Posted on 04/02/2005 3:04:50 PM PST by Halls
PINELLAS PARK - The room was quiet Friday. The stuffed animals and family pictures were gone. The air mattress that protected her skin from bedsores is neatly covered with a pink and blue blanket.
Only a few clues marked her passing: a bouquet of flowers, still fresh in their vase. An electric candle, ceramic angel and farewell note left by the staff.
Four boxes of facial tissues were strewn on two chairs.
For the first time in five years Friday, life at Hospice House Woodside went on without Terri Schindler Schiavo.
About 50 patients were fed and bathed. An elderly woman with cancer died just before noon. Workers who helped keep Schiavo alive for so long reined in their emotions and plowed through another day.
"It's been very hard watching a circus outside and be there with her while she was dying," said Susan Agines, a senior nursing supervisor. "I think what finally did it was when the juggler came. To me it was ... awful."
Hospice workers are accustomed to death. Their job is to help families through it. But never has the journey exacted such a toll as this one, said Woodside manager Becky McAllister.
For two weeks, nurses, aides and volunteers had to pass through yelling throngs to get to work. Angry voices accused them of murder.
"Today, we are feeling a mixture of relief, exhaustion and satisfaction that we were able to take care of her as well as we did," McAllister said, "and pride in our staff that we were able to continue in spite of having to run this gantlet."
Losing a patient is never easy, McAllister said. Hospice workers deal with patients and families on intimate levels and tend to get attached.
One patient always walked around with a red mark on his cheek, bragging about his daily kiss from the receptionist. An AIDS patient, after several days of extensive wound treatment, told staff that "no one would ever touch him before that," McAllister said. "He felt loved here."
The bonds with Terri Schiavo also were strong. Her five-year stay was two years longer than any other patient. She originally came in 2000 after Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George W. Greer ordered her feeding tube removed for the first time. People expected her to die soon, but litigation stretched on and on.
The staff took pride that she never developed a bedsore. With twice as many nursing aides per patient than the average nursing home, Woodside workers were able to turn her every two hours.
"She wasn't able to verbalize," said Agines, the nursing supervisor. "But if she was uncomfortable, because the staff had been with her so long, we knew. If she moved, we knew what it meant. We knew when she should settle down with a different piece of music."
For five years, the staff also made connections with Terri's two families - her birth family and marriage family. Some of the staff had moral reservations about removing her feeding tube, others were fine with it, McAllister said. But they were trained to keep those feelings to themselves and try to support everyone equally.
"I said, "This isn't my battle,"' Agines said. "I'm there as a nurse caring for patient. I am caring for the wife of Michael Schiavo, the daughter of Bob and Mary Schindler and the sister to Suzanne and Bobby."
Agines, McAllister and Hospice of the Florida Suncoast president Mary Labyak said their biggest regret was not helping Michael Schiavo and the Schindler family bury their differences, at least long enough for everyone to be present at her death.
Family members have given conflicting versions of what transpired in Schiavo's last few hours Thursday, and the hospice workers declined to elaborate, citing confidentiality.
About 7,000 people die a year under Hospice of the Florida Suncoast care, mostly at home and in nursing homes, Labyak said. Conflict is common as families decide when to treat infections, when to put in feeding tubes, when to disconnect ventilators, when to sign do-not-resuscitate orders.
Mediating disputes "is a way of life for us," Labyak said.
The Schiavo case is the only one she could remember where disagreements kept family members from a bedside at death.
"What saddened us with Terri was all our hoping for reconciliation," Agines said. "To see a family so torn and divided ... I think that was the hardest."
Labyak said it was too early to assess the financial impact of the publicity and furor. She has seen no significant effect on donations.
"Some people wrote letters and said they were not going to donate anymore because they were against" the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, Labyak said. "Others sent contributions because they said they were proud of what we were doing."
Woodside, with room for 70 patients, is a small part of Hospice's $90-million-a-year operations. Hospice paid about $40,000 for off-duty Pinellas Park police officers to provide security, in addition to officers assigned there by the Police Department, Labyak said. That money came from a "quality of life" reserve fund that usually fulfills last wishes such as helping one patient fly to Peru to visit her mother.
