Posted on 04/06/2005 5:03:58 AM PDT by johnny7
I spent much of last Thursday trying to sort out my feelings about the death of Terri Schiavo. Had I been her mother I would have done my utmost to preserve my daughter's life, just as Mary Schindler did. I would have fought the doctors and the courts and Terri's husband, Michael. I would have railed and screamed and prayed. To watch your precious daughter die by starvation is far more painful than accepting your own mortality: this is a child you have nurtured and played with and shepherded through the turbulence of teenhood and dressed in a wedding gown.
Had I been her husband, Michael, I would have found it equally painful to watch my beautiful wife descend into a form of torpor and to remain in this state for 15 years. Michael has been vilified for starting a relationship with another woman and having children with her. But for the first years of Terri's hospitalization he did his utmost to seek special therapies for her; he bought her comfortable, stylish clothing so she would look her best; he enrolled in nursing school so he could understand the complexities of her medical care. I can't judge him for entering another relationship. He was a young man; he wanted children. Why he didn't divorce Terri, I don't know. Clearly he still felt responsible for her.
The reasons for Terri's death, however, go beyond the removal of a feeding tube and family and court battles. They go beyond medical ethics and religion. Terri suffered from an eating disorder that led to dangerously low potassium levels that led to cardiac arrest. Her brain was not fed with enough oxygen and this led to severe damage to her cerebral cortex, the seat of reason and emotion. She lapsed into a vegetative state. Her brain could make her heart beat but it couldn't make her sensible to her surroundings. Terri had been an overweight teenager, at one point weighing 250 pounds. Didn't her loving parents worry when they saw their daughter shrink to 110 pounds? Didn't her husband notice she ate very little and purged after meals? Did her family or her friends question her extreme eating habits?
It is likely Terri was complimented by how terrific she looked and this would have encouraged her to continue to deprive her body of food. It is true the bloated features in her high school class picture had been transformed; the bulimia had allowed her to become a delicate beauty. She resembled the young Elizabeth Taylor. Her weight loss was validated, at a horrible cost. Terri Schiavo's case, like that of singer Karen Carpenter who died of anorexia, is an excruciating reminder to parents to be vigilant about their children's eating habits -- even if those children are young adults and tell us to mind our own business. We need to persist in helping them. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, "anorexia and bulimia affect nearly 10 million women and 1 million men (primarily teens and young adults)." That is a huge number of our children.
If Terri's parents or her husband or her family doctor had stopped for a moment and wondered about her swanlike transformation, maybe she never would have suffered that cardiac arrest and lapsed into catatonia. But our society admires thinness -- the Rubenesque Marilyn Monroe likely would be considered too plump these days -- and so some of our children, in the quest to look attractive, may starve themselves. Even to their death. That is what Terri Schiavo's story has communicated so clearly.
Really? A fracture? That's gotta hurt!
How do you think that happened? Are you saying that maybe this wasn't the first time she passed out? Maybe fell down the stairs or something?
Wouldn't she have gone to the hospital with a fracture? Are there any hospital records to that effect? What did she say happened?
Well, Mikey could have just saved time and sent her to the same veterinarian who (allegedly) agreed to euthanize Terri's pet cats for expediency. Perhaps the vet would have been offering a three for the price of one special that day.
"If you want to really see these idiots squirm just throw any AIDS victim at them and tell them they deserve to die from the decisions that they made prior."
Brilliant, brilliant analogy!
I agree that most bulimics do not die. Most bulimics maintain a normal weight and are not anorexic.
But some bulimics are crossovers - ie. they also have anorexia. Karen Carpenter was one. A friend of mine who died at 23 from it was also anorexic/bulimic.
Anorexic/bulimics are more likely to die.
Read his testimony. He thought she should be a little heavier, not lighter. And he did deny under oath that she had bulimia. That is an admission contrary to his own interest, so we may take it to be true.
Speaking of which... MY GOD... how could such a 'liberated' woman agree to sharing her husband(?) with a prostitute? And then tell the world of her pathetic behavior?!
Aye... the 'liberal', female mind works in ways that are foreign to us of 'lesser' station... and gender!
Somebody beat the crap out of her?
>> What did she say happened?
Maybe she was hurt so badly she couldn't talk aftewards?
A little exercise in re-writing history here? They say the "victors" get to write the history. But is this a truthful account?
You mean like she was assaulted on her way home from work or something? Wouldn't there have been a police report?
Did she ever claim she was assaulted? What leads you to this conclusion?
The jury awarded $1.3 million because her doctor failed to notice it, so they thought it was true.
What do you think happened?
"Somebody beat the crap out of her."
It was NEVER proven that she suffered from bulimia. No rotting teeth, irritated esophagus or skin and hair changes. Only Michael has put this theory forward and everyone takes it as fact.
You are being ever so silly. You know nobody assaulted her on the way home from work or something. I know nobody assaulted her on the way home from work or something. It would be especially silly to file a police report about something that that you know didn't happen, so that was an even sillier question.
You like to keep promoting this idea even though there is absolutely no proof.
Below is a snippet from the report to Governor Jeb Bush, from the Ad Litem, Jay Wolfzen.
"The cause of the cardiac arrest was adduced to a dramatically reduced potassium level in Theresa's body. Sodium and potassium maintain a vital, chemical balance in the human body that helps define the electrolyte levels. The cause of the imbalance was not clearly indentified, but may be linked, in theory, to her drinking 10-15 glasses of iced tea each day. While no formal proof emerged, the medical records note that the combination of aggressive weight loss, diet control and excessive hydration raised questions about Theresa suffering from Bulimia, an eating disorder, more common among women that men, in which purging through vomiting, laxatives and other methods of ciet control becomes obsessive.........." Jay Wolfzen (Ad Litem )report to Governor Jeb Bush
I don't believe that anyone has ever produced one shread of evidence that Terri Schiavo had an eating disorder. Interesting how the pro-death people are allowed to fabricate un-proven theories out of thin air, aided by smoke, mirrors and the willing assistance of a like minded MSM.
Even if the Lady's condition was in fact caused by an eating disorder, it didn't kill her-she was killed by a Court ordered diet that consisted of what ever amount of air she could suck into her tortured lungs and whatever nurishment she could derive from her own saliva that she swallowed- yes swallowed!
Strange how she was able to swallow her spit,even while those who wanted her dead, argued that she could only ingest food through a feeding tube. This exposes the sinister motive behind the order that she recieve no food or water orally, issued by the same b*st*rds who ordered the removal of the feeding tube.
Teri was murdered-not with the blessings of the Judiciary, but by the Judicary. Those who cannot comprehend this fact, are more brain dead than the courts would have us believe Teri was. Which of you will be next??????????
Not nearly as often as victims of domestic violence.
urban legend alert - Goebbels Award.
Exactly. Terri's has to be the first case of fractures-due-to-[alleged]-anorexia-leading to brain damage - leading to stavation - by - law.
You know, the more I look at this, the angrier it makes me.
Terri lost her weight over a number of years by using Nutrisystem. She lost her weight in an appropriate manner over an appropriate period of time. I also cannot imagine someone who successfully lost weight moving toward bulimia to solve her weight problems after marriage when she had previously experienced success doing it safely.
I'm not sure even he put the theory forward, but he didn't dispute it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377883/posts?page=14#14 <-- Link
Michael Schiavo, 1/2000 Direct Testimony: states bulemia was never proved see p 27. (large file)If you go to the link above, you'll find links to deposition and court testimony.Michael Schiavo, 1999 Pretrial Deposition: testifies Terri was not strugglying with weight and had healthy appetite see p 15. (large file)
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.