Terri Schiavo Begins Receiving Fluids and Hospital Care - (Current Status Alert!)

LifeNews ^ | October 22, 2003 | Steven Ertelt

[PleaseNoMore]

Your post rocks! ;O)

[patent]

Awesome news!

[FITZ]

Michael can just go home, spend some time with his "fiancee" and forget about poor Terri. He doesn't get to kill her now.

[diamond6]

"He also asked me to make known his gratitude to St. Therese and Bl. Teresa of Calcutta. Since beginning the Novena to St. Therese, he has encountered roses and rose petals everywhere he goes, even in the most unusual of places."


I don't think people will understand the above if you aren't catholic.... There is a special novena (nine days reciting the same prayer for a specific intention) to St. Therese of Lisieux. When she lived, a carmelite nun in France in the late 1800's I think, she said that when she died she would spend "her heaven showering roses upon the earth" in other words, interceding for all of us. When you pray this certain novena you experience roses during it i.e. you will smell roses, someone will give you a rose (someone who is unaware of the novena), you might find a rose petal at your feet. This has happened to me everytime I have prayed the novena. The most powerful experience was when I was praying for my sister and on my way to work, the scent of roses came out of my hands and everything I touched then had the rose scent on it. It was incredible! There is a great site called www.littleflower.org. You can post your petitions on the site, I have had many answered prayers after doing that. But let me say this... GOD performed the miracle, He did all, I give glory to GOD for the answered prayers, St. Therese only interceded, just as my husband might or one of you.

[texgal]

This is far from over. The slimeball husband and his slimeball attorney are out shopping around for a judge to overturn Jeb's order on the grounds of unconstitutionality.

Write the legislators and the governer and thank them for their decision to enact Teri's Bill and ask them to give her guardianship to her parents. I just sent the following:

Dear Governer Bush:

I want to thank you so much for getting the food and water started again for Teri Schindler Schiavo. So many people around the world have prayed for this innocent woman whose only crime seems to have been to have survived an attack on her person that left her brain damaged.

It's hard to understand why Judge Greer, Michael Schiavo and George Felos want her to die. There has to be a reason, and I don't think it has anything to do with Teri's well being. I hope that now someone will investigate why her husband has denied her the rehabilitative therapy she needs and why he is so anxious to see her dead. He has no compassion for her whatsoever and only seeks to benefit from her death. Please appoint her parents as guardians and have someone look into the case against this guy.

I don't see much difference in Teri's situation than that of Christopher Reeves or Joni Earickson Tada or Dr. Steven Hawking. The exception being that they received rehabilitative therapy that Teri was denied by her "loving husband". He would not even allow her teeth to be brushed on a daily basis for 10 years!

I don't think anyone would suggest refusing Mr. Reeves, Ms. Tada or Dr. Hawking food and water! Food and water are essentials for life. We are all just a few days away from death without life sustaining food and water!

Thank you again for your assistance on Teri's behalf. The world was watching and you stepped up and did what government is supposed to do - protect the innocent. Please give her guardianship to her parents who want to provide her with the proper care.

God Bless you!

[pollywog]

I guess the thing that I don't understand (and probably never will) and have not succeeded in getting a liberal explain to me is: When a convicted murdered is about to be executed and injected with a lethal coctail of chemicals the left will scream: "inhumane!" Yet, this same left has no problem allowing the slow tortuous death of woman whose only crime was getting ill. Whether Terri has a "right to die" or not -- I don't get how anybody can sanction that type of death through slow starvation

Such a valid point here!!

[First_Salute]

She was not being allowed either of a "natural, dignified life" or a "natural, dignified death."

Your descriptions are appropro the torture that her husband put her through --- I would call it criminal neglect, but at least, it has been un-dignified, drawn out, death by suffering at his hands.

Her parents are the party that wished to stop that suffering.

She may yet, not live long.

I'm in agreement with you, that she should not suffer.

I submit that the love she can now enjoy, will be worth more than her suffering, to her dying day here on earth.

Some people are from a hardy stock, and Terri has endured what would have killed many others.

The accelerated rate of death among the NAZI's concentration camps during the ending days of World War II, is stunning. Because of the failure of supplying the camps, many hundreds died at each camp, on each day of the last few weeks of the war.

What the tougher constitutions had endured, the last week of no food, finished. Even with first aid, in the first week after their freedom from Hitler's SS, the people could not respond to care; they still died by the hundreds. Throughout Europe, in the last two weeks of the war, and the first week after, over a hundred thousand died from a lack of sustenance.

I have a good idea of what you're concerned about, is what I am saying.

We should not prolong pain and suffering. We should do no harm.

