.

[Gophack]

How in the world can the judge order the doctor's not to try and feed her through her mouth? If she can eat and swallow, shouldn't she be at least offered the chance??????

This is sick and tragic. And they are sedating her so she can't even try and eat. How can they get away with this? I don't understand. I'm not stupid, but I just don't understand this.

[Theodore R.]

Do you think Bush is AFRAID to bend the FL rules to save this one life? I suspect that he would save other lives similarly situated under different circumstances. Just my cynical opinion, and I wish that I were wrong on that.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

This smacks of Nazi-ism.

It is Nazism. Hitler did the same thing in 1938 to kill millions of people he deemed 'worthless' based on research done 7 years earlier on the "Persistent vegatative state".

[Marie Antoinette]

After spending 13 years at her comatos bed-side, don't you think it is time?

You're joking, right?? Michael Schiavo doesn't waste his time at her bedside. She isn't comatose, BTW, in case you've just joined us here. She is conscious (or WAS before they sedated her, in any case).

Her parents want to take care of her, her "husband", who already has been shacked up for YEARS with the mother of his illegitimate children, wants her DEAD come hell or high water.

The husband and judge won't even let anybody TRY to feed her by mouth, they just want her to starve. Her parents WANT her, why can't they take care of her? She left no living will or advance directive, BTW.

[mitchbert]

She would be long dead without medical intervention.

She very well might not be in the state she's in if her husband (spit) would have permitted therapy. He wanted her to die. Period. He wouldn't as much as allow her teeth to be brushed. And now he forbids the woman's family from comforting her daughter as she dies a lonely and miserable death.

She was denied care which may have helped her long ago. This isn't like a car accident victim that is in a coma for years hooked up to a myriad of machinery. This is murder, and that POS should be made to answer for it.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

She is not in a coma or brain dead.

[itsahoot]

If this were to happen to me I would hope that those who love me would not subject me to such a procedure.

Why wait? You can leave anytime you want.

[texasbluebell]

I guess we'll be reading about Michael Schiavo's wedding 11 days from now.

She won't last 10 days without water -- isn't it 3 days the body can survive without it?

I somehow doubt they're going to be keeping her hydrated if they intend for her to go quickly. There's not much time left...

[erikm88]

If any of you have seen the videos on terrisfight.org The videos show without a doubt, higher order brain activity for someone in such a disabled state.

She was clearly laughing, smiling, attempting to speak, and tracking a balloon with her eyes. It seems as if her mental acuity has diminished to that of a mere infant/toddler. That does not justify neglecting her of food and water. Would we do that to our own infants and toddlers who depend on their parents for sustenance?

If a liberal judge could kill a person via starvation, he certainly doesn't have qualms about sucking it out of a womb and shredding it.

--erik

[geege]

Or let him just live a rotten life and then go to hell.

[spectre]

"She would be long dead without medical intervention"..

Huh? My friend who goes thru dialysis 3 days a week, because his kidneys are shot. He'd be dead in a week without "medical intervention".

sw

[Moose4]

If nothing is done, this woman will die in a manner that we would not do to any murderer, pedophile, or terrorist in our custody.

Think about that. If Osama bin Laden--the man who masterminded the deaths of three thousand Americans--was captured, we wouldn't starve him to death. If Saddam Hussein was captured, we wouldn't starve him to death. The vilest, lowest pedophile priest in our prisons wouldn't be starved to death. No court would allow it.

And yet, multiple courts have said that it's OK for an innocent woman to be starved to death simply because her husband wishes it. That's it. She has committed no crime, no wrongdoing. Her husband basically just wants her dead.

It is a very sad day for the legal system in Florida.

}:-)4

[.38sw]

I don't understand it either, but I have read on more than one thread that the judge refused to even allow a swallowing test to be administered. I can't offer a source other than reading it here. Maybe someone else has that information. I recall reading that the judge said something like, "No one is to try to feed that girl!". How wrong is that to even refuse to allow a swallowing test to see if she can be taught to eat and drink? Just horrible.

[diamond6]

"We all must pray for Terri to have the will to fight and eat. This fight is not over. Pray. Pray hard."


I'm with you. God often intervense at the very last minute, and now is not the last minute... although it feels it!

[Gophack]

The judge may be convinced, but not all methods of helping her recovery have been tried. Every new treatment has been stopped by her evil husband. And he is evil. I don't throw that term around lightly. He has stopped Terri's family from helping and I believe there's a hot place down under reserved for him.

Pray.

[TexasCajun]

Why do people want to allow her husband to finish the murder he started 13 years ago?

Please explain this statement. Why wasn't he arrested and charged with Attempted Murder?

What caused her trauma? car accident? bad gun-shot? Poison?