Posted on 01/31/2005 9:14:49 PM PST by TAdams8591
BUMP to #145
Everyone in this counry shoul be concerned about Terri's case. This is such a flagrant disregard of laws by politicians, of judges doing whatever they feel like it and the laws be damned. Tom Lee's office and others are just hoping concerned people will give up and the issue will go away.
Since Sarah Foster wrote that article and quoted Greer, perhaps you could ask her. I'll also look through some old threads. I remember it first being mentioned Sept/Oct. 2003 as he was ruling on the case. I'll go take a gander.
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBOP6F3P4E.html (this is major to get this to the Legislature and to Jeb Bush that the DOH failings INCLUDE the mistreatment of Terri through the years and that includes being confined to one room, NOT EVEN GETTING TO HEAR CHRISTMAS CAROLS OR SEE A SANTA CLAUS. Caged, denied, isolated...
Additionally, (triangulation method employed) I asked Mel Martinez's staffer what the status was of Terri's situation because I was receiving word that Senate President Tom Lee's office was telling citizens that Terri's case is a federal matter. I wanted clarification of which is it? Federal or not? I asked if there perhaps was a federal investigation ongoing?
Martinez's staffer didn't know either but, Janet Rehnquist, former Inspector General of HHS and her dad William Rehnquist's actions both while serving the United States, HARMED TERRI leading to her death sentence.
I know that HHS received hundreds if not thousands of complaints to investigate the attempted murder of Terri Schindler Schiavo.
This all seems so un-American, does it not?????
"hate to break it to you, but terry has been dead for a long time. Let her rest in peace. We all have to let a loved one go. Once your married it should be the husbands decision, not the parents."
Not when the husband has other motives for wanting to see Terri dead!
He is her husband-in-name-only. He more than like is responsible for her condition in the first place. He said he would spend her jury award on her rehabilitation, but refused to allow Terri to get any rehabilitation after winning the case. He lives and has children with another woman who he intends to marry as soon as he succeeds in killing Terri.
There is sworn testimony from a girlfriend that Terri had indicated she did not agree with the decision on Karen Quinlan. If I remember right, Terri said "Where there's life, there's hope."
There is sworn testimony from nurses that he abused Terri. Some of these nurses lost their jobs because they testified against the husband. No one owns another human being. The husband has not followed the duties of a guardian in the state of Florida.
Shouldn't the state of Florida enforce its own laws and appoint another guardian?
Here's the article
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBOP6F3P4E.html
Case Files Referred En Masse By Agency
By LENNY SAVINO lsavino@tampatrib.com
Published: Feb 2, 2005
The Florida Department of Health tacitly admitted Tuesday that it probably has failed to tell prosecutors about thousands of cases in which health care providers in the state were suspected of criminal wrongdoing - even though it was required to by law.
Many cases are now too old to be brought to trial.
Health Secretary John O. Agwunobi ordered a review that led to the admission last week after learning that department investigators hadn't told prosecutors of more than 100 cases in which psychiatrists, psychologists and other therapists were found to have had sexual contact with current or former patients, which Florida law prohibits. The cases date to 1992.
A team of health department investigators spent the weekend beginning an examination of 24,000 case files to determine how many of them hadn't been referred to prosecutors, department spokeswoman Lindsay Hodges said.
But in an about-face, the department abandoned this review Tuesday and instead, on orders from Agwunobi, began referring all of them, Hodges said.
Agwunobi wasn't available for questions, Hodges said.
Some professed outrage over the spreading scandal.
``It would be a comedy if it wasn't a tragedy,'' said state Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. Gelber called for a legislative investigation.
Prosecutors said they were stunned.
``My analysis of this is that someone is cleaning off their desk at the health department and putting the mess onto the desks of state attorneys,'' said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant state attorney for Pinellas and Pasco counties.
Hodges couldn't say how many files the investigators examined before Agwunobi changed course. But it quickly became apparent that prosecutors hadn't been notified in any of them.
``There were no letters in the case files saying they were referred,'' Hodges said.
It didn't matter that many of the cases no longer can be prosecuted or might have been referred previously, Hodges said. They're being referred now out of ``an abundance of caution,'' she said.
The referrals bring the department into compliance with state law, and prosecutors might find the information useful should more allegations surface against a provider, Hodges added.
Letters covering about 80 percent of the 24,000 cases had been mailed as of Tuesday evening, Hodges said. The rest were to go into the mail today.
