Terri Schiavo's Next to Last Day: A Look Back, "I Want to Live"

Life News ^ | 3/30/07 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo's family will never forget the next to last day of her life two years ago. It started with a Supreme Court ruling and a judgment by a federal appeals court, and ended with the knowledge that their daughter wanted to live.

The U.S. Supreme Court, on that Wednesday, issued a decision allowing Terri Schiavo's painful starvation death. It wound up being the last legal decision in the long battle between Bob and Mary Schindler and Terri's former husband Michael.

The once-sentence ruling was issued just hours after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals again voted 10-2 not to get involved in the case and reviewing a decision by a local judge to have Michael kill Terri.
The Supreme Court offered no explanation for turning back the latest request and provided no vote tally of members to determine if any wanted to take the case.

"We're watching a black mark in American history," David Gibbs, the lead attorney for the Schindlers, said afterwards.

The Schindlers also faced another setback that day when the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Florida upheld Judge George Greer's ruling preventing the Florida Department of Children and Families from taking Terri in to protective custody.

The state agency hoped to do that while it investigated allegations of abuse and neglect against Michael.

CBS News also angered its viewers and Terri Schiavo supporters that day.

It came under fire for prewriting and posting to its news web site a story claiming Terri Schiavo had died.

The article, penned by Christine Lagorio, claimed Michael was with her when she died and was posted on the CBS News web page three days before her actual death, according to radio talk show host Glenn Beck, who discovered it.

CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius told LifeNews.com that the story was "a draft that was stored on the web site" but not intended to be accessible to the public.

The day before, euthanasia advocate George Felos, Michael's attorney, said Michael had changed his mind and would allow an autopsy to be conducted on Terri. The altruistic statement declared Michael wanted to exonerate himself on accusations he abused Terri and to show Terri is very severely brain damaged.

Yet, the decision to conduct an autopsy had already been made when Felos spoke with the media -- and not by Michael or Felos.

Jon Thogmartin, medical examiner for Pinellas and Pasco counties, told the St. Petersburg Times newspaper he made the decision to conduct an autopsy if necessary and said it had nothing to do with Michael's change of heart.

Terri's parents ended the day before Terri's death with the knowledge that their daughter wanted to live.

Just before representatives of Michael's removed her feeding tube Terri Schiavo reportedly told an attorney for her parents that she wanted to live.

"Terri, if you would just say, 'I want to live,' all of this will be over," Barbara Weller, one of the attorneys for Terri's parents Bob and Mary Schindler, said.

Weller said Terri desperately tried to repeat her words.

"'I waaaaannt ...,' Schiavo allegedly said. Weller described it as a prolonged yell that was loud enough that police stationed nearby entered the hospice room.

"She just started yelling, 'I waaaannt, I waaaannt,'" Weller explained.

Terri's parents filed a legal motion to try to get her planned euthanasia death reversed, but to no avail.

Related web sites:
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation - http://www.terrisfight.org

[T'wit]

>> but you can't say that he was motivated by greed or hate.

Michael was motivated by greed and hate.

[dforest]

People can say what they want. Terri was starved to death by a hateful husband and immoral co conspiritors.

She was of NO harm to anyone. She was dealt worse treatment than convicted criminals on death row.

Her hateful and immoral hubby wanted her gone. Is it so hard to believe he found liberal attorneys and judges to help kill her?

But.....starving her to death was so beautiful and normal...just sick. I would truly hope Michael gets to starve like Terri.

Her death was not constitutional and extremely cruel .

[MHGinTN]

Ah, so the tapes of her responding are doctored to show response she could not have made. Yeah, and you think yourself to be rational, eh?

[streetpreacher]

Joe Lieberman: "I would have kept the tube in".

[MHGinTN]

Dehydrating a person to death causes thickening of the cerebrospinal fluid, oxygen reduction and cell death in the brain, first gradually then at an accelerated pace. The supposed 'euphoria' is due to certain neurochemicals being dumped into the remaining fluid as cells die off and the brain shrinks. The 'wrinkles' in the outer mass begin to disappear and the ventricles widen as the brain shrinks.

[MHGinTN]

Ping, if you're of a mind to address this issue of dehydration effects upon the brain organ, Doctors.

[Zeroisanumber]

Ah, so the tapes of her responding are doctored to show response she could not have made.

The vision centers of her brain were dead, which meant that things Terri appeared to do on the videotape, like tracking the movements of a balloon and appearing to recognize specific people, were impossible. In addition, there was profound damage to nearly every region of her brain, and her brain weighed roughly half of what it should have.

I'm not saying that the Schindler's lied, I'm saying that they edited together a tape of what they thought were the most convincing images of Terri's supposed consciousness. But, as many neurologists and the autopsy confirmed, what she appeared to be doing on the tape wasn't possible given the profound level of brain damage that she had suffered.

I don't think that her parents were deliberately misleading, but I do think that they let hope and love blind them to the truth of Terri's condition and the impossibility of her recovery.

Yeah, and you think yourself to be rational, eh?

