Terri Schiavo Before dehydration
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, for one, it would be pretty stupid to have an anti-war protest outside a military hospital, considering that no war is taking place inside a hospital. What these people are protesting is most definitely taking place inside this hospice.
And I would think that anyone going through the death of a loved one would find the concept of court-proscribed euthanasia to be an issue of some concern. Want to blame someone?
Blame Michael Schiavo or Judge Greer for requiring the police security to keep out DCF, or some dangerous whacko with a glass of water. Why, if someone like that runs wild, there could be non-fatal consequences!
I was wondering about this last night. The noise, the lights...how it's affecting other dying patients.
This is an ugly face the protestors are presenting, and rightly or wrongly, no one is thinking those are liberals or even moderates out there. It's going to hurt the GOP for years.
Nuclear Roadkill would want them arrested, of course.
BTT
Ah, too late for your sophistry. You can find my actual response (instead of your fabricated hypothetical) in post #41.
what is really scary is to listen to liberals weigh in on this. However, for me it is a wake up call we have a lot of work to do.
However, such a protest would certainly get in the news. If you opposed the war, you could easily justify this action to "save lives".
BTW, this is not my position. I am creating an argument for the sake of making a point!
And I would think that anyone going through the death of a loved one would find the concept of court-proscribed euthanasia to be an issue of some concern. Want to blame someone?
I am staying out of the blame game. There is enough of that from both sides.
I just find it sad that other patients and their families are being affected so dramatically. Sigh.
(And no, this article certainly did not rate a barf alert)
This so-called "Hospice" facility in no way resembles the hospice most of us know. They are most definitly at fault for accepting a patient with no terminal illness. They are also to blame for sullying the once good name of hospice by partnering up and participating in the entire sad torture.
The general public has to get this message. The courts in America are run by lawyers and judges that are not elected and are only interested in their own personal gain. Examples John Edwards, Greer, Justice Kennedy who uses United Nations documents rather than the United States Constitution. This is how the Nazis and Communists infiltrate our country. All you left wing liberal RATS out that will read this bring on. After this week with Terri's RIGHTS be violated in at least the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendents, I'm ready. God Bless America.
The general public has to get this message. The courts in America are run by lawyers and judges that are not elected and are only interested in their own personal gain. Examples John Edwards, Greer, Justice Kennedy who uses United Nations documents rather than the United States Constitution. This is how the Nazis and Communists infiltrate our country. All you left wing liberal RATS out that will read this bring on. After this week with Terri's RIGHTS be violated in at least the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendents, I'm ready. God Bless America.
judicide
This so-called "Hospice" facility in no way resembles the hospice most of us know. They are most definitly at fault for accepting a patient with no terminal illness. They are also to blame for sullying the once good name of hospice by partnering up and participating in the entire sad torture.
How I wish!
Good point. Maybe having these events carried out in the courthouse would be beneficial for all sides.
both sides are only making it worse.....
and as fanatical it has been on and off here the past few days I am amazed I am still around.
and yes I am without words as well.
The idea should be not making things worse. Things are a whole lot worse than they would be. Why? People are letting their emotions get in the way of logic. When that happens you get idiots holding up gun stores and crazy ideas about having Marines storm the hospice like it is the BAstille or something. Hello there are others in that very same hospice at a very trying and emotional time as well!!!!
The entire case is a tragedy. What people are doing "on Terri's behalf" is a travesty.
I'd have to agree with this, it's a sad situation all around. If this were the Schindlers being inconvenienced this board would be solidly behind them, but since it's some other dying patient we're telling him and his family "tough luck".
Prayer vigils I can understand, at least they reflect the serious nature of what's going on. But using a bullhorn outside a building housing the sick and dying is inconsiderate no matter how one might try and justify it.
Ironic that you, despite posting the article, don't seem to get the anguish the other families are going through.
My wife died in such a facility and I would've been FURIOUS if her last days were disturbed in any way by idiots yelling in megaphones or protesters outside. Terri is only one of 70 patients - while she is incapable of hearing the noise or being bothered by the disturbances outside; don't the other 70 patients and their families have the right to peace and quiet during their final days?
Shameful and disgraceful.
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