Posted on 03/26/2005 3:08:40 PM PST by ma bell
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 (news - web sites), 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.
no shortage of me-worshipping imbecils, is there?
Well, it's all about Terri Shiavo, so get used to it. Who cares if some people missed the last few minutes of a loved one's life? I mean, hello? How does that effect Terri? It doesn't, so it's not important...
The capability of people to deceive and be deceived is astounding.
well considering her grandfather died, I would cut her some slack.....by that logic, Terri's parents are selfish for wanting her all to themselves.......it is just a hectic and mournful situation.
Well, if you don't want scenes like this around your hospice, maybe you shouldn't allow your hospice to be used as a prison and killing ground. Maybe you shouldn't fire your nurses for talking to a patient. Maybe you shouldn't violate your Hypocratic Oath by allowing patients under your charge to be maltreated.
You made good money by allowing your hospice to be used as a prison camp. So shut up.
I hope you just forgot to put "sarcasm" after this comment.
How does Michael and his family get in to see Terri? Looks like the families of other patients could slip in the same way.
Yes.
to some, nothing exists except for Terri's case...too bad cause there is alot both good and bad that also needs to be dealt with.......welcome back from last night....*smile*
It should not be. I assume she did not send her family member there to be killed. My mother died in a hospice and it never occurred to me that we were doing something questionable. She had advanced cancer and was beyond any hope. If anything she might have been treated too long. If Terri had been there and there was controversey it would neve occur to me that it was directed at me.
This is the start for the campaign to create a safety zone around hospices just like they have around abortion clinics.
Their death delivery factories must be left functionning at the highest rate of productivity.
she gets all the slack in the world. but she's whining like a lifelong victim, and her childish utterances were perfect fodder for the spin doctors who, for some reason, really want to see terri schiavo dead.
Why didn't she bring in her ID tag?
Maybe she was in a hurry to spend a few precious moments with a loved one at the end, and she forgot?
from your comments, it is all about 'terri'... she is nothing special, people.
Tell that to the JUDGE who order an innocent woman to die by starvation. I pray that if this woman dies because of the courts action it is the second loudest unpeaceful death on earth.
Tommorrow let us celebrate LIFE with unrestrained passion in rememberance of what the world's savior did for all of us!
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