Terri's case is different, because her wishes have not been known, and her husband's claims to know them, have been arguably false, possibly of criminal intent.

That concerns the people of the State of Florida; it's a big issue, not a little issue, and no longer an individual issue when there fails to be a clear claim by her.

If anything, her will to live, defied her husband's claims that she wished to die.

Christopher Reeve is lucky to be able to speak. Everything that you know, are the problems of being confined, he has known well and protested, no doubt. Yet he chose life and still does.

His will to live, has defied just about every "school of thought," and through it all, he has hung on to to the day when some improvement finally came his way.

He is determined to walk again.

Without an affirmative statement that he does not, I'd not get in his way.

Without an affirmative statement on Terri's behalf, that she does not wish to live, I'd not get in her way.

There has never been an affirmative statement on Terri's behalf, that she does not wish to live.

There are claims by her husband, and there is hearsay by a couple of his relatives, but neither reach being an affirmative statement of intent.

The people of the State of Florida had to be satisfied of that level; but they were not; and so the State's Legislature and Governor established a law to rescue her from her husband's claims and clutches.

Maybe, all that is a big mistake, but I do not happen to think so, because our duty is to "err on the side of life," to quote Freeper Jeff Head.

We should not engage in casual processes of aborting life and aborting liberty.

Such societal engineering is what gets us in trouble in the first place.

[FR_addict]

You just described Stephen Hawkings, not Terri. Terri smiles and communicates. She is brain damaged so hopefully she is not as aware of her terrible condition as Stephen Hawkings.

Terri does not seem to be in much pain, except when they try to starve her or will not treat infections she gets.

Her quality of life is not our quality of life, but her family is willling and able to take care of her. She will not endure unnecessary suffering under their care, unlike the care she received under her husband's guardianship and he has proved by his adultery that he is her husband in name only.

[shhrubbery!]

This AOL Poll needs to be freeped. Did Bush do the right thing. As of now, 59% against Jeb Bush. I tried to post link, but it wouln't work and I have to leave.

Can someone add the link.

Sure, I'd be happy to.

FReep this AOL poll: "Should comatose woman Terry Schiavo be kept alive?"

Left side of page, scroll about a third of the way down.

[Dixielander]

Responding to your request for a report on what the Schindler family said on Glenn Beck's program, I submit the following: Terri's father, Bob; brother, Bobby; and sister, Susie, were briefly on the program.

After he found out the news that Terri was to be rehydraded Bob walked into her room, which was still heavily guarded, stepped over to Terri and whispered in her ear: "Baby, you're going to be enjoying a big milkshake." He said a smile came over her face in response.

Bob said that the ordeal had been especially hard on his wife---that she had endured an undescribable living hell over this.

Susie said that she was elated that Terri is now getting fluid, but that Terri's body had to be in good working order before she could be given food. Susie said she was still cautious (about the outcome) because of the continuing legal battle.

Bob opined that it would be wonderful if Michael would just give up his fight and let the family take care of Terri.

Bobby said that the situation tugged at his heart knowing that he could do nothing to help his sister.

Glenn Beck asked Bob if he was bowled over when Gov. Bush met with them, or if he saw it coming? Bob responded that there had been contact beforehand from Bush's office, indicating that they were trying to do something. Of his meeting with Gov. Bush he said "the guy is genuine." During the meeting Susie asked the governor if there was someone higher up that he could call on to help in the situation. Bush broke up laughing.

Ending the interview Beck said that initially he had fought against Terri, and that is something that he regrets. He indicated that after he did some independent research he changed his view. Choking up and on the verge of tears, Beck said that he was glad that he had been given the opportunity to change his ways.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I just noticed quite a few typos - sorry about that. I honestly don't get it. Those people on the left would scream: "no death penalty" and "inhumane" regarding executions by lethal injection, yet somehow clamor for the death of an innocent woman by the most torturous means possible. The same people on the left insist on "women's rights" yet think its just fine and dandy that her husband is calling all the shots. I don't get it.

If someone could explain the mindset of a liberal to me, I'd appreciate it. Or, better yet, is there a liberal here who can explain why

death by lethal injection on a murderer = bad
death by starvation on an innocent woman = good

[ruoflaw]

Thanks!

[from occupied ga]

Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials said that hospital workers faced arrest if they did not act on Bush's executive order and care for Terri.

As someone who is not totally up on this, I have two and a half questions: First one and a half, Does the governor have the constitutional authority to do this? If he does, then is the converse true - Does he have the authority to order someone put to death by executive order? and second, Who's paying for her extended care?

[Dixielander]

In the event you didn't hear Beck's program, my report of sorts is #50.

