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.
I feel compassion for these families however Terri has been at that hospice longer than anybody there. Why choose that hospice when the case has been in the news in Florida for years. Why not ask the hospice to move a non terminal patient like Terri to the proper facillity since it is really illegal for her to be there and get federal funding for it.
At this point, with emotions running so high, I imagine the security would remain in place whether the protestors are there or not. The protestors could, however, move a good bit further away from the hospice out of respect for the other patients and families.
Thank you, thank you. I always enjoy a healthy debate. I have great concerns of all that is going on in Florida but those in the hospice are totally innocent victims and frankly I would be a bit ticked off if my life was soon to come to end and there was a circus in front of the building. I cannot take away that they believe in what they are doing, I just wonder if anyone has actually gave thought to the other's who are in the facility?
I've heard two sides of that....saying they should leave and then that they should stay......it is getting very confusing there I think.....
Not implying that you in any way meant it, but the term "proper facility" made me think of those "facilities" used in somewhat recent history to dispose of certain "undesirables"..
Greer turned the place into a concentration camp.
Take it up with him.
It is my most heartfelt belief Terri should never have been incarcerated at a hospice facility. Her condition did not warrant it. Her room should have been used for terminally ill patients that had 6 mos. or less to live.
It is a gross injustice to see a healthy disabled woman who only needed a little helping hand with eating via feeding tube to be starved to death and made to die before her time.
I heard the hospice spokeperson say today on CNN news that the hospice is not hastening her death and "she will die of natural causes".
I resent the spokesperson's insult to my intelligence with a statement such as the hospice spokesperson said as much as the relatives of patients resent being delayed when coming to see their loved ones before they die because an innocent woman has been ordered to die by court decree at the same hospice.
Everyones sensitivities are raw regarding this sordid and abhorrent idea that in America an otherwise healthy disabled innocent woman is starving to death.
Some cheer for her death, others are inconvenienced by all of the media focus and some are angry frustrated and disillusioned.
I can't believe there are still other patients there! If I had a family member in that place, I'd move them out.
I realize that I missed the one with the schools, and it had nothing to do with my feelings of the Schiavo case but the fact that elementary kids were taken to another facility because of the media. I did not say either way how this affect or does not affect the Schiavo case.
I have just recently signed on to the net tonight, I do have other things to do and for me these are new items.
Sure hope you are as ticked off over my PRO MILITARY articles that I have just had the opportunity to sit down and read tonight.
Shheesshh. But, thanks for the kind and friendly observation.
tallhappy,....why are you turning this post now into a Terri must not die thread.......this was a post on a young lady who lost her grandfather.....why are you being so emotionally ludicrous to make that leap......that has been happening all weekend......
When I was in labor with my first child, we ended up in a road block looking for DUIs in downtown DC. By your logics, we shouldn't try to stop drunk drivers. Stuff happens.
They should take that up with the director, since Terri Schiavo doesn't seem to be, or at least wasn't until now, eligible for hospice care:
From http://www.cms.hhs.gov/providers/hospiceps/hospiceadd.asp
Eligibility for hospice services requires that the beneficiary's physician and the hospice medical director certify that the individual's prognosis is for a life expectancy of six months or less, if the terminal illness runs its normal course. Beneficiaries who elect hospice must waive all other Medicare coverage of care related to their terminal illness, although they retain coverage for services unrelated to their terminal illness. A beneficiary can cancel his or her election of hospice benefits at any time and return to regular Medicare, and beneficiaries are free to reselect hospice coverage at a later date. While there are currently no limits on the number of days an individual can receive hospice care, a beneficiary's prognosis must be reaffirmed at 90 days, at 180 days, and every 60 days thereafter. The hospice eligibility requirement that a beneficiary be certified as having a prognosis of 6 months or less is a concern that providers have recently raised. It is important to point out that the fundamental premise upon which the hospice benefit was designed was the "rejection" of the traditional medical system and the "election" of hospice care. Hospice advocates were clear that they wanted a benefit that was all inclusive for the care of the terminally ill individual through palliation of pain and symptoms and the opportunity for the person to die with dignity in the comfort of their home. The concept of a beneficiary "electing" the hospice benefit and being certified as terminally ill were two key components put in the legislation responsible for the Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB) as a way to determine which Medicare beneficiary was eligible to use the benefit. Any changes to the MHB's eligibility requirements would require a change in the laws regarding this benefit.
I agree with you. That was the reason I had posted this article. A young woman who loved her grandfather felt slighted at the end. This is not about Terri. To think some feel they should have chosen a different facility knowing the media attention on the Schiavo's case. There are just so many facilities, where can the rest of them go to?
My prayers are for her, her family and all those who love Terri.
My mother died of cancer at an inpatient hospice facility. I would have been furious if I had to go through a police checkpoint and search before I could get in to see her.
You've got your priorities right.
No i was referring to a hospital,a hospice is supposed to be for terminal patients with a life expectancy of 6 mths or less.
Terri should have never been put in that hospice. She was put there because Felos ,the lawyer for Ms was on the board of that facility and could arrange for her improper admission.
The complaints of other hospice patients should be directed at Felos and the board of administration of the hospice.
Because of the care or the protesters, media?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.