Lasting impact on potential clients is yet to be discerned.
"If anything, I fear that when people need us, they will think of hospice as those signs, those statements, instead of the compassion and dignity and we will not have people dying well in our community because of something they saw on TV," Labyak said. "That would be the ultimate tragedy."
Dr. Theresa Buck, the staff physician, understands the danger. Her own mother and step-mother refused to believe her assessment of Schiavo's condition because of what they saw on television.
"They said she is talking and asking for things," Buck said. "I had dinner with them Wednesday night and couldn't convince them that's not true. And I'm here every day."
Gulfport resident Delys Cavalaro, 82, loves how hospice workers are treating her. "We smile at each other. It's a bond. We don't see many frowns," said Cavalaro, who has breast cancer.
She has a living will and does not want to be kept alive through a feeding tube. "I want to go peacefully. If God chooses to let us live a little longer, I guess that's good fortune."
But she also feels for Mary Schindler. She never met Michael Schiavo, but wished "he would have given her back to her mother. It would have solved a lot of problems."
Jane Burnham knows Michael Schiavo, who lived at Woodside after his wife's feeding tube was removed March 18. His room was next door to the room where Burnham's mother, Betty, 74, lives as she copes with chronic lung disease.
Jane Burnham and Michael Schiavo talked every day.
The day Terri Schiavo died, Burnham's mother was reeling under an infection and was not eating. As they left the hospice, Michael and his brother Brian stopped to say goodbye.
"With all that going on in his life, he knew I was having a rough day," Burnham said. "He came by and gave me a hug and said I was in his thoughts and prayers. He is the nicest man."
Burnham said protesters often yelled at her during her daily visits to her mother. "They have called us murderers," she said. "They say, "Why are you going to go in there where they kill people?' They have no idea what really goes on in here."
McAllister said she expects a new patient to take over Schiavo's room on Monday. It's in the back of the building and looks out over 9 pine-wooded acres. Sometimes, people hold memorial services out there, and weddings, including one between two patients, McAllister said. Afterward the staff welded their hospital beds together.
What you can't see from Schiavo's room is the front of the hospice, where protesters bore witness for two weeks. On Friday, only a few remained.
I know, BARF! Michael was a jerk and whoever wrote this article is trying to butter him up!
Screw 'em. That hospice has a curse over it for what they did to Terri.... George Felos was a board member. He illegally hustled Terri into it even though hospices are only allowed to accept those who have 6 months or less to live. And Terri lived at that Felos house of death for 5 years.
PLUS no one gets rehabilitation and therapy in a hospice. F you Felos.
Just because someone doesn't talk doesn't mean they are worthless! Many Americans can't talk! let's just kill em all!
Terri did communicate and the Nurses knew her so well they could tell what her feelings were. And this from a person taht isn't suppose to have feelings!
Of course they should not!
So why do you care if Terri Schiavo had feelings? It does not matter to the big issue-was it OK to kill her?
Many very good people here became totally unhinged, posting the most improbable information about what Terri could and could not do, think, feel, or say.
SHE HAD PROFOUND AND IRREVERSIBLE BRAIN DAMAGE.
That did not make it OK to kill her.
By making her something other than what she was, many other brain-injured people are put at risk.
The day Terri Schiavo died, Burnham's mother was reeling under an infection and was not eating. As they left the hospice, Michael and his brother Brian stopped to say goodbye.It seems that some of the Schindlers' supporters weren't very nice to patients' relatives."With all that going on in his life, he knew I was having a rough day," Burnham said. "He came by and gave me a hug and said I was in his thoughts and prayers. He is the nicest man."
Burnham said protesters often yelled at her during her daily visits to her mother. "They have called us murderers," she said. "They say, "Why are you going to go in there where they kill people?' They have no idea what really goes on in here."
