Yeah ask the NYSlimes if they think this looks painless and dignified.
Posted on 03/23/2005 7:21:50 PM PST by Zivasmate
Terri's Last Chance It's time to try giving Terri Schiavo orally administered liquids. by William Anderson 03/23/2005 12:45:00 PM
THE CHIPS ARE DOWN. We have had a surfeit of due process. It is now well past time to consider the facts which process has willfully ignored. There is no reason, medical, moral, or legal, to refrain from an attempt to provide Terri Schiavo with orally administered liquids.
There are only two possible explanations for having employed gastric tube feeding. Either (1) her neurologic damage has brought about a swallowing dysfunction with danger of aspiration pneumonia; or (2) it was simply a matter of convenience to avoid labor intensive hand feeding.
In either case, no medical reason now exists to refuse a trial of natural drinking. She may have impaired swallowing function, but that at its worst cannot be as bad as death by dehydration.
Allowing her to drink water would be the definitive test of swallowing function. She may be able to swallow water and other clear liquids, in which case she will avoid death by dehydration, even if she later succumbs to malnutrition. Or she may be able to swallow pureed food, which will avoid death by malnutrition. Or she may not be able to swallow water without aspiration into the lungs, and so would develop pneumonia, and have a quicker and more peaceful death.
As to legal concerns, a guardian may refuse any medical treatment, but drinking water is not such a procedure. It is not within the power of a guardian to withhold it, and not in the power of a rational court to prohibit it.
The moral case speaks for itself. When we awaken from this queasy nightmare, people will ask how it could have been that a court could post a police officer by the bedside to insure that a dying woman succumbed to a ghastly death by thirst.
William Anderson is a lecturer at Harvard University and Senior Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Very strange. I think the screen name was amazingrace (like the show maybe??), though. I'll double check because it was on my replies page.
Someone needs to let Judge Greer not eat and drink anything for a week.
Lets see how he feels.
A judge does not have any police at his disposal. Some local authority is cooperating either a sherrif or city police chief.
Judge Greer covered all his bases. His order states NO NUTRITION TO BE GIVEN IN ANY MANNER PERIOD. Feeding tube or no feeding tube.
Governor's Office - Executive Offices
Jeb Bush, Governor
850 / 488-4441
850 / 487-0801 (fax)
Executive Office of the Governor
400 S. Monroe Street
The Capitol
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0001
jeb.bush@myflorida.com
Let's start with the faxes!!
Yeah ask the NYSlimes if they think this looks painless and dignified.
So did the local LE 2005 or so years ago.
I just sent an email:
Dear Governor Bush:
As a moral human being, you must be revolted by the decisions made in the Schiavo case. The difference between you and me is I am in no position to do something about it, while as Governor of Florida, you are.
There is mounting evidence that Michael Schiavo has his own highly selfish motives to rid us of poor Terri. This must be looked into more seriously. Of more immediate concern is the reinsertion of the feeding tube to keep Terri from starving to death. You, Governor, are in the best position to keep that tragedy from happening. Please for the sake of humanity, save Terri.
Most Respectfully,
Teaneck, NJ
Add the number of meals that Scott Peterson has consumed to the list.
At least Judge David Demers (Pinellas Circuit Court) tried to stop this insanity. Why isn't Starve-em-all Greer being brought up on contempt charges?
Pray for Terri! And make those who did this to her have no peace and prosperity for the rest of their days! Make your list now, and take action!
PING!
Guess they might have fudge...or a doughnut.
Only Governor Bush can save Terri at this time.
CONTACT JEB BUSH HERE:
E-mail: jeb.bush@myflorida.com
Telephone: 850/488-4441
Fax: 850/487-0801
I'm with you on this! Besides, how can anyone stay at a place that allows such barbarity? I'd rather loose my job and know that I did the right thing, than never be able to live with myself. But I can't speak for the nurses and other caregivers who have to endure this horrendous nightmare. I don't know their circumstances, but I'd rather scrub toilets. Wish they'd all converge on her bedside, or walk out. What is the policeman on duty going to do? Shoot a group of people? And how can that officer stand this. The force must provide therapy, because they're going to need it.
