THE FIGHT TO SAVE TERRI SCHIAVO - Chris Ferrara's Legal Brief for Terri

Catholic Legate ^ | October 23, 2003 | John Pacheco

[NYer]

Chris Ferrara's Legal Brief - Click here (PDF file format) to read the legal brief Chris Ferrara prepared for Terri's case. Un-freakin'-believable! If the State of Florida doesn't prosecute Michael Schiavo, I'm off to enroll in law school tomorrow.

Here are some experts from the brief relating to Schiavo's lawyer, George Fellos:

45. "Non-party co-conspirator Felos has been paid $550,000, virtually the entirety of Terri's estate...and no funds from the estate have been used for her rehabilitation..."

34. "On page 216, again discussing the Estate of Browning , Mr. Felos writes about the late Estele Browning...'Having spoken with Mrs. Browning when we first met, I decided, with a measure of earnest self-inflation, to purposely initiate such contact...From deep inside, I repeated, "Mrs. Browning, it's OK to leave your body. There is no reason to stay in this body. It is all right to die now. A few minutes into my meditative encouragement, I was jarred by a high pitched sarcastic cackle and the words, 'You're telling me to drop my body and you can't even get out of your head.'"'"

35. "On pages 181-182 of his book, Felos claims that merely by visualizing a plane crash during a flight he was taking back to Florida, he caused the plane to crash, and that God spoke to him at that moment to warn him: 'Be careful what you think. You are more powerful than you realize.' I was startled, humbled, and blessed by God's admoninition.'"

Comment:

Never mind Schiavo, let's get the excorcist in to go after Felos. No kidding. This might very well be an authentic case of possession.

_________________________

LifeSite Told of Struggle to Get Medical Staff to Implement Gov. Bush Order: The Inside Story on the Still Ongoing Life and Death Struggle for Terri Schiavo

CLEARWATER, FL, October 22, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Terry Shiavo saga continues to take more ugly twists and turns. Although the heroic efforts of the Florida legislature and Governor Jeb Bush succeeded in forcing medical personnel to re-connect Terri to nutrition and hydration, implementation of Bush's order did not go smoothly yesterday and there are still fears for her life. LifeSiteNews.com learned of these disturbing details today from Debra Vinnedge of Children of God for Life who was with Terri's parents at the vigil outside the Hospice since before the feeding tube was removed. Terri's family is currently barred from visiting their daughter by order of Terri's estranged husband Michael who, with his lawyer, is still engaged in intense legal manoeuvres to ensure Terri's death. Moreover, the hospital is refusing to release any details about Terri's current condition. Vinnedge reveals that yesterday, prior to Governor Bush's 5 p.m. order to begin hydration, the Woodside hospice where Terri was staying refused to allow religious objects to be placed in Terri's room. It threw out all religious artifacts that had been left there by Terri's parents. Previously, Terri had been denied a small fragment of final Holy Communion under the pretence that she could receive nothing by mouth for fear of choking. That was while she was being slowly and painfully killed by the removal of nutrition and hydration. When the Bush executive order arrived at the Hospice by both fax transmission and official delivery, Hospice officials refused to reinsert the feeding tube, claiming there were no medical personnel to do so, despite the fact that they were the ones who removed it on October 15th. They promised to transfer Terri to a local hospital as quickly as possible. In addition, two medical doctors had been summoned to the Hospice and were denied entrance to perform the procedure as indicated by Gov. Bush. They were also denied access to observe the patient and her condition. At 6:30 p.m. an ambulance arrived to take Terri to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater. Upon arrival at the hospital, medical staff refused to comply with the Governor's order to re-insert her feeding tube or an IV, stating they had been threatened with litigation by Michael Schiavo's attorneys if any medical care was given to Terri. After the hospital was told repeatedly by government officials that they must comply or risk losing funding, at approximately 9:30 p.m. an IV was finally inserted - four hours after the governor's order had been given. Michael Schiavo has denied visitation at the hospital to all members of Terri's family. Terri's priest, Monsignor Thaddeus Malinowski, has also not been able to visit Terri. A request for immediate appointment of a guardian ad litem to protect Terri's medical interests and physical well-being was denied by Judge David A. Demers. Terri's parents and supporters have sent a request to federal Attorney General John Ashcroft asking him to reassert Terri's civil rights. While the bill which passed the Florida House called for a guardian ad litem, the Senate version of the bill did not. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the last time Terri's parents, siblings and priest were able to visit Terri, she was reportedly doing well. "She greeted them with joy, she was smiling and laughed, sitting up," Vinnedge told LifeSiteNews.com. In a grateful message to supporters, Terri's parents said, "On behalf of Terri's family and everyone at the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, we thank you for your kindness, your action and your willingness to care enough to do something positive for a stranger. It is our hope that Terri will be given the chance to say "thank you" herself one day soon." Meanwhile, CNN reports today that Michael Shiavo has "received $300,000 for pain and suffering and loss of consortium" and "has declined to comment on whether there is an outstanding life insurance policy on his wife."

