Posted on 03/18/2005 10:22:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
TAMPA, Fla. - (KRT) - Two dark scenarios haunt Jay Wolfson even now, a year and a half after his brief appointment to be a neutral arbiter, a guardian, an unbiased observer, the one man asked by the state of Florida to stand in Terri Schiavo's shoes.
One is that the severely brain-damaged woman is in a terrible lightless place, aware of nothing but a yawning, endless hopelessness.
The other is that even though he never elicited a response from her, despite all the pleading and cajoling he did at her bedside, that he might have missed some subtle, nearly invisible signs that she was somewhere in there, aware.
"Imagine not having hope and being aware that's all you had was no hope. The horror. It's like not being, but knowing that you're not," said Wolfson recently in his Tampa-area office. "That's one thing. The other is, what if she's knocking on a door somewhere and I was walking through all the wrong corridors and I missed it. What if?"
Wolfson was appointed by a Florida court in the fall of 2003 to be Schiavo's guardian ad litem, or guardian at law, to deduce Schiavo's best interests and represent neither her husband nor her parents but Terri Schiavo herself.
This makes Wolfson one of the very few people to have spent extended time with Schiavo and gauged her level of awareness without having a vested interest at stake.
In the end, after long hours at Schiavo's bedside and after poring over 30,000 pages of legal documents, Wolfson concluded that Schiavo was indeed in a permanent vegetative state.
It wasn't the conclusion he'd hoped to make.
"You want to weigh in on life as opposed to death," Wolfson said. "You want some way to elicit a response."
Wolfson was appointed Schiavo's guardian after the Florida Legislature passed "Terri's Law" in 2003, a move that allowed doctors to reinsert her feeding tube, despite a judge's ruling that it should be removed. The law has since been struck down as unconstitutional.
Wolfson, who has a law degree and a PhD and is a distinguished service professor of public health and medicine at the University of South Florida, was asked to decide whether Schiavo's feeding tube should be removed and whether more tests should be done to assess her ability to swallow.
He scoured 13 years' worth of legal documents and extensively interviewed Schiavo's husband, Michael, and her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. His time with Schiavo was spent trying to determine whether she was aware of and interactive with the world.
At first, walking into Schiavo's room, he was struck by her presence, even though he knew in advance that she drifted between wakefulness and sleep.
"She's a person, like you or I, and the first disconcerting part is that she's awake," said Wolfson.
When awake, Schiavo's eyes rolled about the room. She made random noises that sounded like groaning or the start of a laugh or cry.
But court documents said Schiavo's cerebral cortex, where reason and emotions are housed, had degenerated to fluid. So Wolfson set about trying to determine whether Schiavo's noises and jerks were merely reflexive or if they indicated something more.
He played Elton John CDs for her, and Bach and Mozart and music from the late 1980s, when she was in her 20s, prior to her collapse. He held her hands, squeezing them, and stroked her hair and face.
He put his face close to hers and tried to make eye contact, pleading desperately, trying to will her into giving him any kind of sign.
"I would beg her, `Please, Terri, help me,'" he said. "You want to believe there's some connection. You hope she's going to sit up and bed and say, `Hey, I'm really here, but don't tell anybody.' Or, `I'm really here, tell everybody!'"
But Schiavo never made eye contact. When Wolfson visited her when her parents were there, she never made eye contact with them either, he said. And for all of Wolfson's pleadings and coaxing, he never got what he most wanted: a sign.
"I felt like there was something distinctive about whoever Terri is," said Wolfson. "But I was not clear that it was there, inside the vessel."
Wolfson was dismayed to learn Friday that Barbara Weller, an attorney for the Schindlers, claimed that Schiavo tried to speak. "Terri does not speak," he said. "To claim otherwise reduces her to a fiction."
One thing Wolfson never doubted was that for all their intense, mutual antagonism, both Michael Schiavo and Terri's parents love and adore her.
She was cared for incredibly well, Wolfson said. Her hair was always combed, and after 15 years of being incapacitated, she never developed a bedsore. In fact, Wolfson said until about seven years ago, Michael Schiavo had Terry's makeup and hair done regularly, and her clothes changed every day - to the point that hospice staff protested that he was being overly demanding about her care.
Also, Wolfson concluded, Schiavo would never have tolerated the enormous, "omnipresent" acrimony between her husband and parents.
In the 38-page report he wrote afterwards, Wolfson said the best decision for Schiavo could be made only if both sides agreed to fresh, independent medical testing. If the new testing showed she couldn't swallow on her own and that Schiavo had no hope for improvement, then the feeding tube should be pulled.
