Posted on 08/29/2003 10:41:03 PM PDT by kimmie7
'Exit protocol' for brain-disabled woman? Husband orders wife removed from hospital despite severe illness
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 29, 2003 6:15 p.m. Eastern
By Sarah Foster © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A five-year legal battle over whether a brain-disabled woman should be allowed to live or forced to die of starvation took another turn today when Michael Schiavo ordered his wife Terri removed from a hospital where she is being treated for a severe infection.
Terri Schindler-Schiavo before her disability.
The move back to a hospice where the Florida woman has lived for more than three years could lead to her death, a family spokeswoman told WorldNetDaily.
"The family is very concerned Terri won't be properly cared for at the hospice and won't make it through the weekend," said Pamela Hennessey.
Terri still is reported to be "extremely congested and at least a bit feverish," Hennessey said.
The Schindler family fears this move is intended as an "exit protocol," with the intention of hastening her death, Hennessey said in a just-issued statement.
"There can't be any way Terri was well enough to leave the hospital," Terri's sister Suzanne Schindler-Carr told Hennessey. "She's still such a very sick girl."
It was the second such crisis in less than two weeks and the most recent development in the on-going battle between Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and their son-in-law that began with his efforts to remove the feeding tube Terri depends upon for sustenance.
Michael Schiavo (Photo: WFLA-TV)
According to documents filed with the court, Terri was transferred Sunday from the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast to the emergency room of Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla., because of vomiting, fever, coughing, and severe diarrhea. Tests revealed lung congestion and an elevated white blood cell count, indicating a "substantial infection."
The Schindler's attorney Patricia Anderson said a federal statute prohibits an institution from discharging a person before they've been stabilized medically. But a patient can always discharge himself against medical advice.
"Since Michael Schiavo is Terri's legal guardian, he can do that, and that's what he's doing," said Anderson.
By order of an appeals court, Judge George Greer of Florida's 6th Circuit Court will hold a hearing Sept. 11 to set a date for removing the feeding tube, which would lead to starvation within 10 to 14 days.
Schiavo's request to order Terri returned to the hospice was faxed to Greer yesterday by his legal representative, right-to-die attorney George Felos, and is the second attempt this week to ensure his wife receives no medical treatment.
The day following her readmission to Morton Plant, Felos filed papers asking the court to order all treatment for Terri stopped "other than comfort care" for her infection and any additional medical problems that might arise.
In an emergency motion faxed Monday afternoon to Greer, Felos argued that since the courts of Florida had approved the removal of her feeding tube, death by starvation was a foregone conclusion and there was no need to intervene.
"Given the imminence of the ward's death, further treatment (other than comfort care) for the ward's infection and other medical problems is unnecessary, unwarranted, inappropriate, and futile," he declared.
He also requested an "immediate hearing" to set the date for removal of Terri's feeding tube.
Judge Greer denied the motion Tuesday, stating such a determination would require a hearing, but endorsed Schiavo's request to return her to the hospice.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the Schindlers have been locked in a decade-long battle with their son-in-law over the care and custody of their daughter, who suffered massive brain damage when she collapsed at their home 13 years ago under unexplained circumstances at the age of 26.
The bitter dispute over Terri's quality of care erupted five years ago into a full-blown euthanasia battle when Schiavo petitioned the court for permission to have her feeding removed, claiming she is in a persistent vegetative state and would not want to be kept alive by "artificially." Although Terri breathes on her own and maintains her own blood pressure, she requires a tube for nourishment and hydration. The Schindlers and a number of doctors and therapists believe that with therapy she could be rehabilitated, but the courts have consistently sided with Schiavo and attorney George Felos.
This current emergency medical crisis was essentially a replay of events two weeks ago when Terri was taken to Morton Plant because she was coughing up blood and appeared to have aspiration pneumonia. She was returned to the hospice less than a week later, before she had fully recovered.
As before, the Schindlers have not been apprised their daughter's condition, despite a 1996 court order in which Schiavo agreed to inform the Schindlers of any changes in his wife's physical condition.