Legal Requirements
The law requiring the health department to tell local prosecutors when a health care provider is suspected of criminal wrongdoing took effect in 1992. The department took the added step of making referrals mandatory in a written policy adopted in 2002. Department guidelines require investigators to tell prosecutors promptly when suspected wrongdoing might be criminal.
Meanwhile, the department conducts an administrative investigation of the allegation. If an impropriety is proven, it can impose a range of sanctions, including fines and revocation of a license.
Agwunobi learned from a department inspector general's report of the department's failure to tell prosecutors of cases involving the therapists, who are prohibited from having sexual contact with patients under a separate state law. Violating it is a felony.
Most felonies in Florida have to be tried within three years, under still another law known as the statute of limitations. If prosecutors don't act within this period, the accused in a given case escapes criminal liability.
Health department investigators began the larger review by identifying 24,000 cases in which health department overseers found probable cause of an administrative impropriety, Hodges said, then began going through these by hand.
They matched an unspecified number of files to an existing department database and found that the pertinent information matched, Hodges said. That triggered the mass referrals, she said.
Pam Bondi of the Hillsborough County state attorney's office said she got a department referral packet an inch thick Tuesday. It listed hundreds of cases, dating to 1992.
``I was taken aback,'' Bondi said.
``I have not yet seen the new referrals,'' said Bartlett, the chief assistant prosecutor for Pinellas and Pasco counties, ``but I will tell you it is doubtful'' most can be tried.
If his office is sent a referral of cases eight or nine years old, Bartlett said, ``we'll just send it back to them.''
Bondi, however, said she thinks a few of the cases her office received still might be subject to prosecution. For example, she said, the three-year statute of limitations does not apply in rape cases.
Strong Reactions
The strongest reaction by far came from Gelber, the state representative.
``This is inexcusable,'' Gelber told the Tribune. He called the department's decision to send out all the referrals at once ``dysfunctional.''
``How are [prosecutors] going to catch up?'' he asked. ``What kind of triage are they going to have to employ?''
Gelber, who worked for 10 years as a federal prosecutor, said he already is discussing the scandal with legislative leaders.
As The Tampa Tribune reported Thursday in a story disclosing the oversight breakdown, one case that went unreferred involved a male psychiatrist found to have had an eight-year affair with a female patient.
The Department of Health revoked his license. He agreed to an out-of-court settlement in a civil lawsuit the patient filed, although the psychiatrist's attorney said he insists that he is innocent.
The case happened in Gelber's district.
``It looks to me like years of ignoring responsibility, which led to some really bad government,'' he said.
Agwunobi briefed Gov. Jeb Bush on the case review, spokesman Jacob DiPietre said. Bush expressed confidence in Agwunobi's handling of the situation to that point, but DiPietre didn't know whether Agwunobi told Bush before his decision to make mass referrals.
Through professional oversight boards and other bodies, the health department oversees about 350,000 health care providers in the state - anyone in the field who has to be licensed. This includes everyone from neurosurgeons to hearing aid technicians, from psychiatrists to massage therapists. The department also polices another 120,000- odd providers who live elsewhere but maintain Florida licenses.
Last year, it received about 40,000 complaints against providers. Only a fraction of these typically are judged worthy of administrative action.
Prosecutors are supposed to be told of those involving criminal accusations by an office in the department known as the Medical Quality Assurance Consumer Services Unit.
The fact that it didn't in 100- plus cases of therapists who became sexually involved with patients was probably the result of lax supervision, the department inspector general's investigation found.
Agwunobi demoted and transferred the unit's chief, Charlene Willoughby, but to date no one else has been punished.
Reporter Lenny Savino can be reached at (813) 259-7567.
"Yes, just updating for other freepers. HERE IS BREAKING FROM TAMPA TRIBUNE FEBRUARY 2, 2005. Dept. of Health does MASSIVE DOCUMENT DROP ON STATE ATTORNEY/PROSECUTORS of files they "failed" to turn over to investigators. This is relevant because Terri falls into this class of people because she is a patient of hospice and is under the state run medicaid program. DID S.ATTY BERNIE MCCABE GET ANY CASE FILES RE: TERRI or were they all destroyed? rhetorical question. "
I hope this helps Terri and anyone else affected.
By the time Terri's supporters are finished, they may have wished the judge had gone ahead and appointed a new guardian years ago when the husband first violated the laws of the state.
I want to see every abuse case of the disabled investigated. Terri may be only the beginning.