Both parties were on the verge of agreeing to these new conditions, Wolfson said, but once the Florida Supreme Court struck down Terri's Law his efforts were moot.
Wolfson still refuses to give his personal opinion on whether Terri's feeding tube should or should not have been pulled.
But he will say, as a parent of three sons, that after doing everything one can, sometimes the time comes to let go.
"When it evolves beyond that person into issues that are other people's issues or are broader issues, it becomes less objectifiable," said Wolfson. "It's hard to be objective anyway. This is the kind of thing you don't wish on anybody."
The tragedy of Mr. Wolfson's ill fated ad litem is that he never learned to love Terri. Love nurtures and supports most especially when the need for help is greatest.
Terri is a child of God, not a disposable incovenience, an embarrasment, or someone unworthy of life.
But this is no reason to starve her to death. If she's not cognizant, she's not experiencing grief or depression, so her continuing to live is likely a burden only to her care-givers, not to her. Killing Terri because her husband suddenly recalls, several years after the onset of her condition, that she told him once that she didn't want to live in a disabled state, is tantamount to killing somebody on a whim. It's wrong and it ought to be stopped.
Signed,
Some lawyers and doctors in Florida.
Michael may have ordered the sedation, who knows? What other explanation is there?
You've seen what .001% of the videos and he's seen what, 100% and also spent hours at her bedside? Clearly his judgement as an independent neutral arbiter needs to be mocked. Let's demand to have this post pulled...
Here's how it can be done. The doctor orders a "PRN" sedative medication, probably Ativan, Klonopin or similar to be given only when Terri is agitated, restless or whatever.
When they hear he is is coming to visit, Terri is given the med probably on the standing, unwritten, recommendation of her conservator, who seems to control all her care. Maybe they even let Michael give it himself, since he is supposed to be a nurse and the nursing standards in Florida seem so loose.
And in the end whose to dispute that Terri really wasn't agitated, restless, whatever... the patient appears vegetative and a layman wouldn't even notice the tell tale signs of sedation.
It doesn't matter. Even if they do comprise .001% they disprove this PVS hor$ehit.
Terri Schiavo's Right To Live
Timeline *
Click here for bottom of page
1990
Feb 25: Terri Schiavo has a heart attack, temporarily cutting off oxygen to her brain. Cause is believed to be a potassium imbalance, likely brought about by poor diet.
May: Terri is discharged from Humana Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida.
1991
Jan: Terri is moved to Bradenton Mediplex Rehabilitation Center.
Apr: Terri's condition is assessed as improving. Her husband is advised to move her to Gainesville Rehabilitation Center to receive advanced therapy so Terri can continue her recovery.
July: Michael Schiavo has Terri moved to Sable Palms Nursing Home.
1992
Aug: Terri is awarded $250,000 in malpractice settlement.
Nov: In a medical malpractice suit, Michael asks a jury to grant $20 million to pay for Terri's future medical and neurological requirements, based on her life expectancy, which he and his attorneys estimate at 51 years. His attorney tells the court: "She can't respond much but she can respond, and she does respond a little bit, not much. But enough to give him hope."
1993
Jan: A Pinellas jury awards about $1.4 to Terri and $600,000 to Michael in malpractice suit filed because her gynecologist failed to ask about her medical history while treating her.
Feb: Michael refuses recommended rehabilitation treatment.
Feb 14: Michael, and Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, have a falling out over her rehabilitation. Michael orders nursing home personnel to keep all information about Terri's condition away from her family.
Apr: The value of the trust fund for all of Terri's future care and rehabilitation stands at $776,254. State law guarantees that Michael would be granted any of what remains if Terri dies.
Aug: Michael instructs medical professionals to not treat Terri for a potentially life-threatening urinary tract infection, and invokes a "do not resuscitate" order.
Sept: The Schindlers petition the court to remove Michael as Terri's guardian.
Nov: Michael testifies that he knew withholding treatment of infection would likely result in Terri's death, but reversed his order when staff at Sable Palms Nursing Home told him refusing such treatment violated Florida law. Michael says he would withhold treatment in the future if he didn't believe it was illegal.
1994
Feb: The Schindlers' guardianship challenge is dismissed.
Apr: Michael has Terri moved to Palm Gardens Nursing Home.
1995
Sept: Michael orders Palm Gardens not to treat Terri for another potentially fatal infection.
1996
June: Terri's parents obtain court order for access to their daughter's medical records.
1997
May: Judge Shames approves Michael's action to remove the feeding tube that provides Terri's nutrition and hydration.
