Caption: "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the people 60,000 Reichmarks during his lifetime. People, that is your money."
Posted on 03/23/2005 3:16:42 PM PST by ex-Texan
Cost of Schiavo's care may exceed $1 million
At Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., where Terri Schiavo edges closer to death each hour, her care costs between $150 and $200 a day.
"It can get higher," said Jay Wolfson, the University of South Florida professor who served as Schiavo's court-appointed independent guardian 16 months ago and asked hospice officials about the cost. "But there's very little medical care."
Over a 15-year period - Schiavo collapsed in February 1990 - that calculates out to a cost between $821,000 and $1.1 million.
In 1992, Michael Schiavo received a settlement from a malpractice case in which he pledged to take care of his wife for the rest of her natural life, and she was expected to have a normal life span. After costs, Terri Schiavo's guardianship account netted $700,000 and her husband received $300,000 for loss of consortium.
Little is left of the guardianship money. Some of it has gone to Schiavo's care and much of it has been used to press the legal case as Michael Schiavo has sought to fulfill what he says were his wife's end-of-life wishes. But even if all the money had gone to Terri Schiavo's care, it wouldn't have been enough.
Back in fall 2003, George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, said he had an agreement with the hospice to settle Terri Schiavo's bill when the case was over. That day appears to be coming soon.
Gary Karr, spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency hasn't seen a request for payment of any kind for Schiavo's care in three years.
"The care is being paid for privately," he said. "She's spending her own money."
Wolfson welcomed the wider discussion on end-of-life issues because of the Schiavo case, noting that the costs of such care will grow as the Baby Boom generation swells the senior population.
"My mother's 97; I could live to be 103," he said. "Who's going to pay for this? We don't talk about that part of it. These are real decisions we have to make."
Michael Schiavo made his decision in 1998 when he tried for the first time to have his wife's feeding tube removed. Wolfson, who has extensively interviewed the principals in the case, says only Michael Schiavo could answer definitively why he waited so long to make his wife's wishes known.
"I can't jump inside Michael's head. I talked to him a lot," Wolfson said. "Part of an answer might be that he didn't want to believe it for a long time, even as her parents don't want to believe it. One interpretation, and it's not a fashionable one, is that he was able to let go finally. Her parents were not, and that's understandable."
While the cost of her care has been high, it pales next to another price tag: the personal toll the case has taken on its key figures.
The close relationship between the Schindlers and Michael Schiavo irretrievably broke down in 1993, shortly after the malpractice settlement. Michael Schiavo claims that Bob Schindler asked for a share of the money. The Schindlers say their son-in-law stopped rehabilitation efforts and blocked them from seeing their daughter.
In a letter dated July 16, 1993, Bob Schindler wrote: "Since you have excluded us from caring for Terri, the least you can do is keep us informed about her medical and neurological condition. ... Simply drop us a note telling us what is happening. It will only take you a few minutes. I am sure we will all sleep more comfortably."
The Schindlers' frustration was growing, but court records from that period, when the Schindlers first attempted to have Michael Schiavo removed as their daughter's guardian, do not indicate neglect.
John Pecarek, a Largo, Fla., attorney, served as Terri Schiavo's first independent guardian in 1994, when the Schindlers first sought to have Michael Schiavo removed as his wife's guardian. On Feb. 17 of that year, he said in his report to the court that Terri Schiavo's husband was reported to bring nurses to tears as he berated them for not taking better care of his wife.
"Although I have concluded that Mr. Schiavo is a nursing home administrator's nightmare," the report stated, "I believe the ward gets more care and attention from the staff at Sabal Palms as a result of Mr. Schiavo's advocacy and complaining on her behalf."
Wolfson says the nursing home even tried to get a restraining order against Michael Schiavo.
"He'd come in and, if her hair hadn't been combed or there was any urine smell in the room, he would go nuts," Wolfson said.
Reached Wednesday, Pecarek said: "In my opinion, he was doing a great job for his wife."
