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

[wagglebee]

And you base your ignorant statement on what exactly?

[Hildy]

Thank you. When this whole thing happened several years ago, there was a poster, I forget his name, who made this point so eloquently...hey, maybe it was you!

[Mr. Jeeves]

I don't think it was me - I try to avoid this topic, which did a lot to cost the GOP the House and Senate in 2006. Big Government interfering in what appears to the public to be personal life decisions (regardless of the unprovable criminality of the husband) is a sure loser in any election campaign.

[Hildy]

But the story has morphed into sheer mythical proportions here. The lies are repeated over and over and, like I said on another thread, the obsession with her is almost beyond explanation. Although I do have my own personal theories as to why this became the huge issue it did.

[wagglebee]

I try to avoid this topic, which did a lot to cost the GOP the House and Senate in 2006.

FACT: EVERY candidate Michael Schiavo campaigned for in 2006 lost.

Big Government interfering in what appears to the public to be personal life decisions (regardless of the unprovable criminality of the husband) is a sure loser in any election campaign.

FACT: Terri was awarded money for her rehabilitation.
FACT: Michael used the money for court battles which HE INITIATED to kill her.

So, it was the culture of death that you support that brought this matter into the courts.

[wagglebee]

The lies are repeated over and over

Name ONE single lie.

[wagglebee]

Although I do have my own personal theories as to why this became the huge issue it did.

When a person decides to kill his wife live on television as the world looks on, it is a big deal.

[montag813]

There is an audio tape out there. But let's do it your way, in the absense of verifiable proof that Terri wanted her husband to kill her off, the presumption must be that she didn't

A "tape"? this is 2007. Where is the mp3? Why do you think I support the prick Schiavo? I just want proof, it if exists.

[Wheee The People]

Whatever high, moral and for that matter Godly ground you may have had prior to that statement was eroded away when you wrote that. There is none left.

There is no end to the irony that it is those who thump their chest the loudest, and proclaim their so called "faith" the most...are the ones who will bear false witness against anyone and everyone who might disagree with them.

In no particular order here is a list of "evil" people. Michael, the bishop, the locals, the doctors, the courts (both federal and state), the legislature (both federal and state), freepers, lawyers, Michael's mistress (aka the slut, the governor, the president, insurance companies, the hospice, the local police, etc, etc

Yet, the more you point out their lack of "Godliness", the more their persecution radar go off and the more righteous they feel.

[wagglebee]

I'll see what I can do to find it, it might take a day or two though.

[Zeroisanumber]

"'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.

She didn't have enough of her brain left to have responded in that manner. And that's not me being cruel or contentious, that's what the autopsy results found. There was simply not enough of her brain left for her to have formed a cogent thought.

[donna]

Are you working with a group to change the spousal laws in Florida?

What action is being taken?

[wagglebee]

She didn't have enough of her brain left to have responded in that manner. And that's not me being cruel or contentious, that's what the autopsy results found. There was simply not enough of her brain left for her to have formed a cogent thought.

You mean AFTER her brain had been dehydrated for almost two weeks?

[wagglebee]

No, but I think it should be addressed.

[joesbucks]

If Terri had climbed out of bed, and in a clear voice asked for a burger and fries her estranged, adulterous "husband," his lawyer Felos and his willing accomplice Judge Greer would have still found a way to put her to death.

My guess would be the above would be the reason for the posters note to you.

[Zeroisanumber]

You mean AFTER her brain had been dehydrated for almost two weeks?

Dehydration doesn't work that way. In dehydration death is usually caused by hypovolemic shock, which doesn't affect brain tissue. And even if dehydration had affected her brain, a pathologist can tell the difference between damage caused over the course of two weeks and damage caused over 11 years ago.

I'm sorry, but she simply didn't have the equipment to do many of the things that her family reported her doing. Much of what they saw or heard can be put down to hope and love overwhelming rational observation.

[donna]

I don't understand. No one is working to change the law?

[Zeroisanumber]

The Terri Schiavo story is certainly one that people could take many sides. However the above is beyond the pale and certainly less than true. Whatever high, moral and for that matter Godly ground you may have had prior to that statement was eroded away when you wrote that. There is none left.

Exactly. There are so many people who want to turn this into a simple story of good vs. evil, and it's not. You can argue as to whether or not Michael Schiavo was right to so relentlessly seek to terminate his wife's life support, but you can't say that he was motivated by greed or hate. 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.

[Zeroisanumber]

I don't understand. No one is working to change the law?

As politicians and journalists have taught us: Solving a problem through hard work is less fun than editorializing about it.

[andysandmikesmom]

First off, let me say this...I do think that Michael Shiavo should have allowed Terris parents and siblings to care for her, since they seemed most willing to do this for her...I do think that

However, the hysteria and the willingness of some to support armed people going in and forcibly carrying Terri off to who knows where, appalled me...as did the any number of politicians trying to insert themselves into the matter...