Summer: Michael hires attorney George Felos to represent him in his efforts to have Terri's feeding tube removed. Felos has history of supporting "right to die" causes.
July: Michael announces engagement to Jodi Centonze.
Aug: George Felos notifies Terri's parents of action to remove her feeding tube.
1998
Apr: The value of Terri's fund stands at $713,825.
May: Michael files a petition to remove his wife's feeding tube.
June: Court appoints guardian ad litem to investigate Terri's case.
Dec: guardian ad litem recommends the court not approve Michael's petition.
1999
Feb: Felos files bias charges against guardian ad litem.
June: Court dismisses guardian ad litem.
2000
Jan 24: Trial begins in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court over the removal of Terri's feeding tube.
Feb 11: Judge George Greer rules that the feeding tube can be removed. Terri's parents appeal.
Feb: Three doctors file affidavits stating Terri can swallow and is not in a persistent vegitative state. Judge Greer denies petition to allow Terri swallowing tests.
Apr: Michael has Terri moved to Hospice Facility. Judge Greer denies her parents' motion to have her returned to Palm Garden Nursing Home, and imposes a restricted visitor list.
July: Terri's parents file appeal with Appellate Court to overturn Greer’s verdict.
2001
Jan 24: The 2nd District Court of Appeal upholds Greer's decision to to have feeding tube removed.
March 29: Greer rules that Michael can remove the feeding tube at 1 p.m. Apr 20.
Apr 18: The Florida Supreme Court declines to intervene.
Apr 20: A federal judge grants the Schindlers until Apr 23 to exhaust their appeals.
Apr 23: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to intervene.
Apr 24: Terri's feeding tube is removed.
Apr 26: Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada orders doctors to reinsert Terri's feeding tube so her parents can pursue a lawsuit against Michael. The suit accuses him of committing perjury and cites a former girlfriend who claims he told her he lied when he testified that Terri did not want to be kept on life support.
Apr 30: Michael's lawyers file an emergency motion with the appeals court, asking the court to again order Terri's feeding tube to be removed.
May 2: The 2nd District Court of Appeal defers a ruling, allowing Terri's feeding to continue.
May 8: Michael's former girlfriend refuses to testify against him, claims she is afraid of him.
June 25: The 2nd District Court of Appeal hears arguments in Michael's request to have feeding tube removed.
July 11: The appeals court rules that Terri's feeding tube cannot be removed until after July 23.
July 18: Terri's parents ask Greer to let their doctors evaluate her before deciding whether her feeding tube should be withdrawn.
Aug 7: Greer orders the feeding tube to be removed Aug. 28.
Aug 8: Terri's parents again ask Greer to allow doctors to evaluate their daughter.
Aug 10: Greer denies the Schindlers' request for evaluation and their request to have Michael removed as guardian.
Sept. 26: In arguments before the 2nd District Court of Appeal, the Schindlers' attorneys cite testimony from seven doctors who say Mrs. Schiavo's idle cells might "wake up" with the right treatment. Michael calls the claims ridiculous.
Oct 3: The appeals court delays the removal of the feeding tube indefinitely.
Oct 17: The appeals court rules that five doctors can examine Terri to determine whether she can recover: two from each side and one picked by the court.
Dec 19: Attorneys meet with a mediator in an attempt to agree upon the tests to be performed.
2002
Feb 13: Attempts at mediation fail. Michael again seeks to have his wife's feeding tube removed.
Mar 14: The Florida Supreme Court denies Michael’s appeal.
July 10: Court hearing again to allowing certain medical tests that were requested to evaluate Terri’s true medical and neurological condition.
July 22: Judge Greer approves three of the neurological tests her parents requested and rejects a dozen others.
Oct 2: Michael files petition to prohibit the media from seeing Terri’s recent neurological examination videotapes or airing the videos to the public after they have been presented to the court as evidence. He also petitions the court to authorize Terri’s cremation.
Oct 12, 2002: A week-long hearing begins. Three of the five doctors testify that Terri cannot recover. Two picked by the Schindlers say she can.
Nov. 12, 2002: The Schindlers' attorney says medical records suggest that Terri's vegetative state may have been caused by a beating and seeks time to get more evidence.
Nov 15: Greer conducts a hearing in response to a motion Terri's parents filed requesting time to investigate recent evidence suggesting her heart failure may have been caused by physical abuse. The petition also charges Michael with violating a dozen or more Florida laws while serving as Terri’s guardian.
Nov 22: Greer rules that no current medicine can rehabilitate Terri and orders the feeding tube removed on Jan 3, 2003.
