Legal team in Jeb's office are meeting as we speak. Please call his office and express your concern: 850.488.4441.
Terri was 26 years old when she suffered brain damage from a sudden collapse. Terri receives her food and water by me
ans of a feeding tube. Terri’s other bodily functions are physically stable. Terri smiles, laughs and cries. Terri recognizes voices and responds. At times, she vocalizes sounds, trying in her best way to speak. Terri is not a brain dead vegetable as characterized by her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo nor a houseplant as implied by his attorney. Terri is not on a respirator or any artificial life support. She is a living human being and needs to be granted an opportunity to recover. Terri has not had any progressive rehabilitation or arousal therapy in more than ten years.
In a trial initiated by Michael Schiavo, Circuit Court Judge, George W. Greer, issued a verdict delivered on February 11, 2000. Judge Greer granted authorization to discontinue Terri’s feeding tube. Judge Greer’s verdict will cause Terri to die in 10 to 14 days. Terri’s death will be by painful starvation.
In a malpractice lawsuit, Terri’s husband personally received over $300,000 for his loss of consortium. Terri was awarded $750,000 from this suit and an additional $250,000 from a separate malpractice lawsuit. The money was awarded to Terri for her care and rehabilitation and to be placed in a Medical Trust Fund. Terri’s husband received his personal award money and Terri’s medical fund money in early 1993. From the date he received the award money in 1993, Michael Schiavo has denied Terri any rehabilitation treatment. Michael Schiavo has confined Terri to a nursing home (currently, Terri is in a Hospice facility) where she is 'maintained.'
Her husband has directed that Terri only be sustained in a nursing home which is contrary to the intent of the award money. Michael Schiavo has on two occasions unsuccessfully attempted to end Terri’s life by instructing her caretakers not to medicate Terri for potentially fatal infections. The first occasion occurred less than nine months after her husband received the malpractice award money.
- Terri has no will. Should she die, her husband will inherit what is left of Terri’s $750,000 medical fund.
- Terri’s husband lives in a house with Jodi Centonze. He openly admits that he has been engaged to this women for over seven years, have recently given birth to a baby girl, and has announced plans to marry her when Terri is no longer alive.
- Since receiving the award money in 1993, her husband has ceased and prohibited any new or aggressive treatment for Terri. He has only maintained Terri at a nursing home (currently, Terri is in a Hospice facility). He has totally ignored or denied rehabilitation therapy that could possibly assist Terri’s recovery.
- Since 1993, Terri’s husband has consistently and deliberately withheld all medical information and data from Terri’s family. Over the past eight years he has ordered Terri’s caretakers not to reveal any medical or neurological information
- Michael Schiavo will not permit any doctor to examine Terri other than the doctors he selects.
- As Terri’s legal guardian, her husband has used her medical fund money to offset the legal costs when his guardianship of Terri was initially challenged and to pay the current legal costs to have Terri’s life ended.
- Terri responds regularly to the presence of her parents and friends. Her husband's doctors testified Terri's cognizant responses to Terri’s parents and friends are simply a reflex action.
If you can, please go to Florida and picket this place of death. The Lefties have no trouble mustering a crowd [and attending media] to 'save' a convicted multiple-murderer. I suppose part of the reason is we work while they do not. They can afford to go around the country and protest whatever they are told to protest. It's a lifestyle for them. Meanwhile those of us who are carrying the country on our backs do not have cameras in our faces because we, work, bathe, pay our taxes etc.
Ping! From the second paragraph: "[Thompson]urged [Jeb Bush] to initiate a criminal investigation by the FL Dept. of Law Enforcement based on a growing list of facts which suggest criminal wrongdoing and a conflict of interest on the part of Terri Schiavo's husband and guardian Michael Schiavo."
...but under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Terri is assured of a convenient parking place at any public place she might go...
God bless Richard Thompson. Continuing to pray for Terri.
ALL RIGHT!!!! This is great news. God is still in the prayer business people, dont ever forget that!
