The Tampa Tribune printed the below article today. Attorney George Felos is very worried that the Florida legislature will pass a law that will help people in Terri's situtation.
Judge Begins Ruling On Schindlers' Requests
By DAVID SOMMER dsommer@tampatrib.com
Mar 8, 2005
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBBE8SI16E.html
CLEARWATER - The judge in the Terri Schiavo case heard arguments Monday over whether she should be fed orally if her feeding tube is removed on March 18.
Judge George Greer said he will decide today whether to hear medical testimony or simply deny the request for oral feeding from parents Bob and Mary Schindler.
Greer denied most of the Gulfport couple's requests for changes in the way their son- in-law plans to handle his wife's death, but the judge did leave them room for hope, Schindler attorney David Gibbs said after the first in what could be a weeklong series of hearings.
Gibbs likened the situation to that of Karen Ann Quinlan, a comatose New Jersey woman who started breathing on her own after being removed from a respirator in 1976 and survived for nine years.
``There is no reason why a court order ruling out life- support must become a death sentence,'' Gibbs said.
A new form of therapy that uses electrical impulses to stimulate throat muscles has shown remarkable success in training brain-damaged people to swallow, Gibbs said.
Michael Schiavo contends his wife will never be able to swallow after severe brain damage suffered when her heart failed 15 years ago at age 26. He has been battling his in- laws in court for permission to remove her from life support since 1997.
After a January 2000 nonjury trial, Greer ruled that evidence showed Terri Schiavo would not want to be kept alive in her condition. That finding has been upheld repeatedly by appellate courts.
If the Schindlers were to try to feed their daughter orally, she would aspirate food into her lungs and contract a massive infection, Schiavo attorney George Felos said. ``Instead of having a painless, short death, she'd have a long, gruesome death.''
Felos also expressed concern Monday about a proposed bill in the Legislature that would block the scheduled removal of Terri Schiavo's life-sustaining feeding tube on March 18.
In October 2003, the Legislature passed a bill that allowed Gov. Jeb Bush to order feeding resumed six days after her feeding tube was removed on court order. That measure has been struck down as unconstitutional.
Felos urged those who support his client to contact their legislators, a tactic used by Schindler supporters in 2003 and again this year.
``If it happened once, it can happen again,'' Felos said of the Legislature's attempt to change law to save Schiavo.
The judge did grant the Schindlers some victories Monday. Terri Schiavo can receive Communion as part of the Catholic rite of Extreme Unction through her feeding tube before it is removed, and, if doctors allow it, a priest can put a drop of wine and a particle of Communion wafer on her tongue when death draws near, the judge ruled Monday.
He also said the parents may have photographs and videos taken with their daughter, allowed for the appointment of a medical witness to ensure she is not in pain while dying, and said Michael Schiavo cannot block visits by the Schindlers and their children.
Greer denied the Schindlers' request that their daughter not be cremated and said he would not overrule Michael Schiavo's plans to have her ashes buried in their native Pennsylvania, though she and the Schindlers live in Florida.
Another hearing is scheduled for this afternoon to determine whether two new Schindler challenges meet the legal threshold for Greer to reconsider whether the tube should be removed.
The Schindlers want new medical tests and say Greer erred in 2000 when he discounted a key witnesses based on the erroneous belief that Quinlan died in 1976.
On Wednesday, Greer is scheduled to consider a request from the state Department of Children & Families that he delay the feeding tube's removal while the agency investigates allegations that Schiavo has been abused by her husband.
Thank you for posting the news article about yesterday's hearing etc. This guy felos is really one evil entity. But I think he has met his match in Gibbs. Yahoo! Go, Gibbs. All felos can do is spout the same old boring crap; he's a book peddler and hack. Gibbs, on the other hand, is a righteous scrapper.
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