Posted on 05/16/2005 6:39:12 AM PDT by Former Fetus
Case Similar to Terri Schiavo's Has Wife Deciding Her Husband's Fate
by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor
May 15, 2005
Jacksonville, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A case similar to that of Terri Schiavo has a Florida woman holding her husband's fate in her hands. Schiavo's family is calling on Jacksonville resident Eliza Thomas to allow her husband to live.
Scott Thomas suffered brain injury in September of 2004 and has since been incapacitated and dependent on others.
As with Terri, Scott's wife is seeking to move him to a hospice and remove the gastric tube that provides him with food and water. Scott's mother, Pamela Patton, has petitioned the courts for guardianship of the disabled man and was awarded a temporary guardianship.
However, the guardianship will expire in June and Eliza wants to take over making Scott's medical decisions at that point.
Despite Eliza's desire to end her husband's life, Patton says her son speaks a limited vocabulary, answers yes or no questions with hand signals, and can tell basic factual information about himself such as his former school and hometown.
Patton says the cause of Scott's injury is under dispute.
Eliza claims Scott was backing up and fell over the family dog in the kitchen and hit his head, causing the disabling injuries. However, Scott has communicated to his mother that Eliza struck him and caused his current incapacitated state.
"The doctors say that his injuries are not consistent with such a fall and believe the severe head trauma was caused by a blow to the head," Patton told the Empire Journal newspaper.
Patton has approached Dr. William Hammesfahr, a world-renown neurologist who said Terri Schiavo could have been rehabilitated if she had been given proper treatment and care instead of being starved to death. She wants him to work with her son.
Terri Schiavo's father Bob Schindler hopes Eliza will change her mind and not starve Scott to death.
"I am pleading with Mrs. Thomas to please reconsider her decision to seek the removal of Scott's feeding tube and to allow him to receive the therapy and rehabilitation he needs to improve," he said. "I beg Mrs. Thomas to give her husband a chance."
Schindler said Scott would endure pain and suffering similar to Terri if he is starved.
"The suffering our daughter endured and her death over the course of nearly two weeks was horrific," he explained.
The guardianship issue will be determined at a June 3 hearing. Eliza attempted in October to move Scott to a hospice and remove his feeding tube.
Scott has reportedly indicated he does not wish to be moved or to be denied food and water.
What goes around comes around. We men should never have stood back and let Michael kill his wife. This is going to get nasty.
Well if the mother has guardianship and all is as she says, I would sure get him out of Florida before June.
****************
I wonder if the same arguments will be made regarding this man's quality of life, and the same assertions made that one wouldn't want to live in this condition. We shall see.
So now we're killing people that can still communicate.
It didn't take long to slide down that slippery slope.
I was behind the Schindlers 100%, but this story is even more compelling!
I do wonder at the likelihood of a man with a severe head injury recalling how he got it. The blow was from behind, too. I am NOT in favor of the starving of brain-damaged people but there is a little question in my mind as to the mother's credibility. If she makes up stories in an attempt to gain guardianship she is likely to hurt her son because all her testimony as to his responsiveness will be cast into doubt.
Sounds EXACTLY like Terri's situation.
Anyone have a picture of this woman for the gallery of spouse killers?
If someday my wife wants to end my life, I sure hope people let her do it.
I guess I should sign a Health Care Power of Attorney to make sure no one can stop her.
Why wait?
Hopefully he's being sarcastic.
You just did:') Seriously, if there was any doubt that a child might be being abused people would scream from the roof tops. It seems IMO with the disabled though that it is unimaginable to many, including judges that a spouse could have anything but the purerest of intentions. I know nothing about this case and will follow but it's like a "move along, nothing to see here" attitude developing in our country towards the disabled..
From some reason, the following didn't post with my comment:
"Scott has reportedly indicated he does not wish to be moved or to be denied food and water."
What is it with Florida?
Ping!
This will barely be a blip on the national radar. It's just the beginning. Pretty soon, we won't even see e-mails. They'll just happen unbeknownst to the outside world.
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.