[Velveeta]

A Christmas Miracle?
Woman Out of ‘Vegetative State’ After 16 Years

Patti White Bull awoke after 16 years in a vegetative state. (ABCNEWS.com)
By Shawna Vogel

A L B U Q U E R Q U E, N.M., Dec. 29 — For 16 years, life for Patti White Bull had been very much the same — not much of a life at all, her body locked in a coma-like state, fed by a tube.

But on Christmas Day this year, she was miraculously awake, writing a letter to her mother, dressing herself and walking with support. “Absolutely extraordinary,” is how one medical expert described the 42-year-old New Mexico woman’s sudden awakening after more than a decade and a half.
And today, like many other Americans in this holiday season, White Bull headed to a shopping mall, according to her doctor, Elliot Marcus.
It was her first request.

Unconscious Since Childbirth
“It really is quite amazing,” says Gregory O’Shanick, national medical director for the Brain Injury Association. “In general, people don’t spontaneously emerge from a minimally conscious state. It’s a gradual process. It’s not like a light switch going on.”
But that seems to be exactly what has happened to White Bull, a mother of four who lost consciousness during the birth of her youngest child. For the past 10 years, she has been in a nursing home in “total care.”
Her ex-husband Mark White Bull, who divorced her three years after she lost consciousness, planned to visit her today with their children, now 25, 19, 17 and 16.

Not Exactly ‘Comatose’
She can’t be described as awakening from 16 years in a coma, says one expert. Most patients spend no more than a month in a true coma, according to Ronald Cranford, neurologist and medical ethicist at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. After that, they go into a vegetative state, in which their eyes are open but they remain unconscious.
Patients can then emerge from this vegetative state to minimal consciousness, in which they are still not awake but can have what Randy Chestnut, a neurologist at Oregon Health Sciences University, calls “some very basic meaningful interactions with their environment.”

Suddenly, She Spoke
Just where White Bull was on the spectrum of consciousness before her Christmastime awakening, we are not yet clear. Marcus says her eyes were open, but she was unresponsive. Then, White Bull suddenly told an aide who was adjusting her covers, “Don’t do that.”
“This is extraordinary, but not out of the realm of possibility,” Chestnut says. He suggested she may have had some kind of brain-stem blockage that kept stimulation from getting to her brain until that very moment.
Cranford suggests White Bull may have been interacting with people in subtle ways that nobody was noticing: “Maybe on Christmas Day, people noticed more than they ever had before, and that made it seem like a dramatic recovery.”
He has investigated a number of cases of “late recovery” and found that most of them don’t pan out: “The longest well-documented recovery from a coma, is two and a half years.”
Nevertheless, he says he believes cases like this should be investigated to determine just exactly what happened and to help doctors treat other people in similar states.

Accolades for Attendants
Marcus is as amazed as anyone at his patient’s recovery, especially in that she is up and around already. Most people who awaken from vegetative states are physically disabled as well as mentally challenged.
He says the staff at Las Palomas Nursing Home in Albuquerque is to thank for White Bull’s remarkable mobility; they were constantly exercising her legs.
White Bull is currently undergoing intensive speech and physical therapy. Neurological tests are in the works.
While experts cannot yet explain her recovery, family members say they consider it a Christmastime miracle from God.
ABCNEWS medical journalists Sarah Adler and Mary Harris contributed to this report, as did the Associated Press.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/miraclewoman991229.html

[Warren_Piece]

Imagine you are lying in a bed or sitting in a chair... Maybe you have a catheter to drain your bladder, or maybe you are in a diaper and urinate and defecate on yourself like a baby. Your either have bed sores or are at high risk of getting them. Your arms and possibly your legs are contracted because the muscles have long since dwindled to nothing. Those limbs will always be that way because they have just not been used for too, too long..is a prisoner in her own body... The chances of rehab working for anyone after 13 years is slim to none. Regardless of Terri's husbands motives, this woman should no longer be tortured. This is not being alive, this is existing.

You just described my brother, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy about 15 years ago. Thanks to some engineering genius on my dad's part, and the miracle of the internet, my brother has become a world-renown musician. Oh well, better he should die and decrease the surplus population. When are you coming over to kill him?

[Warren_Piece]

Where do I sign? I can use paypal, if terri's parents can accept it.

[Velveeta]

I have my doubts that she's a "nurse". Wouldn't last a minute on my staff!

[shhrubbery!]

The Patty White Bull case is a great case to cite. I love the bafflement of the "experts."

[Saundra Duffy]

Felos was on TV again this morning with the same old yada yada yada. Satan never sleeps.