[NYer]

NOTE: - Terri Schiavo has been moved back to the hospice and her family allowed to visit with her last night. Terri's brother, Bobby, was the first callin guest on CoastToCoastAM last night. George Noory noted that 95% of his viewers support restoring the feeding tube to Terri. You can find more of Bobby's comments here:

GEORGE NOORY 1ST GUEST - spokesperson for the family of Terri Schindler-Schiavo - LIVE THREAD

[NYer]

Terri Schiavo alert!

[jokar]

Paragraphs are our friends.

[Catspaw]

So is sentence structure.

[Tax-chick]

Michael Schiavo seems like garden variety greedy scum, but Felos is a nightmare. Maybe his Master will come to take him soon?

[Xenalyte]

George Felos once told me that if he ever went crazy and started to think he could crash planes just by thinking about it, he didn't want to live.

My argument should carry exactly as much weight as Schiavo's "remembrance" of Terri's "wishes."

[Tax-chick]

LOL! Didn't he at some point say, "We define consciousness as the ability to lift a spoon to your mouth and eat." ? Something like that ...

I think it's interesting that it takes about the same level of coordination to lift and fire a gun, which seems to be what's required to save your life from George Felos.

[Xenalyte]

Yes. According to Felos, Stephen Hawking and Christopher Reeve are no longer conscious.

[Tax-chick]

And neither is my son, who can get a spoonful of mush all over the dining room, but never to his mouth ... and he can't communicate consistently, either: Sometimes you say, "Pat, let's go outside and play ball!" and he says Okay! and goes to find his shoes; while other times he yells, NO! and throws himself on the floor. It must be totally random brain activity, don't you think?

[NYer]

According to Felos, Stephen Hawking and Christopher Reeve are no longer conscious.

And then there is the story of this woman!

A L B U Q U E R Q U E, N.M., Dec. 29, 1999 — 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.

Terri Schiavo, smiled yesterday when her father told her he would bring her a milkshake; she later called him by name.

George Felos is EVIL (That's LIVE spelled backwards.)

[Xenalyte]

It must be totally random brain activity, don't you think?

Sounds like it. Why do you continue to enable his existence with a quality of life like that? ;)

[Graymatter]

I'm getting tired of the name Michael. What do y'all think of "Prisoner #679," after the commandments he's violating?

[Tax-chick]

Why do you continue to enable his existence with a quality of life like that?

I'm just insanely in love with him :-), even though I'm going to destroy his life in three months by producing ... a little brother!

[Tax-chick]

Terri Schiavo, smiled yesterday when her father told her he would bring her a milkshake; she later called him by name.

Praise the LORD! Get her the milkshake, and then get her physical and occupational therapy. Where's this impartial guardian the law requires, already?

[agrace]

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.”

Ronald Cranford is hardly one to give an unbiased opinion. He is a proponent of euthanasia and is an expert witness in trials like Terri's (in fact, he testified for Michael Schiavo to the opinion that she will never recover) where he always testifies to absolute certainty of a patient's PVS and zero chance of recovery. He has been know to be wrong, in that those about whom he has testified have gone on to do just that - recover.

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.”

Because if they DID pan out, his life's work of testifying against the feeding of those with alleged PVS would be a bit muddled.

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.

Translation: I better investigate this to find out what really happened because this might cost me some credibility in court someday.

