Feeding Tube Removed From Comatose Woman

AP via The Las Vegas Sun ^ | October 16, 2003 | MITCH STACY

[Pan_Yans Wife]

One of the nation's longest and most bitter euthanasia battles approached an end with the removal of a feeding tube from a comatose woman, but her parents clung to hope for a legal reversal and Gov. Jeb Bush promised to help.

The tube was removed Wednesday from Terri Schiavo, 39, at the Tampa Bay-area hospice where she has lived for several years. She was expected to die within 10 days.

Schiavo's parents have been locked in a legal battle with her husband, Michael Schiavo, who says she would rather die than be kept alive artificially. She has been in a vegetative state since 1990, when her heart stopped because of what doctors said may have been a chemical imbalance.

Bob Schindler said he and his wife, Mary, went in to see their daughter shortly after the tube was removed and gave her a kiss and hugged her. He said his daughter was not as responsive as they claim she normally has been.

"She's OK for the next couple of days," said Suzanne Carr, Terri Schiavo's sister. "We are just going to try to work some magic."

"I have to believe that somebody is doing something, somewhere to stop this judicial homicide," she said.

Wednesday's removal came just hours after Bush told the Schindlers that he was instructing his legal staff to find some means to block a court order allowing Michael Schiavo to end his wife's life. But even the family's lawyer has said their legal remedies have been exhausted.

"I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer. But I know that if a person can be able to sustain life without life support, that should be tried," the governor said, adding the "ultimate decision of this is in the courts."

Family members were heartened by the governor's last-minute effort.

"The family has not given up hope on Terri," the woman's brother, Bob Schindler Jr., said following a meeting with Bush. "We have spoken to the governor, and he hasn't given up hope either."

Michael Schiavo and his attorney George Felos were not immediately available for comment after the removal of the tube.

Several right-to-die cases across the nation have been fought in the courts in recent years, but few, if any, have been this drawn-out and bitter. The tangled case has already been handled by 19 separate judges and the tube has been ordered removed three times. At one point 2001, the tube was removed for two days before a judge ordered feeding to be resumed based on new evidence.

About 100 protesters stood outside the hospice Wednesday in what has become a 24-hour vigil staged by advocates for the disabled and anti-abortion activists.

Schiavo's family members believe she is capable of learning how to eat and drink on her own and say she has shown signs of trying to communicate and could be rehabilitated.

Doctors have testified that the noises and facial expressions Terri Schiavo makes are reflexes and do not indicate that she has enough mental capabilities to communicate with others.

The Florida Supreme Court has twice refused to hear the case, and it also has been rejected for review by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, a Florida appeals court again refused to block removal of the tube.

The Schindlers first sought to remove Michael Schiavo as his wife's guardian in 1993 after a falling out over her medical care. They say he now has a conflict of interest because he is engaged to another woman and they have a child together.

The family has also leveled allegations that Michael Schiavo has abused Terri Schiavo, although the accusations have not been substantiated.

Michael Schiavo has refused to divorce his wife, saying that he fears her parents would ignore her desire to die if they became her guardians.

[maestro]

Waco, Florida?

[joesnuffy]

Took out her feeding tube?....ya'll know this just doesnt seem right...hope somebody does something..good luck to ya Terri...

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I don't know about you, but I am only drinking fluids, today. Not eating any food.

Have you started a fast for Terri? Or, is that not your suggestion?

[lady lawyer]

There was a thread yesterday stating that there was significant evidence that the woman's injuries were caused,not by a heart attack, but by her husband's attempt to strangle her.

I had never heard this before. Is there any truth to it? Or is it someone's last ditch attempt to find a way to save her?

It seems to me that if it were true, even the anti-life media would pay attention.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I have heard that many times.

The media won't pick up on it because A.) they believe she is comatose and B.) Kobe is a sexy story.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

http://hospicepatients.org/Hosp-FL-Suncoast-entrypage.html

[joesnuffy]

an excellent idea...

[MinuteGal]

She's neither "comatose" nor in a "vegetative state" except by the media's own skewed standards.

Leni

[joesnuffy]

One thing I most appreciate about the ultimate leader hero savior
is that he left the ninety and nine
to go save the one
The most powerfull man on earth
could save one of the most helpless
If he wanted to

[APFel]

Expected to die in ten days? Regardless of her situation, starvation is a horrible way to go. The ten day estimation seems to be an admission that she is healthy and resiliant enough to withstand the traumas involved with being starved to death.

Is this the face of euthinasia? Is this the "die with dignity" crap that euthinasia proponents glorify? Why not cast her into the Florida swamp for the gators to devour?

No, no dignity here. No dignity by her worthless husband, the judge (who obviously keeps his brain in a jar on his desk while he resides on the bench) or even Jeb.

C'mon, Jeb. It's time to step up and do what you can. Frankly, if I were you, I'd go to that hospital, personally escort this poor womens parents into the room to at least say goodbye.

God save us from the left.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Euthanasia sounded good in the beginning, when people were envisioning the elderly.

Now, with the Schiavo case, everyone should stop and think again.

For in the future, children will be targeted for being handicapped.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

But we shouldn't have to wait for the President or the Governor to act.

I am not a citizen of Florida. However, the people of Florida should next be railing against their legislature for a change in their laws. If they don't, then it appears they will not learn the lesson of the Schiavo case.

[grumple]

Jeb Bush should order a stay of execution...

[maestro]

Cuba and Berlin are not far away.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I agree.

However, this is a civil case. And it appears he has exhausted all legal avenues.

However, if Terri could be divorced from her husband, citing infidelity... but, she needs an independent guardian. And thus far the courts have refused to remove her husband as the guardian. Blatant conflict of interest, in my opinion.

[maestro]

However, if Terri could be divorced from her husband, citing infidelity...However, if Terri could be divorced from her husband, citing infidelity...

.................citing ABANDONMENT.

[Greybird]

I find it ironic (well, what isn't these days?) that so many who are demonstrating and floviating about "defending marriage" are so perturbed by a husband exercising one of the legal privileges of marriage. That is, being the default guardian of one's spouse in extremis, when he or she is incapable of making or expressing judgments as to what is best for oneself.

[grumple]

Hs anyone noticed the the National Organization for Women is strangely silent on this? Maybe we are sending all of requests in the wrong direction. Anyone getting my idea?