The human elements remain the toughest part of the saga, said Georgetown law professor and bioethicist Marc Spindelman, especially since Terri Schiavo did not have a living will.
"The facts on the ground are not so neat," he said. "You don't have a case in which everybody knows what this person would have wanted under the circumstances. You have parents who so deeply believe their daughter wouldn't have wanted this that they have taken every measure conceivable, and then a few more that would have seemed inconceivable, to undermine that claim."
In 1998 and 1999, Richard Pearse, an attorney from Clearwater, Fla., served as Terri Schiavo's guardian ad litem. He had questions at the time about Michael Schiavo's credibility as her guardian, though he now believes the case has been fully litigated. Six years of hindsight, he said, have altered his views of Michael Schiavo somewhat as well.
"Time has enhanced, perhaps, his credibility, because he continues to be consistent in his position in spite of the fact that many circumstances from six years ago have changed," Pearse said. "There is no money left, but he continues to put himself out there. The guy's been harassed and threatened. You have to admire his perseverance."
Pearse spent less than an hour with Terri Schiavo and says he did not observe anything that indicated she was not in a persistent vegetative state. But he does not fault the Schindlers for persisting.
"I have two kids myself," he said. "If one of my kids were in that situation, I would try to hold out as much hope as possible."
Wolfson said he spent hours with Terri Schiavo, even holding her face in his hands as he tried to elicit a response from her.
"I was by her side; she's a human being," he said. "I don't want Terri to die; I don't want anybody to die. When something dies, it takes the hope away from life."
Wolfson said the parents are "salt-of-the-earth, wonderful, normal, caring, decent, kind people." Michael Schiavo, on the other hand, "is not a warm and fuzzy guy. Michael's a little more cool, detached. He's not Mr. Personality, but that certainly doesn't make him a bad guy."
Wolfson said he was touched when Michael Schiavo wept during one of their talks as he reminisced about his life with Terri. It was a reminder that, for all the vitriol that has been spewed, these are all human beings.
"All this nasty slinging of rocks and names and bad words and hatred. ... that's not what Terri was about. She took in sick birds and stray animals. She would hate to see the anger."
I'd rather see Medicaid go to Terri's care than Robert Kleagle Byrd get another tax-payer funded memorial constructed to him in West Virginia.
I'd like to see someone tally the costs of keeping that "minor" convicted felon on the public dole for the rest of his life.
Liberals don't care of the cost of life imprisonment vs. the death penalty.
It's about paving the way for euthanasia as a cost-saving measure.
Her husband won more than that to take care of her. Why would the state be paying anything. If the state is paying anything, they should seize the assets of MS immediately.
"Cost of Schiavo's care may exceed $1 million"
So what?
I'm sure there will me a mass of Amnericans happy to contribute.
I would & I'm not a Yank.
just like a liberal, wanting to kill someone for being a burden (not you ex-T)
Balderdash! Poppycock! This was the "unbiased" court appointed Guardian that JINO Greer appointed.
And so it begins...
Not to mention, these types of articles are meant to convince Americans that some lives are just not "worth it." Can you say "slippery slope?"
It just occurred to me. Where are all those jurors who awarded that money TO TAKE CARE OF HER, not to "arrange" for her to die?!
If I'd been on that jury, I would be coming forward right now and telling the world what Michael said about providing long term care for Terri.
A few people have said, "follow the money" about this case, implying that both the parents and the husband have/had a financial stake in the outcome of Terri's guardianship. Some have said the money is the MAIN reason for the fight for Terri's life/death. Could it really be that sordid?
Caption: "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the people 60,000 Reichmarks during his lifetime. People, that is your money."
No wonder it is so expensive.....
hospital food, drink, medicine, etc. cost a lot of money.
....Hey! Wait a minute....
I cannot get the image of the poster out of my memory, it's a reminder just as to why we fight. This road to euthanasia need to be nipped in the bud.
This article says a couple of nice things about Michael, It explains what has happened to a lot of the Money, This isnt going to sit good in this forum.
That's OK; Michael will hit the jackpot with the book and movie rights to Terri's life story.
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