Pray for Terri, and then take action against those who are part of this evil.
I would agree. Gov. Bush just needs to give the go-ahead. I realize that we should be praying just as much for him.
Thanks..
fight_truth_decay
Have a field day!
http://hyscience.typepad.com/hyscience/2005/02/michael_schiavo_1.html
Also on that page:
About a year and a half ago, I worked two 40 hour wknds(!) up all night in the offices of the (former) lawyer for Terri's parents. I was able to read most of the files on the case. I was there when two former nurses phoned (separately and entirely of their own volition)and asked to come in and give an affidavit about what they knew. They said they could no longer keep silent, though for years they were so intimidated by Michael Schiavo, they were afraid to speak up. I was there when each of them, on their own, arrived in the garage of the office building. Both of them looked around to make sure they were not being followed! Both of them described hideous behavior over the years by Michael Schiavo. They described his phone calls (especially when she had an infection and he forbade antibiotics) asking the nurses "Is the bitch dead yet?" and his boasting of how he was going to spend the money he would get after her death. Weeks would go by when he would not visit at all. Once he received the million dollar settlement, he forbade Terri being taken outside in a wheelchair for change of scenery and fresh air. He forbade music on her radio. He had her personal effects removed from the room - all visual stimuli. Her parents and siblings were not allowed to visit her and could not read her chart. One of the nurses talked about his visits to Terri when he closed the door and was alone with her. When that nurse entered the room after he left, she found Terri shaken, trembling and pale and looking as if she was in a diabetic crisis. Terri has no blood sugar problems due to her regulated diet, but seeing her distress and the appearance of diabetic crisis, the nurse gave her a glucose test anyway and the numbers were so skewed that it was clear Terri was in insulin shock. The nurse gave her a shot to alleviate the diabetic shock and immediately suspected Michael had injected her during his visit to cause this. I believe she said this happened at least twice. The nurses also described taking care of Terri and how when she had menstrual cramps she would curl up and put her hands on her tummy (she was able to move them in those early days before the atrophy progressed due to Michael forbidding therapy)and clearly say "Pain!" or "Pain!" and call for her mother. They said that's how they knew to give her medication for her menstrual pain. They talked about how after Michael won the big settlement award, he forbade all further rehab treatment of every kind. So, on a visit to Terri, he saw this nurse had threaded a washcloth between Terri's fingers to relieve the cramping and he pulled it out of her fingers and shouted "I said NO THERAPY!" Michael removed all family photos from her room. He refused to allow her teeth to be brushed (no doubt hoping a tooth infection would give her a heart attack). When the nurses wrote in her daily chart they had observed her speaking words like "Pain" and "Mommy", the next day their comments were missing from the chart! They talked about how he would stand extra close to them and shout in their faces that he would see that they were fired if they tried to feed her or go against any of his orders. He is a very tall and large man and towers over the average man or woman. They also mentioned that he was having an affair or flirtation with the head nurse and they suspected that's how the charts were being altered. One nurse tried to report the mistreatment of Terri and was fired. I seem to recall she even went to the police but nothing came of it. And there is more - George Felos was on the Board of Directors (cannot recall if he was chair or owner) of the hospice where she was kept. He resigned his post to avoid the scandal of that connection being made. Some of you may not realize that legally a hospice is only for those who have six months or less left to live, who are terminally ill. Hospice is not a convalescent home - it is a place to die in painless comfort with counseling and support given to patient and family. Terri does not belong in hospice. Patients in her condition are normally cared for in convalescent homes. Did you know that George Felos has a book about Terri already written and ready to publish as soon as she dies?
