What appeal is this? And from whom?
I must have missed this one.
still praying for a miracle.
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - Two state courts on Friday turned away efforts by the parents of a brain-damaged woman to reinsert a feeding tube that was disconnected on her husband's orders. Supporters of Bob and Mary Schindler said they asked the courts to direct Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo. Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Sjostrom of Tallahassee rejected the request outright, saying it should have been filed in Pinellas County where the case originated. The 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee then denied the request without comment. Attorneys for the Schindlers were planning the next step, said Randall Terry, the anti-abortion activist who has taken up the family's cause. He said it's unlikely they would get satisfaction in Pinellas County, where a judge has already ruled that Michael Schiavo has the legal right to have the feeding tube removed. Terry said the legal effort was made by the Schindler's attorneys in hopes it would give Bush legal standing to intervene and reinstate Terri Schiavo's feedings. On Wednesday, doctors disconnected the feeding tube that has been keeping Terri Schiavo alive since 1990, when she suffered brain damage following a heart attack. She is expected to be able to live one to two weeks without food, but her parents and their supporters were growing increasingly frantic some 48 hours into the process. "They are just out of their minds with grief and anxiety," said the family's attorney, Pat Anderson. Doctors have said Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery, but her parents believe she has mental abilities and can be rehabilitated. The governor has been sympathetic to the Schindlers' efforts block their daughter's starvation, but has said he has yet to find a legal means to override court rulings that allow Michael Schiavo to disconnect the feeding tube. The Schindlers are pushing for the governor to open an investigation into their suspicions Terri Schiavo was abused by her husband. Michael Schiavo has adamantly denied mistreating his wife, and both the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office have declined to investigate such allegations, citing a lack of evidence. Anderson called Friday's effort "a hail Mary," and was not surprised the courts rejected the petition. The decade-long legal battle between the Schindlers and their son-in-law has passed through the hands of 19 separate judges and now seven different courts. "There has been an awful lot of judicial attention to this case," Anderson said. "Judges don't like to second-guess each other." Efforts to reach George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, for comment were not immediately successful Friday. Felos has criticized such last-minute legal maneuvering as an attempt by the Schindlers and their supporters to negate repeated court approval of Michael Schiavo's actions. The Schindlers have asked the governor to issue an executive order directing the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to open an investigation into Terri Schiavo's treatment. She was 26 years old when a potassium imbalance stopped her heart; she went for 10 minutes without oxygen and was left severely brain-damaged. Michael Schiavo collected more than $1 million in medical malpractice claims against doctors who failed to diagnose Terri Schiavo's chemical imbalance. The Schindlers allege their son-in-law said nothing about his wife's wishes not to be kept alive artificially until he stood to inherit her medical trust fund. Anderson met with FDLE agents in July to discuss the Schindlers' suspicions that broken bones detected in 1991 were caused by her husband. The broken bones were discovered in a routine bone scan, but have been explained by doctors to be brittle bone disease. An FDLE report released this week said that agents could not find sufficient evidence of a crime and said there was a lack of physical evidence. The agents said they could not justify a case against Michael Schiavo. Anderson was critical of the FDLE review and said no real investigation of the allegations has ever been conducted. AP-ES-10-17-03 1634EDT