The nursing supervisor is supposed to make the patients comfortable. I would expect someone who takes such a job seriously to be far more attuned to a patient's likes and dislikes than a doctor who doesn't see the patient nearly as much.
I am reminded of a story about the early days of ballistics (with catapults). The men of learning insisted that the curves used by the catapult operators were all wrong, and that the apparent curved trajectory of the flying rocks was really an optical illusion. The artillery operators weren't nearly as learned, but they did know one thing: when they used their curves to adjust their catapults, they hit their targets.
Likewise if a patient is feeling agitated and a nurse knows that putting on a particular CD tends to calm the patient, the nurse might not know the details of what the patient is thinking or perceiving, but what the nurse does know is that, for whatever reason, attempts to relax the patient with music seem to work.
You're right. My brother died in an hospice facility, my Dad died with in-home hospice and my Mom is being taken care of with in-home hospice right now. I can't say enough about how wonderful these people are. The nurse just left. I don't know what I'd do without them.
Nurses know what does on in a hospital. When I want a recommendation for a doctor, I don't ask other doctors. They rarely see how doctors actually treat patients. It is the nurses who see and that is who I ask.
I think that the intention is to show that yet ANOTHER chit should have been added to the considerable list of evidence which should have been considered by the court - but never was.
The "who dies" question was never really on the table in the court case. That question was and is a major part of the subtext of all activities surrounding the case though.
I have been in and out of Hospitals for a long time as I have had several things happen to me that require lots of medical care. I have spent more time with the Nurses, Nurse practioners than any of the doctors. The Nurses know me personally, the Doctors just know me by my chart. makes a huge difference!
One difficulty in such situations is that if all the honest workers quit, patients will be guarded entirely by dishonest ones. Even if honest workers are unable to intercede directly on the half of patients, the fact that there may be honest workers around will itself tend to check the actions of the dishonest ones. Remove that check and things will get even worse, with no one at all to witness them.
Perhaps the juggler was a "street performer" who knew that was a good place to get some good tips and a lot of PR.
Maybe no one had hired him.
Probably the main reason why Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald got ten years of freedom after clubbing and stabbing his family to death, before common sense finally prevailed and they put him away for good.
"It is God's decision when life ends, not man!"
I agree, however, I ask this because I'm trying to muddle it through myself. If it is God's decision and not man's where does life support come in? Isn't that a man made machine used to keep someone alive? If so, are we (man) interfering? Serious question.
When CBS makes up their TV movie portraying Terri's final moments, they will have to use a mannequin to produce a near-corpse as frail, dehydrated and Auschwitz-like as Terri had become.
I just read, for the first time, a Washington Times article that said Michael S. is 6'7" and a prison nurse in Florida. I have never seen a photo of Jodi, the live-in, never heard anything about her life, or their two children. Does this not seem an extraordinary protection by the media of these people?
I heard the hino is 6'5" and yes it does seem that there was extraordinary protection by the media of the girlfriend.
God made men and we made medicine to help us live. It is a blessing from God and a miracle from God that we have these things now. God wants us to live and if there is a way to help us live than I think God would rather us try to save someones life than not.
Insurnance company. Hmmmmmm. Could he be the system's Executioner?
He get reimbursed several ways in some scenarios.
Jerger & Centonze Insurance Agency, Inc., 2807 Marrie Ct., Clearwater, FL
Agency possibly purchased as part of The Jerger Co., Inc., Pinellas Park, FL by Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp. for $40 million, 1999.
Michael R. Schiavo listed as a director in 2002, with same address as above.
Corp. listed as inactive.
This address is listed as owned by Jodi A. Centonze in Pinellas County appraisers records.
Richard M. Jerger, Jr., stockholder in Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp, sold 2902 shares of stock in July,2001 for $102,933
Oh, of course! They are not about to expose Jodi and make everyone hate Michael! He is the good guy according to the MSM!
I have seen a pic of Jodi somewhere on the net, can't remember where. She is nothing special. Actually she looks a bit like Terri in that she has dark hair and dark eyes.
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