Posted on 03/26/2005 4:40:38 AM PST by tessalu
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) -- Jennifer Johnson, barefoot and in her pajamas, ran to her grandfather's bedside once a hospice worker said his death was moments away.
She got there - one minute too late.
Johnson said the chaos outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo is dying kept her from saying goodbye. When Johnson arrived, a police officer demanded identification; she had none. And after a hospice employee cleared her, another officer halted her for a search with a metal detector.
The delays lasted three to four minutes - the last of her grandfather's life.
"It's a terrible, extra obstacle to put in front of a family. ... Everything is about Schiavo," Johnson said. "It's all about her and in my family's case, it cost us dearly."
Woodside Hospice has 70 patients besides Schiavo, whose parents are desperately trying to have her feeding tube reconnected. Dozens of protesters have arrived from across the nation since the tube was removed March 18, and at least 15 have been arrested, prompting a police barricade around the facility and unprecedented security.
Family members visiting patients must pass through a police checkpoint to park, then show identification outside the door before another security screening inside. They also must walk by scores of signs decrying Schiavo's "crucifixion," "torture," and "starvation," plus navigate around hordes of media who have been camped outside.
"To have to maneuver through all of this and have a hostile environment outside when all they want is peace and quiet and to enjoy those few days they have left with a loved one is a horror," said Dr. Morton Getz, executive director of Douglas Gardens Hospice in Miami.
Getz said many people with a family member in a hospice have to make the same excruciating decision that courts have made for Schiavo.
"It's causing a lot of grief and questions in their own mind on whether they did the right thing," he said. "It's unconscionable to have a family member to be near the end stages of life and to get there, you have to walk through signs that say, 'Murderer.'"
Most protesters direct their signs and their chants against the courts and Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, who insists she would not want to be kept alive artificially.
But walking through a hostile environment can only add stress to what's already an emotionally draining situation.
"It probably has the same psychological effect on the residents' families as it does on someone who is walking into an abortion clinic and facing signs and aggressive behavior," said Elizabeth Foley, a Florida International University law professor who specializes in bioethics.
Over the past few days, as Schiavo's parents' attempts to have their daughter's feeding tube reinserted repeatedly failed, signs outside the hospice have grown more desperate. Doctors have said Schiavo would probably die within a week or two of the feeding tube being removed.
Messages compare Michael Schiavo to Scott Peterson, convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in California, and John Evander Couey, who allegedly murdered a 9-year-old girl in Homosassa.
One woman in a wheelchair regularly moves up and down sidewalks in front of the hospice yelling in a megaphone, "We're disabled, not disposable!" and "Terri is a person, not a vegetable!"
Relatives of hospice residents say the clamor - intended to rattle Michael Schiavo - rattles their patience.
"It's a real pain in the neck," said Bill Douglass, whose mother-in-law is a resident. He said the only consolation is that she is "oblivious" to the outside scene.
Police and hospice officials say they are trying to minimize the intrusion on hospice residents and their families, and that the security measures are meant to protect the privacy and safety of all residents, not just Schiavo.
But Johnson, 24, said her 73-year-old grandfather, Thomas Bone, was restricted from moving freely around the hospice grounds during his final days. He died just hours after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed and protests intensified.
"They've taken away hospice's greatest quality, that it is peaceful and serene and quiet and calming - and it's not fair," Johnson said
I went back and reread your post. I didn't like most of it but don't want to get into a flame war over it. I think I lost it when I came to the word "lisp".
I would stand outside a courthouse (at least symbolically if not literally) if someone was trying to deprive you your right of saying something that didn't settle too well with me. I don't care how much I might inconvenience others. Just breathing my share of oxygen is inconveniencing to somebody with another agenda.
Codswapllop. How would you like to spend your very last Easter like those other people and their families are doing? Crowds, noise, confusion, police checks, etc. I am discusted with the protesters at this point.
Very well said.
I think the Left has a slogan which can apply to this as well.
No Justice, No peace.
War
The family members are absolutely right neets. They have loved ones that are dying in that building at this very moment.
It is shameful that they should have to go through this. My dad died recently and I would have been horrified if this was going on around him.
Where in the hell is your compassion for the other dying patients?
Clearly you are a hypocrite. You only care about Terri, not all the other dying patients.
There are people on FreeRepublic claiming that no one is advocating physical harm to people on the other side.
I don't understand how they can say that.
What in the world is wrong with these people RA? They have no compassion for any of the other patients or family members in there.
How hypocritical of them. This is making me sick. I'm always so glad to see people like you speaking out on here.
Because, in their heart of hearts, they agree with it and it shames them... so they pretend it isn't there...
Thank you so much. For the most part I stayed away from the Terri threads. However, I felt so bad her grandfather died without her seeing him one last time. :-(
Neets, I am so sorry. I completely misunderstood your post.
I just got on FR for the day and I reacted too quickly. You have my deepest, most sincere apology.
Go back and read what Chad said and I said.
I don't say, that there aren't people who express those emotions, but FR is NOT allowing them, specifically warned people about them.
Chad chose to attack FR, NOT the people who advocate violence.
If he had said, there are people who advocate violence, I wouldn't have bothered to answer to his post, but he stated that FR is becoming like DU, intimating that it is with permission that people express wishes for violence. This is what I took issue with.
An apology from Chad to FR and Jim Robinson would be appropriate.
Because they want him to fix it for them, and they can't accept that he isn't able to.
After being broadsided and called stupid by one person, and a host of other names by a few others, I was encouraged to learn that Judge Bork agreed with our side of the argument. I only wish we could convince people Jeb is not to blame - but they're not hearing it.
They just don't want to.
Oh, yes, let's shut down the protestors legitamate right to free speech so you can be allowed some fictional figment of a right to quiet.
Don't worry about it.
I understand completely.
If Jim Robinson feels I owe him an apology, he is perfectly capable of asking me for one, and I am perfectly willing to give one.
However, I was not insulting FR, nor was I insulting Jim Robinson. What it boils down to is that YOU got offended, because I was making it clear that you, and posters like you, are working very hard at turning this place into a conservative version of DU, and it hit home with you. So, you ping Jim to the thread as a way of attempting to stir up trouble.
Jim - just a courtesy ping. SOrry you have to be bothered constantly by this stuff. Sigh.
Is that a protected right?
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