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."
Greer and Martha Lenderman* have both used the same PR company.
That PR company has a partner who worked for Florida newspapers.
Wayne Garcia spent 13 years in daily print journalism as a reporter and editor for the Gainesville Sun, Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times. Most recently he was editor-in-chief of ReviewNet, where his work founding the on-line site was awarded Best Online Newspaper (Small) by Editor & Publisher/The Kelsey Group.Is this PR-newspaper connection affecting the way Florida papers cover Terri's case?
*Martha Lenderman is the wife of Greer's fellow judge. She is also on the Board of the Hospice that Terri has been in. (The PR company heped her in her campaign for State Rep. ---District 51 - 1998, it helped Greer in 1992)
26 year olds just don't collapse --- I'll bet the husband wanted her dead from the start. If she's lived 13 years in this condition, she has a strong will to live. You can't keep someone alive once they lose that --- I bet he's afraid she could wake up and tell what happened to her. Never trust your life with an adulterous spouse.
Reminds me of a term Planned Parenthood used to use, Product of Conception
He meant 13 years ago --- all he needs to do is walk away, leave her to the family which loves her, the people who brought her into the world in the first place. If getting a divorce is the problem --- someone should make sure he gets that even if she can't be informed --if that's his hangup. He's had a lover on the side --- he can let his poor wife go back to her parents --- but that might mean he and his lover don't get the insurance money.
They have .. they have also tried to have Judge Greer removed from the case .. but Judge Greer ruled against it
http://www.notdeadyet.org/docs/schaivobrief.html
Contrary to Florida law and established medical practice, the trial court imposed a new requirement that persons with severe disabilities demonstrate not just voluntary action "of any kind," as the state law's plain language specifies, but rather "consistent" and "reproducible" actions or responses to establish their own cognition.
In the beginning of this case, Mike Schiavo could have garnered nearly one million dollars that had been earmarked for Terri's care, if she had just died. He had her moved to hospice, out of a theraputic care facility, and she has been in the hospice labelled "terminal" for NINE YEARS. No one is supposed to "live in a hospice" - if they do, they are obviously not in a terminal state. But Mike has kept her there, without basic care, without medical attention, and without therapy, for nearly a decade, trying to facilitate her death.
But Terri just WILL NOT DIE on her own.
So now this case has become about "allowing" Terri to die - by starvation. If they can just get the courts to change the definition of brain-damaged people from "disabled" to "needing to die" then they will create a whole new industry: an industry based on "facilitating the death" of thousands of incapacitated persons who never signed a directive - just like Terri.
Can you imagine the number of people that would gain guardianship of older or disabled relatives, and then bring them in for extermination based on that relative's word that "I know that Cousin Timmy/Uncle Joey/Grandma wanted to die; I heard them say it once"...? How many more will be lawyers who are "appointed" guardians for elderly patients who don't have visible heirs? After all, Hospice for the Florida Suncoast owns several nursing homes, assisted living centers, and has contracts with at least ONE hospital - Morton Plant, where Terri went for treatment.
The guardian gains the estate, or a small kickback, the hospice gets the money for the "patient" - and remember, they can't come to hospice without being pronounced "terminal". Oh outrageous, we say - but when a retarded adult or an old stroke victim gets labelled "terminal" because no one wants to live like that, who would object? If a cancer-ridden old man - or a brain-injured young woman - dies a "facilitated death", who cares as long as it lines the pockets of the corrupt?
It appears that there just aren't enough people terminal patients to support Hospice's financial goals. So, they are going to make patients terminal. That is exactly what Mike Schiavo did to Terri - and that's the kind of business that will make the Hospice and their patients' guardians rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Well said, MHGinTN!! I agree.
I'm sure he'd like a pat on the back for his "efforts on our behalf," too.
Well stated!!!
Medical ambulances will be busily moving patients out of the nursing homes--and into hospices.
It's much easier to find staff capable of "allowing" people to die, than finding staff capable of caring for disabled people.
Physical therapists need not apply.
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.