[First_Salute]

Bump --- affadavit by registered nurse Carla Iyer, who was employed at Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center in Largo, Florida from April 1995 to July 1996, while Terri Schiavo was a patient there.

[First_Salute]

CLEARWATER, FL, October 22, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Terry Shiavo saga continues to take more ugly twists and turns. Although the heroic efforts of the Florida legislature and Governor Jeb Bush succeeded in forcing medical personnel to re-connect Terri to nutrition and hydration, implementation of Bush's order did not go smoothly yesterday and there are still fears for her life.

LifeSiteNews.com learned of these disturbing details today from Debra Vinnedge of Children of God for Life who was with Terri's parents at the vigil outside the Hospice since before the feeding tube was removed. Terri's family is currently barred from visiting their daughter by order of Terri's estranged husband Michael who, with his lawyer, is still engaged in intense legal manoeuvres to ensure Terri's death.

Moreover, the hospital is refusing to release any details about Terri's current condition. Vinnedge reveals that yesterday, prior to Governor Bush's 5 p.m. order to begin hydration, the Woodside hospice where Terri was staying refused to allow religious objects to be placed in Terri's room. It threw out all religious artifacts that had been left there by Terri's parents.

Previously, Terri had been denied a small fragment of final Holy Communion under the pretence that she could receive nothing by mouth for fear of choking. That was while she was being slowly and painfully killed by the removal of nutrition and hydration.

When the Bush executive order arrived at the Hospice by both fax transmission and official delivery, Hospice officials refused to reinsert the feeding tube, claiming there were no medical personnel to do so, despite the fact that they were the ones who removed it on October 15th. They promised to transfer Terri to a local hospital as quickly as possible.

In addition, two medical doctors had been summoned to the Hospice and were denied entrance to perform the procedure as indicated by Gov. Bush. They were also denied access to observe the patient and her condition.

At 6:30 p.m. an ambulance arrived to take Terri to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater. Upon arrival at the hospital, medical staff refused to comply with the Governor's order to re-insert her feeding tube or an IV, stating they had been threatened with litigation by Michael Schiavo's attorneys if any medical care was given to Terri.

After the hospital was told repeatedly by government officials that they must comply or risk losing funding, at approximately 9:30 p.m. an IV was finally inserted - four hours after the governor's order had been given.

Michael Schiavo has denied visitation at the hospital to all members of Terri's family. Terri's priest, Monsignor Thaddeus Malinowski, has also not been able to visit Terri. A request for immediate appointment of a guardian ad litem to protect Terri's medical interests and physical well-being was denied by Judge David A. Demers.

Terri's parents and supporters have sent a request to federal Attorney General John Ashcroft asking him to reassert Terri's civil rights. While the bill which passed the Florida House called for a guardian ad litem, the Senate version of the bill did not. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the last time Terri's parents, siblings and priest were able to visit Terri, she was reportedly doing well.

"She greeted them with joy, she was smiling and laughed, sitting up," Vinnedge told LifeSiteNews.com. In a grateful message to supporters, Terri's parents said, "On behalf of Terri's family and everyone at the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, we thank you for your kindness, your action and your willingness to care enough to do something positive for a stranger. It is our hope that Terri will be given the chance to say "thank you" herself one day soon."

Meanwhile, CNN reports today that Michael Shiavo has "received $300,000 for pain and suffering and loss of consortium" and "has declined to comment on whether there is an outstanding life insurance policy on his wife."

[Dante3]

A Terri Wallis was in a coma-like state for 19 years, then recoverd. It happened in 1984 from a car a accident. When he came to he thought Ronald Reagan was the president.

[shhrubbery!]

Good take on "expert" Dr. Ronald Cranford in post 15.

I didn't know he was a pro-euthanasiast, but suspected it from his comments.

Everything he said was so...CYA.

[Dante3]

Yes, where is the guardian? Terri has to be protected from Michael.

This case brings to mind Sunny Von Bulow. After 20 years she is still in a coma. Her husband was convicted for trying to murder her. This was later reversed in a second trial when crucial infomration was kept out.

I don't recall if there have been similar outcries about keeping her alive even though the husband sure wanted it to get at her wealth. In Sunny's case, the children have mae sure that she is kept alive.