As with most things, I'm going to stick with the side of science on this one. The scientific conclusion was that she couldn't see and she couldn't think, formulate a response to a question, or even repeat what she heard.

[TAdams8591]

"He acted out of hatred for her and hatred for them."

If it had been true, that Michael Schiavo was doing what he thought was right and acting in Terri's best interests, among many other things, he would have at the very least returned Terri's ashes to her parents. He REFUSED to do so.

Michael Schiavo is a vicious, vile man who saw and treated Terri as a disposable piece of garbage. He treated her family with the same lack of regard. Anyone who sees it differently, is not dealing with reality.

[TAdams8591]

The same people on this board and elsewhere who argue in favor of the actions taken against Terri, would be crying bloody murder if it had been done to a convicted killer.

What the state did to Terri was so EGREGOUSLY and CLEARLY wrong, I cannot believe there is such disagreement over it. People had better get some clarity.

[MHGinTN]

There is a video taken of Terri during the time period when Michael was seeking a jury to award rehab funds for Terri's help ... the tape was shown to the jury btw. In the scene beside a lake, Terri is strapped into a wheelchair and she is barely moving her head ever so slowly but her eyes are under control and more ranging in response to directions from Michael regarding the scene around the lake.

I don't have the link to the video but I'm sure some here can post it.

The complexities of this case, over a number of years and changing as per what Michael is trying to accomplish using Terri then Terri's rehab funds released by Greer to pay Felos, are quite disturbing. Sworn testimonies from Nurses regarding Terri's capabilities and behaviors by her treacherous adulterous husband are also quite disturbing. That the Florida courts would continue to appoint Michael as her controller of living and dying when he had already become 'common law married' to another women with whom he was fathering children is another astonishing miscarriage of the legal system regarding wards of the court in Florida.

We can argue her final condition 'til the cows come home, but it is disturbing how many at FR want to be apologists for the execution of Terri Schiavo, want to sweep away her humanity and pronounce her a vegetable and want to excuse the Governor of Florida from his sworn duty to protect the lives of citizens of his state. Frankly, a culture so directed toward dehumanizing the inconvenient is showing itself in all its inglorious color. Don't align your considerable intellect with such a travesty.

[TAdams8591]

" I seem to remember reading a report that he'd privately been offered millions by a Texas businessman to simply turn Terri's care over to her parents and walk away, and he refused. Like it or not that's the sign of a person who is convinced that he is doing the right thing, perhaps mistaken, and not at all evil."

It was an opportunity that Michael used to appear sincere, all the while knowing he would get millions upon Terri's death AND the trace of evidence of his foul play (Terri) would be eradicated.

[TAdams8591]

Even if Terri had been in a coma or PVS, starving and dehydrating her to death would still have been horrific.

[dforest]

It shows you how liberalism has invaded the conservative movement.

For a terrible husband to be able to abuse a woman, put her in a home, take the settlement, and spend it on people who willingly comply to see to it she is starved to death, is unreal.

What is really sad ,is the hatred this one poor woman and her family live with. You can see it right here on FR. Has a lot to do with money, I guess.

People do not seem to gripe when it comes to folks that sit on their backsides taking welfare, but God forbid they might have to spend a dime on Terri.

Heaven help all of us.

[dforest]

It shows you how liberalism has invaded the conservative movement.

For a terrible husband to be able to abuse a woman, put her in a home, take the settlement, and spend it on people who willingly comply to see to it she is starved to death, is unreal.

What is really sad ,is the hatred this one poor woman and her family live with. You can see it right here on FR. Has a lot to do with money, I guess.

People do not seem to gripe when it comes to folks that sit on their backsides taking welfare, but God forbid they might have to spend a dime on Terri.

Heaven help all of us.

[dforest]

Sorry about the double post.

[TAdams8591]

Good point. Terri was born in the United States. People are far more concerned about spending a dime on Terri's medical treatment than that of immigrants legal and illegal.

[MHGinTN]

I once helped with the stretching and moving exercises for a young woman in PVS. She could not do any of the things Terri was capable of. Though Terri was severely disabled, she was a living human being, loved by many. That society chose, actually CHOSE to encourage her execution in such a heinous method is astonishing to even recall. I can only shake my head when folks I've respected in the past blurt out inanities like 'she was brain dead' or 'why would you as a Christian want to make her continue living in such a disabled state'.

[dforest]

Yep, its very sad. People just went on with their lives and paid for illegals, welfare etc., but when it came to Terri, she had to die because she was just a vegetable draining the system.

We all know who the big drains are.

[bjs1779]

I'm not saying that the Schindler's lied, I'm saying that they edited together a tape of what they thought were the most convincing images of Terri's supposed consciousness.

What tape was that?

[bjs1779]

I don't think that her parents were deliberately misleading, but I do think that they let hope and love blind them to the truth of Terri's condition and the impossibility of her recovery.

Have you ever entertained the possibility that Terri could take fluids and food by mouth like a lot of her caregivers said she could? I know the answer, but why did Judge Greer make sure that she was not allowed to do so? Where is the law that says a judge can withhold oral nutrition to anybody? Where?