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 would definitely not want any family member of mine spending their last days on this earth in a hospice that's infested with vermin.
Sometimes I think we show more respect for the dead than we do for the dying in this country.
Another 'truism' that needs repeating. Thank you so much.
Thank you for sharing your husband and letting him defend us. I was alone on 9/11 and so scared. Not for myself because we're in a small town in the south, away from the action that day, and I feel safe here. But for the country.
And it wasn't until my husband came home and reminded me about our military and how powerful and committed they are that I could feel my shoulders relax and come down from my ears.
And thank you for your service too.
Well, I'm getting too tired to make sense anymore.
I wrote you a long post and deleted it because I thought it came down to just a few issues but it's so much bigger than a few issues that there's no sense trying to compress it. LOL
and thanks for your comments as well......love can be self serving or self centered which I see alot of around here these day......as Rogert Schuler says, love should be self giving.......keep up the fight for justice as well as humanity
you're comments on Judge Greer are only speculation and you don't know what is in his heart......you may feel like you do based on behavior but that is all......in the final analysis, no one but M.S. and God knows what she really wanted.....did you ever stop to think just one thing....what if....and it is a big if, what if she actually did tell Michael that she didn't want to live this way......then God help us all since then we are the ones being selfish.......but we will never know
I think many of us found 9/11 changing us in some way. I also understand that fear. But, sometimes it is when beloved is away. When his driver was murdered in Iraq, it changed Dave. There was no reason this vibrant, fun, loving, son deserved to be murdered while driving back to camp.
There are so many issues, and frankly never feel you need to delete anything, because I really do enjoy reading what you have to say. I even read the liberal comments of others, shhhh don't tell, it is a secret.
I have to agree knowing how well prepared our military is gives me a great deal of comfort. They are a great group of patriotic, honest, sharp, loving American's. We could not ask for anything more.
Dave like I came from a military background. All though his dad was in the Army, and well mine went to West Point but chose to go in the Air Force. I to served in the Air Force and I appreciate your kind words of my service.
Frankly, everyone should serve. Ducking many might disagree with that comment.
Get a good nights rest. You know when you are doing the right thing, if you can nod off to sleep knowing you gave your all in all you did that day, giving thanks for everyone and our Nation.
We do need you fresh and alert, I have a feeling these issues will be here for some time to come.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you.
(((Former Military Chick)))
May your beloved come home safely to you. We owe our military everything we have and yet give them so little. It is another of life's inequities.
Good night.
Am I wrong?
As regards me, and only me, yep. I supported every legal effort to keep that feeding tube in; it's the calls for extralegal actions that I, and every genuine conservative, find appalling.
My impression is you also hold that view
I'm not responsible for your "impressions," and don't really give a rat's rear what they are in any event.
I am clear. My impression is the person who began this thread with an article critical of the demonstrators holds the view that Terri Schiavo should be starved
I don't know what the original poster's views are on the matter, and that's irrelevant to the discussion at hand in any event. Which is, to wit: you are smarmy in your interactions with others and irresponsible in your unsubstantiated charges regarding them.
I try to be nice and look how you react
LOL...are you trying to be funny? Yours is a singular wit...
Just talk, man
Just read, and you'll catch on...eventually
When called on what?
That's a "jus liddle old me" child's reaction, and dishonest as the day is long: you know exactly what you were "called on"; we've been debating it back and forth throughout this thread.
Try to not babble incoherently
LOL...as I've already stated, you're beyond satire.
Federal law requires terminal illness (a six-month life expectancy) in hospice patients and Terri is on Medicaid. Florida hospices can accept stroke victims and others, probably only if those patients are privately funded. At least, that's my understanding of what I've read from the statute and from some of the hospices' websites.
This saga just gets more and more tragic.
Terri never should have been placed in a Hospice for 5 years. Hospice is for end of life care for the terminally ill.
Since Medicare does pay for Hodspice care for a terminally ill patient, and Terri was very much alive when she went in, who is paying to keep her in Hospice? How can a Hospice justify keeping a woman who is not terminally ill in their facility? Have they been collecting from Medicare as payment for her care all these five years?
411: Almost all Hospice care is given to dying people in their own home.
Some one should have asked Jennifer Johnson if they were murdering her grandfather of if he was just dying a natural death.
Oh well! Sometimes, killing off inconvenient people is just...well...inconvenient.
George Felos, director of the hospice, probably made special arrangements to get Terri into that hospice, so he could help to cheat the government out of more money. I think he had a plan, and it was not that Terri belonged in that hospice. She was not even near to death.
It's not Michaels fault, or the judges fault, or the voters who elected the judge. It Dubya's and Jeb's, and the Republican Congress's fault. All who refuse to recognize the evil crawling in the GOP...like Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest of the cheerleaders are heretical pawns of the Beast.
The people who think that way are messed up.
Nice that you finally got off your high horse and communicated.
Please tell me how you really feel? OK, a bit glib but I do understand and appreciate your thoughtful post. It has been rough on FR these past weeks.
So much publicity, 24/7, breaking news, on this case has seemed to get the best of folks. Some losing sight that we are not cookie cutter Freepers, that we have individual minds, like Terri, that sometimes we will differ, and when we do we say so honestly and respectfully and move along.
It has been some time that I have seen that type of exchange. Either you are one or the other thread and if you say something that differs you are a problem causer not problem solver.
There are no winners in this case. All though, I do hope when Terri is greeted with open arms of her Father in Heaven she will understand the love of her family for her.
It is refreshing to read posts like yours and frankly more should be honest and not hide if they differ the majority.
Again, there is no right or wrong answer here. Only what Terri wants and as long as we get that right, well we will be OK.
You certainly show a lot of class with your responses. Your very cool-headed in the midst of an emotionally charged situation.
It has been some time that I have seen that type of exchange. Either you are one or the other thread and if you say something that differs you are a problem causer not problem solver.
I see it all the time on the immigration and free trade threads.
This is such a tragic situation. Personally I don't understand why Michael is allowed to make this decision. I would have thought there would be some latitude allowed the judge to rule the parents better fit to care for Terri than a husband who has sire 2 bastard children while married to Terri. But then again I though OJ was guilty.
There are no winners in this case. All though, I do hope when Terri is greeted with open arms of her Father in Heaven she will understand the love of her family for her.
I don't know all the details of Terri's case. The more I read the less I know what to believe. I don't know if Terri has been poisoned by her husband, or if her family refuses to let go even though there is no hope...but it is clear that Terri's family love her deeply. My heart tells me she is a good woman. I feel certain she will be received in Heaven.
Life isn't fair. The law is often wrong. Sometimes it takes a problem for people to see the law is wrong. Often when this happens the politicians try to fix it. I'm thankful that this tragedy has awakened the spiritual passions of many. I'm sure God appreciates the increased prayer traffic. Unfortunately to much of the emotion is misguided anger at the people who tried to stop Terri's death. There is not enough time to fix the law for Terri, but hopefully someway will be found to prevent future Terri's.
Actually, I found your words ironically appropriate.
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