Follow-up
Please bear in mind that AFTER ABOUT 60 HOURS, PERMANENT DAMAGE FROM DEHYDRATION/STARVATION CAN RESULT. Time is of the essence. If enough time goes by, Terri can slip into a coma for real. Then Michael Schiavo's objective will be attained.
http://www.thomasmore.org/news.html?CNSNewsID=1 Gov. Bush's Staff Will Attempt to Intervene in Schiavo Case
Thu, Oct 16, 2003
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has instructed his legal staff to try to find a way to save the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo, a disabled 39-year-old woman whose feeding tube was removed under court order Wednesday at her husband's request.
While Bush acknowledged Wednesday that "the ultimate decision of this is in the courts," he told Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, that he is still looking for a way to help Terri.
"We are going to seek whatever legal alternatives are available and seek the best minds to find another avenue to submit to the courts to see if there can be a change in this ruling," Bush said after a private meeting with the Schindlers.
"I am not a doctor, and I am not a lawyer," Bush added. "But I know that if a person can be able to sustain life without life support, that should be tried."
Robert Schindler said he and his family have "not given up hope.
"We have spoken to the governor, and he hasn't given up hope either," Mr. Schindler said after meeting with Bush. "We all felt a lot better when we left the interview with him. I have confidence something will happen. We still have time."
"I have to believe that someone, somewhere will stop this judicial homicide," said Suzanne Carr, Terri's sister.
As CNSNews.com reported Monday, Florida law authorizes the state Department of Children and Family Services' Adult Protective Service Unit to perform an "emergency protective services intervention" if the state has "reasonable cause to believe that a vulnerable adult is suffering from abuse or neglect that presents a risk of death or serious physical injury to the vulnerable adult and that the vulnerable adult lacks the capacity to consent to emergency protective services."
Title III, Chapter 415, Section 105 (2) of the Florida Code also gives authorities emergency powers to forcibly enter a private premise and to remove a "vulnerable adult," who cannot give consent for treatment or ask for help, to a location where he or she can receive that care if an investigator "has reason to believe that the situation presents a risk of death or serious physical injury."
Although no provision in the statute authorizes the courts to override the law, Bush's office has been operating under the belief that the court's order to remove the feeding tube supercedes the state's legislated power to protect disabled adults from neglect.
Hospice workers, medical staff could face criminal charges for neglect
The Florida Criminal Code also declares "neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult" to be a felony punishable by both fine and imprisonment. The statute defines "neglect" as:
"A caregiver's failure or omission to provide an elderly person or disabled adult with the care, supervision and services necessary to maintain the elderly person's or disabled adult's physical and mental health, including, but not limited to, food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential for the well-being of the elderly person or disabled adult."
Patricia Anderson, attorney for the Schindler family, told Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor Wednesday night that she cannot predict whether anyone will be held accountable for Terri's expected death.
"Whether, under these circumstances, an
y grand jury would indict someone or a state attorney, a prosecutor, would file a direct information is probably a political question," Anderson said. "I know that there are many, many people who are terribly upset by this outcome.
"Florida," Anderson added, "is not some backwater hellhole."
George Felos, one of the attorneys representing Terri's husband Michael Schiavo, told the St. Petersburg Times that Gov. Bush has no right to try to influence the courts.
"I think it is very unfortunate that the governor persists in trying to exert political influence on the judicial system," Felos said.
Felos believes there is "no legal means" for Bush to intervene in the case, but he told the Times: "No one takes the governor lightly."
Dehydration expected to end Terri's life in less than a week
At 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, Terri had been without nutrition or hydration for 24 hours. Although medical protocols call for caregivers to moisten the lips and mouth of the dying patient and to give medication to alleviate the pain, it is unknown whether or not those steps are being taken to comfort Terri. Schiavo has barred the release of any information about any treatment his wife might or might not receive.
Doctors predict that, depending on how much fluid was in her system when the feeding tube was removed, Terri will die of dehydration within a week. While it is possible that she could live up to 15 days or longer, eventually dying of starvation, medical experts believe that without hydration, she will not live long enough to starve to death.
Doctors have also reached no consensus on the amount of pain felt by patients who are allowed to die under such circumstances or whether medications given to alleviate pain work under extraordinary conditions.
somebody better keep Michael Schiavo away from Terri, the horrid thought just came to my mind....