Terri Schiavo's Family Carries Her Legacy Forward Helping Disabled Patients

St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- After her husband won the legal right to subject her to a painful euthanasia death via starvation and dehydration, the mainstream media coverage of Terri Schiavo ended abruptly. Proving they were more interested in protecting people than the lure of the cameras, Terri's family hasn't stopped fighting for the disabled.

Following Terri's death, the Schindler family converted the foundation they established to provide her with medical care to helping other disabled patients.

The foundation now serves as a legal, medical and information clearinghouse for patients and their families.

LifeNews.com recently profiled the case of Janet Rivera, a California woman whose family fought a decision by a public guardian to deprive her of food and water.

Behind the scenes, the foundation played a critical role, as Terri's brother Bobby Schindler tells LifeNews.com.

"When we heard about her circumstances, the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation immediately sprang into action," Schindler said.

"We helped the family find the right legal counsel and after days of hard work and persistence, the Court finally intervened and stopped this terrible travesty," he added.

Schindler said Terri's family was especially interested in helping Rivera and her family because of the situation.

"What makes these circumstances so important is that, unlike my sister Terri, where we were fighting a husband who didn't care, Janet Rivera’s husband wanted her to live. So did her entire family," Schindler said.

Terri's family also played a crucial role in helping 25-year-old Brenden Flynn, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a horrible car accident.

Doctors told Flynn's family Brenden had no chance of any meaningful recovery but Brenden’s mother, a nurse with 22 years of experience, refused to give up hope.

"Not long ago, I interviewed both Brenden and his mother," Schindler exclaimed. "That's right, he's fully recovered."

"People like Brenden, Janet, and my sister Terri are why the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation exists," Schindler tells LifeNews.com.

"When families face the tragedy of traumatic brain injury, like Terri had, we are there to help them protect the life of their loved one," he said.

"Every day calls come into Terri’s Foundation from desperate families frantically trying to save the lives of their disabled love ones. And every day we immediately connect the concerned family members with needed legal assistance and medical support," Schindler concludes.

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

Truly I cannot remember Terri without tears, or without the nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomach I had every day that she was being starved and dehydrated to death. It was and still is, a ghoulish nightmare.

Obama is right, America is not what it once was, but probably not for the reasons he believes this is true. Liberalism is destroying the country. We cannot survive economically and militarily, without a spiritual and moral awakening.

Terri's case (and those like hers) was/is a strong indicator of our exactly how far we've fallen.

Here’s part of the automatic e-mail I received from the Foundation. Maybe you received it, too.

‘”Mark Pickup is disabled (triplegic) with advanced multiple sclerosis and has spoken internationally on the importance of respecting the value and dignity of all life, including those with disabilities. Mr. Pickup lives in Alberta, Canada is convinced that if a society does not embrace the sanctity dignity and equality of all human life then any barbarity is possible.

Mr. Pickup states that, “A truly civilized society includes in its tender embrace every human life. This includes every child developing in the womb, those people with mental or physical disabilities, those with terminal conditions, derelicts, the old and people who are not wanted or even loved by anyone.”

Mr. Pickup founded the Christian disability organization “HumanLifeMatters” and believes that it is Love that defines enlightened and civilized society. But he warns that, “Love without God becomes selective, coercive and arbitrary”.’

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