Judge Refuses to have feeding tube reinserted in Terri Schiavo (FOX NEWS ALERT)

Fox News | 03/22/05

[tsmith130]

Just heard on Fox....so sad.

[Dave S]

Answer me this. If we knew for a fact that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state and that she would not want to be kept alive in such a state, would you then allow nutrition to be withheld? I doubt it. So this has nothing to do with facts, it has only to do with what this woman sympbolises in terms of Pro-live Movement. All of the so called facts that are thrown around are only attempts at winning the arguement and have nothing to do with truth (other than some religious truth that you may impute).

[johnb838]

Oh, we're going to get 'em changed "Hilda" (edelveiss, edelveiss). We're going to save your elderly ass in this as well as in war.

[FairOpinion]

"Everything that's been done in this case has been done by the letter of the law."


=====

You are gravely mistaken. This entire case rests on hearsay evidence, which is NOT acceptable by law.

ONLY Michael Schiavo, his brother and his wife said Terri "wouldn't want to live that way", based on some offhanded comment THEY claim she made,while watching TV, never repeated.

Another fact ignored, that MS suddenly "remembered" that Terri had said this, AFTER he got his over $1M settlement, based on his claim and doctor's evidence that Terri has another 40 years or so of life expectancy.

Someone also posted specifics of how many Florida statutes Judge Greer ignored.

[Hildy]

HUH? What if I don't want to be saved, how about that? What about my rights.

[2nd amendment mama]

Oh...did she personally tell you that?

[Jeff Head]

You have not read my posts. If she had a living will to this specific circumstance...or even if her entire family, particularly those who clearly still love and cherish her (and that aint Michael IMHO), agreed that these were her express wishes, then I would not stand in the way, even though I disagreed with it because starvation and dehydration is not a pretty way to go regardless of what pundits may say.

[maryz]

It is immoral in every sense of the word, but not illegal.

I thought laws against adultery were still on the books in most states, even if they're not enforced.

[ohioWfan]

Then put it in writing. Terri didn't. She's being murdered.

[ContraryMary]

A search of the site for "Hammesfahr" nets one article under the title "Promoters of Questionable Methods."

Then please also check out "Ultrasound Monitoring of Stroke Patients" on www.quackwatch.org. That's not the same article.

[Dave S]

But has Dr. Hammesfahr's approach ever helped anyone in persistent vegetative state? I thought not.

[Hildy]

If it's not acceptable why have 19 courts upheld it? Are you that conceited that you think you know more than all those courts, lawyers, judges in Florida? I can't wait for your answer.

[johnb838]

Used to be they would NEVER try this crap. They just figure they have the public softened up enough to ram it down our throats. I read that they true goal of the euthanazis here is to provoke such public outrage over the method of slaughter that we allow lethal injection in cases such as this. So no, I don't support them "putting her out of her mercy quickly." I'm sorry, Terri.

[jwalsh07]

Polybius, I hope you don't mind but I think your comments are most instructive to the layman. I work in the diagnostic imaging flield and had not seen her CT before. My impressions from reading about it were that it was much worse than this image implies, though she obviously has major loss. But at this level, wouldn't PET and MRI be indicated before making life and death decisions?

Thanks for a good post.

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To: neverdem; Servant of the 9

The dark area is supposed to be liquid, gone, missing Is there someone on here who really knows how to read this thing?

IIRC, one of you is a radiologist. Can you offer any opinion from one slice of Terri Schiavo's CT scan?

Sorry for the late reply. I did not log in on Saturday.

The "dark areas" are the CT density of Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF).

The larger butterfly-shaped area in the center is CSF within the right and left lateral ventricles. The other serpiginous areas are CSF in the subarachnoid space collecting in the sulci and in the fissures of the brain.

The amount of fluid in the vetricles is increased indicating Hydrocephalus.

The bright area within one of the ventricles would be expected to be a portion of a Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt to alleviate the hydrocephalus.

The brain tissue also shows cortical atrophy which increases the potential space between the brain tissue and that space is the filled up with CSF.

The degree of atrophy increases with age and all of us who actually lived through the 60's have some degree of cortical atrophy. The degree of cortical atrophy, however, is definitely abnormal for a woman her age

Be that as it may, you really can't make any clinical judgments as to her mental capacity just by the degree of hydrocephalus and atrophy.

I often see patients with that degree of hydrocephalus with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt in place that are doing just fine.

In addition, many elderly patients with that degree of atrophy that are doing well for their age.

Grandma might not be the sharpest pencil in the family box anymore once she gets to that degree of atrophy but you would be killing off trainloads of Grandmas if you used that degree of cortical atrophy to decide when to end their lives.

135 posted on 03/20/2005 1:25:51 PM EST by Polybius

[Polybius]

The dark area is supposed to be liquid, gone, missing Is there someone on here who really knows how to read this thing?

[Hildy]

Like I said, everything's been done by the letter of the law. If you don't like the law, work to have it changed.

[ContraryMary]

I prefer not to engage in useless rhetoric. When you want to have a substantive debate on the issues, let me know.

[ohioWfan]

The veracity of your 'quack' resource has been debunked, Mary.

Try another approach.

[jwalsh07]

It is immoral in every sense of the word, but not illegal.

Not really. Adultery is against the law in Florida. So, yes it is illegal.

[johnb838]

You will.

[Tribune7]

If you don't like the laws, then have them changed.

They were. It didn't matter to Greer.

[F.J. Mitchell]

How deep were you and your wife into a five month marriage when you discussed such subjects. Were you and your wife senior citizens when you tied the knot? Young people don't seriously talk about such serious topics when they are young, healthy and are convinced that old age is far, far away, and besides they are invincible and bad things happen to everyone else.

I don't believe that conversation ever happened between Teri and Mike, and would bet the farm on him flunking a lie detector test on the subject.