Posted on 03/28/2005 6:41:56 PM PST by Former Military Chick
PINELLAS PARK - 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 surrounding the hospice where Terri Schiavo lies 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 metal-detecting search.
The delays lasted three to four minutes - the last minutes 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 in addition to Schiavo, whose parents have been desperately trying to have her feeding tube reinserted. Dozens of protesters have arrived from around the nation since the tube was removed March 18; at least 22 have been arrested, prompting a police barricade around the facility and unprecedented security measures.
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 the facility.
"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. "And unfortunately, that is the price you have to pay in a free society."
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. Messages compare Michael Schiavo to the likes of Scott Peterson, convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in California, and John Evander Couey, who has been arrested on charges of kidnapping and murdering a 9-year-old girl in Homosassa.
It's all about you, isn't it?
The protestors are selfish. There are so many ways they could protest, yet have compassion for others.
but you are taking one small facet of one small case and turning it into an analogy......i'll bet most experts on WWII would say that is nuts......totally......and Germany was taking many people nowhere near the state Terri is....again, you grasp at straws.......that is like saying a cow and spider are very similar because the both have legs...very very far fetched.........but hey....close by your standards
Agin thta hospice has been in the news for years with this case, why choose that place when you know that on its face that hospice is breaking the law and is currently under investigation for fraud for millions of dollars.
<< "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." >>
Yair.
You poor thing.
Hearts bleed for you.
And meanwhile that poor woman -- and our nation -- are both being murdered by an ostensible branch of government.
But don't let that bother you, eh?
Actually, I read the original story by the reporter, and it is mostly hype.
The words the reporter qouted coming from the little barefoot girl in pajamas are not the words of the little girl. They are the words of the director of the Hospice.
Let me ask you some questions, If I may.
Why weren't the parents and the granddaughter there by grandpa's side if he was on his deathbed?
Why were they at home, and waiting for a last minute, "he's going, going, going, .... gone." phone call?
The time to be there is before they are to the point where they recognize no one, have no idea you even came.
Also, the article states the girl was barefoot and in pajamas. The writer makes you think she ran all the way from home that way. What parent would allow a child to leave the house barefoot, and have them walk across a parking lot full of protestors, maybe some broken glass here and there?
It seems the parents waited until the very last minute, then want to blame it on the delay getting in. What if he died two minutes before they arrived at the Hospice?
This reporter found some little girl who had a sad story because her parents waited until the last minute, and tried to use it to manipulate the view of the public. Using the sadness of a little girl, exposing her to the public, and manufacturing comments for her.
If you like, I can qoute the 'qoute' from the little girl, so you can see these are not the words of a child.
The Wounded
By JOHNNY DWYER
Published: March 27, 2005, The New York Times
The Wounded
Treating combat trauma on the ground in Iraq. Photographs by Lynsey Addario.
If the rates of survival are encouraging, for many injured soldiers the conditions of survival are not. ''You live,'' says Lt. Col. Craig Silverton, an orthopedic surgeon who has treated soldiers in Iraq, ''but you have these devastating injuries.'' Modern body armor helps spare the head, heart, lungs and other internal organs, but the areas that remain unprotected -- limbs, neck and face -- are exposed to explosive forces that were often fatal in previous wars. Amputation rates among soldiers, according to recent Congressional estimates, have doubled to 6 percent from the historic norm. Brain injuries are also common.
CD.....go look at the polls......the overwhelming majority both in Florida and the US side with the courts and want the fed govt stay the hell out.....that does not make them pro death, but feel the husband made the right decision.. I know you hate that, and I do to an extent, but will not condone anarchy or such just cause we don't like the law....if that was the case....Dems would at this moment marrying more gay couples than ever
he may have.......but the majority of clear thinking scholars and lawyers say the jig is up.......I"m as pro life as you....really, but I won't throw my principles out the window either when the decisions don't go my way....that is all
I could try to explain it to you, but there would be no point. You will believe what you wish to believe. Hope you never find yourself in my situation. The fall from your high horse would probably kill you.
Why do you think the police were there. Could it be because there are protesters trying to get into the hospice to do who knows what.
OK. Before the protestors arrived, Terri's parents and any visitors on Terri's 'side' of the family or case, had to be searched before entering Terri's room, and had to have express permission from Michael to even be allowed in.
Would you have liked that with your mother?
Was your mother allowed to have 'personal effects' around her? Terri was not.
Soory but there were correctly enacted racial laws in germany and they were applied by the courts and their orders were followed by law enforcements.
The facts that the judges were found guilty at Nuremberg really defeats your argument since a special tribunal found judges that were just applying the law guilty.
I am not sure what threatens you so much abou t nazi comparisons.
If the American Society is prepared to consider eugenics and euthanasia it is going to draw comparison to the one regime that made these types of policies center pieces of their government.
can't do anything but......as a clear thinking Christian, I can't stand by and let moral convictions seemingly turn this fringe element into a seething mob without principle.....that is madness
I must disagree, if they NEED to protest, and frankly I believe they have every right to and deserve to, go a block or two back. That was fine for the folks who wanted to protest the RNC and DNC conventions, it's fine here. For the record, I agree with most of what they are protesting by the way, so it's not that I'm against the protesters....
"Instead, she should be angry that a corrupt judge has sentenced a disabled woman to death by starvation."
However, regarding that comment... THAT, I believe would be the "misplaced anger"...
That is plan BS.
Actually this hysteria is very much like Nazi Germany. Can you imagine how much more Hitler could have done if he had an internet to rile up his followers. How many more Jews could he have killed across Europe if could have demonizing them on-line. This whole thing has gotten extremely scary. I have to believe that there are some who have been intently watching the national mania being fed by the net.
and you know those laws were enacted under a regime of tyranny ...kind of like voting for Saddam......vote or die....and the remedy for laws to kick Jews out was not death by concentration camp......those were the purviews of Himmler, Eichammn, Hitler and the rest of the hee haw gang...
Read about the Boston Tea Party.
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