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
Well, I know Chad better than most here, so I understand his style and what he's saying when others don't.
This place has reminded me of DU lately, too, because a good share of the people here are saying things I think are irrational - probably because they're in pain. I wouldn't interpret that as some sort of forbidden criticism of FreeRepublic, though - it's just an observation of the recent climate.
I hope we don't have to apologize for our honest observations now.
Of course not. SOme posters are of the opinion that we aren't allowed to make honest observations, and if we dare to do so, we will be... dare I say it...? Crucified.
"It's causing a lot of grief and questions in their own mind on whether they did the right thing,"
If they are starving their loved one to death, they are doing the wrong thing.
Reddy
Yup. Sorry.
Pointy stick. LOL
Thank you for understanding and accepting my apology.
Tammy
Not intentionally :)
Never. LOL
Funny, but, that wouldn't be unconstitutional, either.
"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"
Now you are accusing ME of making threats? Go ahead and look through all of my posts.
First rule of a person in a hole: stop digging.
I wouldn't want to be the guy who had to plan a raid on that place. Getting in through that crowd, getting her, and getting away quick, clean and without harming anybody (especially her) strikes me as a daunting bill to fill. Putting it mildly.
Sadly, I think more Americans are concerned about who will be the next American Idol than the fact that an innocent, disabled woman is being killed by court order.
You said it! I have never watched that show because I think we have too many people running around becoming celebrities as it is. We need more REAL people to admire than watching these fantasies being created before our eyes.
...Let's stop calling this place a hospice, which it is not....
Roach Motel for the Disabled is to good a name for it, though certainly gets a lot closer then hospice.
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