So that is where I am coming from in this matter...Terri was certainly not 'brain dead' in the medical sense, as I have seen actual brain death in my own child, and what I saw with Terri, and my own son, do not begin to come close...I do believe that Terri was severely brain damaged tho, and from all I have heard and read, it appears very unlikely that she ever would have improved in any way...tho, this inability to improve, to me, did not warrant her being denied fluids...as I said, if Michael Shiavo was unwilling to care for her any longer, I just do think her parents should have been able to care for her, giving their willingness to do so...

That being said, I would like to address your point, about Terris ability to follow an object passing in front of her, being proof of her not being brain dead...and in that I agree...

However, folks have tried to use that bit of film, to say that she was deliberately, and consciously following an object passing in front or her, as proof positive that her brain was functioning at a level, higher than what Michael Shiavo seemed to be claiming...and here we part ways...

Because having worked in the nursing home industry for many years, I have cared for several patients, in what was described to us, as PVS...they seemed to have no real consciousness of their surroundings, they seemed unable to carry out the simplest of tasks, repeatedly...at any given time tho, if there had been a camera in the room, with me and the patient, there were times when it 'appeared' that such patients were tracking me with their eyes, when in reality it was merely a coincidence...

For example one young fellow I was caring for, was completely oblivious to his surroundings, rarely if ever responded to me, to to the care I was giving him, and like Terri, made sounds, opened and closed his eyes, moved around in bed, moved his head from side to side, and other than being on a catheter for nutrition and hydration, was hooked up to no other machines...

One evening, when I went into his room, I was startled to see him appear to be tracking me with his eyes, as I entered the room, and passed by the foot end of his bed...he appeared to be watching me...when I then went to the head of the bed, and spoke to him, there was absolutely no response...when I walked back and passed by the foot of his bed, he no longer was tracking me..when I provided his routine care, he had no reaction...

In other words, what might appear to someone else, as being a conscious reaction on this patients part to track me with his eyes, was no doubt, just a coincidence...after all, when his eyes were open, it would be natural to see his eyes seemingly focused on some area of the room, and then another area...but that appeared to be a reflexive action on his part, something that was done,with his conscious attempt to do so...

Of course, when we charted on him at the end of the day, one question that was always asked was did he ever track us with his eyes, when we were involved with him in any way...and if our answer was 'yes', we had to document the circumstances of this tracking...which I did...but note, it was the one and only time, I had ever recorded that he tracked me...most people who dealt with him never even had that experience...and many of us cared for him, 7 days a week, for well over 9 months...and in all that time, only once did he ever appear to track me...so, it is obvious to me, that anyone can at anytime, with a camera handy at all times, seemingly film someone who is PVS, and 'appear' to track someone else, and then claim that their brain is actually functioning at a level, which would enable them to do this...the trick tho, is not to have this occur at one or two selected times, over a long period of time, but rather have that behavior repeated time after time after time, upon command, and whenever it was asked of the patient...consistent behavior, consistent tracking would have indictaed one thing...sporadic, coincidental tracking a few times here or there indicates something quite different...this behavior time after time after time, upon command, so as to be recognized for being a conscious behavior, would indeed indicate the brain operating at a higher level...this behavior, occuring sporadically and at random, is nothing but coincidental, and probably indicates the brain operating at a much lower level...

Personally I found those tapes of Terri tracking to be edited, strictly for the purpose of making us all believe that she could and did track everyone every time she was asked to...I think what we saw, was a coincidental tracking that is always seen with PVS patients...I have seen this with all PVS patients that I have worked with, but have recognized it for what it was...a coincidence...and do note, all the nursing homes I worked for, within my charting about this,asked me to relay my impressions to them verbally, so as to be quite clear in what my impressions were, since I was the one who charted thus...this was done with anyone who noted any tracking with PVS patients..their eyes have be somewhere at any given time, and it may coincidentally occur, that it appears that they are tracking us, when in actual fact, they are doing nothing of the sort...

All this being said, I still do believe Michael Shiavo should have allowed Terris parents to care for her...however, I dislike being deceived with what I consider to be bogus films of Terri, making a conscious decision to track someone or something with her eyes...of course, other will disagree with me, about this matter of her tracking, and thats fine...but I think I am correct on this matter...and even if those films of Terri appearing to be consciously tracking with her eyes were bogus in the way they were presented(which is what I do believe), I can undertand the reasoning for doing so...sometimes when one feels their loved ones life is in jeopardy, they will do anything to save that life, even if that means presenting evidence which is not really quite truthful...as a mother who has lost a child, I can understand, the feelings underlying this...I would have done just about anything, if I thought it would have save my child...

Sorry to have gone on so long, but just wanted to try to clearly express my points about this matter...