Posted on 05/07/2005 11:22:02 PM PDT by kingattax
The family of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who died in March after her feeding tube was removed, say that they have no idea where her ashes have been laid to rest.
Giving their first interview since the tube was removed at the request of Mrs Schiavo's husband, the family claimed on American television that he was keeping her remains from them.
Bob and Mary Schindler, and their surviving children, Bobby Jr and Suzanne, claimed that Michael Schiavo had ignored a court order that he should keep them informed about her ashes and plans for a memorial service.
Mr Schiavo had said that her ashes would be buried at a family plot in Pennsylvania.
The interview on Fox News on Friday night was the latest skirmish in the bitter battle between the two sides of the family, who waged a long-running court battle over Mrs Schiavo's end-of-life wishes.
"We still don't know where Terri's ashes were laid," Bobby Jr said. "They were court-ordered, they were supposed to tell us, but we have not heard from Michael Schiavo."
Mr Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos, could not be reached for comment.
Mr Schindler countered claims by the lawyer that his daughter's death was "gentle" with a harrowing description of her condition after 13 days without food or water.
"She was struggling to breathe," he said. "The inside of her mouth looked like a piece of meat in a meat market. It was like meat that had been left out for a while.
"It was reddish maroon because her mouth was dry and her lips were cracking from the lack of hydration.
"This cannot happen again. If anyone would have witnessed it, they would have been so appalled that they would never allow it to happen again."
He said it had been "gut-wrenching" to watch her deteriorate.
"People were misled that it was a peaceful way for her to die," he said. "All you could see was her cheekbones. Her eyes were sunken in her head."
Terri Schiavo, 41, died in a hospice in Florida on March 31. She had suffered brain damage in 1990 after a chemical imbalance caused her heart to stop. She left no "living will" in the event that she became disabled.
Mr Schiavo argued that she would not have wanted to be kept alive after court-appointed doctors diagnosed that she was in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. The Schindlers, however, disputed that those were her wishes and argued that their daughter would benefit from extensive efforts to rehabilitate her.
During the interview they referred to the case of Donald Herbert, the New York fireman who suddenly woke up after 10 years in a semi-vegetative state and spoke lucidly to his wife.
Mr Herbert, 43, was knocked unconscious by debris in a burning building in 1995, leaving him blind and mostly mute until last Saturday.
"We immediately thought of Terri," said Suzanne. "What if they had given up on him?"
Mrs Schiavo's case attracted international attention and sparked a heated political and ethical debate as a series of judges ruled against the Schindler family.
The US Supreme Court refused to intervene even after President George W Bush signed a law allowing federal courts to become involved. "The system is just atrocious," Mr Schindler said.
Her family said that they believed she had been the victim of violence when she collapsed at home and her heart stopped. They said that there was no proof that she had collapsed because she was suffering from bulimia, insisting that she had lost weight several years earlier.
Bobby Jr said that the family was only made aware in 2002 of a bone scan taken a year after the incident. This showed that she had broken ribs, vertebrae, femur and knees. Mr Schiavo said that she suffered the injuries during her early treatment.
The family has set up the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation to speak out on behalf of others in a similar situation.
"Anyone out there, listening and watching, they should never ever let this happen to anyone else," Mr Schindler said.
If anyone deserves an apology, I do. I have not called you a LIAR in this post because you have your facts wrong or can't read as you have said of me. IF you are able to read, I would suggest that you google some of the dozens of articles on this man and stop referring to one article that appears to have been written by a reporter making a composite for a foreign paper of a number of other reporter's articles and is incorrect in its assumptions.
You send me to a blog where some anonymous doofus who claims to be a relative of Herbert's makes some statement and you expect me to believe it? A guy who also claims in the same post that Terri had an MRI? THAT'S your source? You are wasting my time with this nonsense.
Instead of the word of a reporter (who at least uses his real name), how about this:
"Terry Shiavo was a completely different scenario because she was in a persistent vegetative state," Carver, (an assistant professor of neurology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City) added. "This [Herbert] is a man who, as best as we know, had a greater degree of functioning in terms of his brain for the past 10 years. This is someone who was able to eat, able to say yes and no, someone who was able to sit and watch television, though he had some difficulty with vision. While he was obviously quite devastated from what happened to him, he was nonetheless neurologically functioning at a very different level from Terri Schiavo."
-- wsmv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3305923
"which is why Ahmed said he hoped that Herbert would improve enough TO EAT."
Yeah, well, your Ahmed friend left out the word "unassisted".
And you still haven't supported your claim that Herbert was in a PVS. Not "somewhat", not "pretty close to", not "almost". Given the FACT that Herbert could eat (with assistance), and that he was NOT in a PVS, there is no connection to Terri. Give up on the histrionics.
Robert, I give up. Are you pleased? There is no use arguing with someone who refuses to accept the words of the attending physician, not MD's from all over the country like Carver who never laid eyes on Terri or Herbert, and never saw the medical records of either, but were called and asked for a quote to pad a reporter's story. P.S. tnablake, the relative of Herbert's says NOTHING AT ALL in regard to Terri. You really are unable to read.
I can't read? From your link:
"Don is a relative of mine. You have your facts wrong...Don HAS been on a feeding tube all along there was NEVER a question about removing it. THe legal issue was over guardianship. Which IS an interesting question...Who should make decisions : your wife, or your parents? Also, the MRI for Terry Schiavo showed her brain was liquid. Unless she was going to grow a new one, there really was no hope. Her case is totally different from Don's. Just had to set the record straight & after people read this..please take a minute to pray for his continued progress. Thank you. Comment from tnablake - 5/4/05 8:38 PM"
Terri never had an MRI.
"someone who refuses to accept the words of the attending physician"
The attending physician never said Herbert was in a PVS. Never. YOU made it up.
Secondly, you're incorrectly interpreting the "he would improve enough to eat" statement by the attending physician as though Herbert wasn't able to eat AT ALL. I read it correctly as "he would improve enough to eat unassisted".
Yes. I'm done also. You cannot read. The doctor never said PVS. Your tnablake source did indeed reference Terri, contrary to your claim.
I'm wasting half my time with you simply correcting your misstatements. Come back when you get your facts straight.
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