The Schindlers learned about Terri's emergency transfer from the hospice to the hospital Monday morning, hours after the fact. Not until their attorney Patricia Anderson received a fax from George Felos informing her of Terri's sudden crisis did they have any information.
Pamela Hennessey recalled last Monday's events for WorldNetDaily.
"As soon as they heard, her parents went immediately to the hospital and to the admissions section, and the first thing admissions said was there's no one here by that name," said Hennessey.
"Then they did confirm she was there, but did not tell them what room she was in, Hennessey continued. "So the Schindlers had to carry on for at least an hour before they found out where Terri even was. They never got any indication of her condition, diagnosis, prognosis, nothing. And they still haven't. All they know is Terri has a massive infection and fever."
Pat Anderson reports Mary Schindler has been with her daughter every day, all day until 8 p.m., when hospital rules dictate they must leave. Bob Schindler says she holds Terri in her arms, and when they started to leave, Terri's eyes fill with tears.
'Exit protocol'?
Terri's current medical crisis drew the attention of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who said he was "disturbed" by rumors about Schiavo's actions related to Terri's current care. In his letter to Greer Tuesday requesting a delay in removal of Terri's feeding tube until certain issues are investigated, Bush called specific attention to Schiavo's request to disallow treatment.
"It has come to my attention that Mrs. Schiavo has contracted a life-threatening illness and that she may be denied appropriate treatment," the governor wrote. "If true, this indicates a decision by her caregivers to initiate an 'exit protocol' that may include withholding treatment from Mrs. Schiavo until her death, which would render this court's ultimate decision moot."
Bush urged Greer to ensure that "no act of omission or commission be allowed to adversely affect Mrs. Schiavo's health before the September 11th hearing you have set. No one involved should be permitted to circumvent due process or the court's authority in order to achieve personal objectives in this case."
I keep losing my cable connection today. I have made sure to copy your post, though.
Can you start a new thread with this post? It's news that many would want to hear.
Sure they can. Pain is the most primitive of emotions.
I have had both personal and professional experience with similar cases. There are many people living in Nursing Homes who are being kept alive despite the fact all meaningful life for them has long ended. This sounds like one of those cases.
The better solution : Link other threads to your post!
Sorry I suggested posting it separately.
See? His behavior indicates that there is something else going on besides money. Terri's parents should make his life a hell should he succeed in killing her. How could any woman take up with a man like that and have children by him, knowing how cold and heartless he is?
A doctor who doesn't know about the benefits of food and water??. Perhaps he needs to go on a 'forced diet'.
Is this PR-newspaper connection affecting the way Florida papers cover Terri's case?
Samples of columns in St. Petersburg Times:
1. Terri Schiavo unlikely to recover, doctor says (September 24, 2002, By Times Staff Writer)
She has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than 12 years.
2. Governor as guardian - in whose interests?, MARY JO MELONE. Aug 28, 2003
As for the governor's call for a guardian, Schiavo already has one who's quite legal - her husband, Michael Schiavo. He's just not the guardian Schiavo's parents want. He favors the removal of her feeding tube. They don't.3. Ethical storm swirls after a final meal, ANITA KUMAR, April 25, 2001Schiavo's fate has been batted about for years upon years, with appeal after appeal, testimony from expert after expert, to the point of absurdity.
As the bitterly divided family of Terri Schiavo awaits her death, the Catholic Church declines to take sides. [snip] With food and water, she could have lived decades longer but in the same persistent vegetative state she has been in for 11 years. [snip]Dr. Vince Perron, associate medical director at LifePath Hospice in Tampa, said patients who no longer receive nutrition usually become unconscious after two or three days. They slip into a comalike sleep until they die in another two days to two weeks.
"People don't suffer," Perron said. "It's a peaceful, comfortable way to die.
You are obviously not up to speed on this case.
Read about three paragraphs into this link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33876
Then, read this link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29659
It seems to me that the main goal in this tragedy is to prevent her from talking. Seems like things really went into overdrive once that highly regarded speech therapy expert said that her case was very hopeful.
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