Dec 13: Greer delays the feeding tube removal to give the Schindlers one last chance to appeal.
Dec 18: Michael files a motion with the 2nd District Appellate Court to overturn Greer’s Dec 13th "stay" order.
Dec 23: The 2nd Appellate Court denies Michael’s motion to overturn Greer’s order
2003
June 6: The 2nd District Court of Appeal rejects the new appeals and orders Greer to set a date for the removal of the feeding tube.
Aug: Terri hospitalized. Michael refuses to give parents information about medical condition. Also refuses to allow Terri's priest to visit and perform last rights.
Sept: Emergency hearing to allow Shindlers to visit and to obtain current medical information. Request is granted.
Sept 17: Greer orders the removal of Terri's feeding tube at 2 p.m. on Oct 15.
Oct 15: Terri's feeding tube is removed. Disability rights advocates and "right-to-life" supporters hold candle-light vigils and start sending tens of thousands of emails, letters and phone calls to Florida lawmakers and Governor Jeb Bush.
Oct 20: Gov. Bush introduces "Terri's Law", allowing him to have Terri's feeding tube reinserted and a temporary guardian appointed. Florida Legislature meets in special session to review the proposed law.
Oct 22: "Terri's Law" is approved and signed into law. Gov. Bush issues executive order to have her feeding tube reinserted.
Oct. 28: President George W. Bush says he agrees with the decision by his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, to order an end to Terri Schiavo's starvation.
Oct. 29: Attorneys for Michael Schiavo and the American Civil Liberties Union ask Pinellas County Circuit Court to declare "Terri's Law" unconstitutional.
Oct 31: Pinellas County Chief Judge David Demers appoints Dr. Jay Wolfson as temporary guardian
Nov 4: Pinellas County Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird denies Schindlers' request to join case with Governor Bush
Nov 5: Gov. Bush asks court to throw out challenge to "Terri's Law". Judge Greer allows parents to sue for guardianship change
Nov 7: Judge Baird rejects governor's request to dismiss Michael's constitutional challenge to "Terri's Law"
Dec 2: Wolfson recommends swallowing tests for Terri
2004
Jan 9: Pinellas County Chief Judge David Demers refuses to reinstate independent guardian for Terri
*Adapted from St. Petersburg Times, Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, APFN.org and other sources.
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/advocacy/schiavotimeline.htm
Even if he did order the sedation for what reason would hospice comply? What reason could he give them that he wants her sedated every time this Wolfson guy visits her?
What other explanation is there?
That she is brain dead/PVS.
Are you suggesting she "died" sometime between when they were taken and now?
Yeah! I would like to see that MRI. I have never heard of such a thing. Now, how in the world would a supposed heart attack cause the brain to turn to fluid?!
Do you hear what you are saying?
The people at hospice are going to do this? Why?
Or somehow her husband is allowed to come in and give it to her with or without hospice knowing.
Even without hospice's knowledge Michael has to know in advance and be able to get there every time before this Wolfson guy shows up.
The one and only person with a chance of keeping her alive which I'm sure he told Terri who he was and why he was there and surely her parents also told her who he was and why he was there.Her life depends on it and she refuses to do so?
Why would she do that if she wanted to live? Why?
That is what "hospice" does. They administer morphine--to make the patient comfortable while they are dying. They will tell you to the day and hour how long your family member will live, because they know exactly how long it takes for the morphine to kill.
I had a family member who just died a couple of weeks ago. The hospice workers came to the house. They told me this themselves.
It is not like this!!!!
How can anyone truly claim to know how Terri feels?
People underestimate the body and soul's will to live.
Terri will die naturally when she either loses the will to live and gives up the fight or someone takes advantage of her weakened condition to kill her.
I've seen the video but if she wanted to live and was truly able to communicate don't you think she would have expressed this desire when it really really mattered?
Are you suggesting she "died" sometime between when they were taken and now?
If she was able to communicate and follow the ballon and open her eyes when asked and track her parents around the room and laugh at jokes.
Then I would say something has changed between the time the video was made she was appointed the guardian ad litem.
This is the first I've heard of this in Terri's case.
From what I have read everyone states that she is in no pain and will not feel any pain when she is starved to death because of her brain damage not because they are giving her morphine.
No I don't... I don't think at this time she has that level reasoning capability. She's like a severly retarded person, or one with cerebral palsy. She's active when she feels like it. With more therapy - she's had only a little, perhaps as much as 3 years over 15 years - I know she would improve because I've seen this happen.
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