This on line poll is finally complete. "give Terri to her parents" won. Here's the copy & paste: View results:
http://www.countypressonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13864624&BRD=2549&PAG=461&dept_id=514257&rfi=6#
As of 2:45 PM EDT Wednesday there've been 1,200 votes, with 83.1 percent in favor of giving Terri to her parents!
Praying for Terri. Everyone, please pray for Terri. As amdgmary posted on another thread, Terri's life is in imminent danger.
correcting self: Yes, just how long have the infirmed, not the informed.
"According to DOH records, Schiavo of Clearwater is licensed by the state both as a registered respiratory therapist and a registered nurse. He was licensed as a registered nurse in January, 2000. His license expires on April 30, 2005 and shows no disciplinary actions.
He was licensed as a respiratory therapist on May 25, 1999. That license expires on May 31, 2005 and also shows no disciplinary action.
As such, Schiavo would be subject to regulation by the health department as well other oversight agencies including Floridas Department of Children and Families (DCF)"
http://www.theempirejournal.com/SCHIAVO_florida_DOH_destroyed_records_after.htm
I would bet that most if not all wives have told their husbands in one way or another that they would not approve of another woman having an affair with him-why won't this hold up in the court of law as making one's wishes known.
The below statements are from an article written in 2003 by Fr. Rob Johansen entitled "Killing Terri Schiavo."
http://www.crisismagazine.com/january2004/johansen.htm
Dr. Ronald Cranford, a euthanasia advocate, was one of two court appointed doctors who testified that Terri is in a persistant vegetative state (PVS).
"Cranford jokingly refers to himself as 'Dr. Death' and, for a fee, will come to a trial and testify that the person whose life the plaintiff wants to end is in a PVS. He was the leading medical voice calling for the deaths of Paul Brophy, Nancy Jobes, Nancy Cruzan, and Christine Busalucci, all of whom were brain-damaged but not dying. Nonetheless, he advocated death for all by dehydration/starvation, just as he has for Terri."
Nancy Cruzan-one of his patients-required no skilled nursing, no care but food and fluids, hygiene, and turning to prevent bedsores. She didnt even need tube feeding, but Cranford testified that he would even consider spoon-feeding medical treatment.
Cranford wrote in the summer 1998 issue of Concern for Dying that he foresees that there may be extreme situations, and in the future increasingly common situations, where physician-assisted suicide may not only be permissible, but encouraged. In a 1997 op-ed for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, Cranford advocated the starvation of Alzheimers patients.
Judge Greer is legally blind. While viewing the videos of Terri, "he (Judge Greer) had to be asked twice to look at his monitor and to put his glasses back on so he could see it clearly. He (Greer) did not find the video evidence sufficiently consistent and reproducible. He opined that cognitive function would manifest itself in a constant response to stimuli. Pat Anderson, the Schindlers attorney, explained in a World Net Daily article that Judge Greer, in evaluating the video, used a scorecard approach that stacked the deck no matter how Terri responded.
"If she (Terri) always responded-it was just primitive brain-stem activity. If she randomly responded-it was not repetitive enough. Interestingly, Judge Greer and Felos have sought to suppress the video, and Judge Greer ordered the Schindlers not to photograph or videotape Terri in the future, under threat of legal sanction."
Ref:Dr. Ronald Cranford
I was just reading the pdf file - Second District Opinion
6/03'
http://www.2dca.org/opinion/June%2006,%202003/2D02-5394.pdf
10/01'
http://www.2dca.org/opinion/October%2017,%202001/2d01-3626.pdf
Judge Greer is legally blind. While viewing the videos of Terri, "he (Judge Greer) had to be asked twice to look at his monitor and to put his glasses back on so he could see it clearly. He (Greer) did not find the video evidence sufficiently consistent and reproducible. He opined that cognitive function would manifest itself in a constant response to stimuli. Pat Anderson, the Schindlers attorney, explained in a World Net Daily article that Judge Greer, in evaluating the video, used a scorecard approach that stacked the deck no matter how Terri responded.
This case has far reaching implications. Among others, it demonstrates how laws are violated merely on the whim of the powerful, with judges having the power of little dictators.
Videos? What videos?
Swab Test..."would not smile at me again for the rest of the day". : ) Dr. Hammesfahr
Terri Responding to Music Poor sweet little thing
Tracking a BalloonNote: Doctor who praises her tells the court she is in a PVS!
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