While I worked at that law office, coincidentally, one of the attorneys had an unrelated reason to visit a local funeral home. During that visit, a casual conversation with a funeral home employee revealed, entirely by accident, that the funeral home had an "open file" set up for the immediate, without delay or autopsy, cremation of Terri Schiavo upon her death. Michael Schiavo made these arrangements immediately after winning the big million dollar settlement and all these years they stand ready to carry out his wishes. Once her body is cremated, no one will ever be able to prove the abuse he is so desperate to conceal.
While working in that office I also read statements by co-workers and friends of Terri about the bruises she had, the evident signs of physical abuse that were visible when she would come to work and which she claimed were the result of wrestling with Michael, but no one believed that. Eventually, she admitted to a co-worker and a friend that she wanted to leave Michael and that he was dominating and controlling and she was frightened of him. She talked about leaving him and sharing an apartment with the girlfriend she confided in. She said that Michael was so controlling and scary that he would check her odometer after her daily usage of the car. His behavior is an exact match to that of spousal abusers. When Terri met Michael, she was completely smitten with him - he was very handsome and he was her first boyfriend. She had been a bit chubby and became very weight conscious to be attractive to him. She worshipped him initially and he was able to dominate and intimidate her quite easily due to her naivete. Terri was a vivacious girl. She was a rescuer and enabler by nature. She loved and caredfor injured birds and animals and was very much pro-life. She is also Catholic and there is no reason to believe she disagrees with the church's pro-life stance.
To those who have heard negative comments about Terri's parents, I will say that I am a mature sophisticated woman and have lived all over the country and worked in the health and legal fields most of my life. I met her parents and I have no doubt whatsoever that they are anything less than devoted, loving parents. They are both small in stature and soft-spoken gentle ordinary, middle-class people. I have children in their 30's - parental love only grows with the years and I would fight as hard as they have to prevent the completion of the murder of their daughter.
Most of the money awarded by the court for Terri's rehabilitation has been paid to George Felos. I don't understand how money that is misspent as this was cannot be grounds for prosecution of Michael. He wept in court and brought experts in to testify that Terri could be rehabilitated if they only were given enough money. So, they won that settlement and he immediately ceased all rehab.
I am baffled by the stubborn meanness and refusal of that idiot probate(!) (probate law does not require genius, to put it mildly) judge Greer to admit solid evidence and handle this case fairly. Who knows what transpires behind closed doors to slant the judge in this fashion? Conspiracy? As long as people in this country allow themselves to be told "conspiracy" is a bad word or that believing one exists means you are a nutcase, then we will continue to be duped by unprincipled, self-serving criminals who worship money and power and have no respect for human life. A conspiracy is whenever two or more people secretly plan something and clearly something has compromised the justice in this case.
Just for the record, I am pro-choice and I also believe in a patient's right to choose IF they are able to prepare and sign a witnessed, notarized living will or DNR document. Terri is not vegetative or in any coma at all. Who cannot see the love and life in her eyes when she sees her mother? She was nearly killed and will be killed if Michael gets his way. George Felos will have a bestseller and probably kick back some of that money to Michael Schiavo and who knows who else will profit?
I had to share some of these facts - the news never really reports the truth nowadays. Each day, our local news stations continue to refer to Terri as in a vegetative coma and it infuriates me. Not one journalist, not the local TV news nor the big stations, Larry King, Barbara Walters, etc., has thoroughly sleuthed out all the facts, even the ones I described here, and reported them to the public.
I cannot help but mention to all of you reading this - with so little truth being reported on this case - think about the quality of the news you hear on TV and in the papers about our government, the war in Iraq, social security reform, health and environment, education, political office, taxes, ufos, ETC!!! Do you really think you are getting the truth about everything and that Terri's case is an isolated incident of lies and deceit and poor reporting?
Posted by: Rohana | March 17, 2005 01:37 PM
Emailed your post as is to Jeb bush's office. Who knows?
Stalin's name is being thrown around a lot these days by the death cultists specifically Felos. Hitler is strangely absent...especially considering the love affair the Left has had for years for the Stalinist state.
For years we have seen the Left using Hitler's name in reference to the religious and conservative right. Felos' using Stalin's name now is an interesting strategy.
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