Posted on 10/31/2003 8:16:51 PM PST by Future Useless Eater
Saturday November 1, 2003 1:01 AM
By VICKIE CHACHERE
Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A judge appointed a University of South Florida professor on Friday to independently investigate the case of a severely brain-damaged woman at the center of a right-to-die battle.
Jay Wolfson, an expert on health care financing, will report to Gov. Jeb Bush and recommend whether the stay the governor enacted to keep Terri Schiavo alive should be allowed to remain.
Schiavo suffered severe brain damage when her heart stopped due to a chemical imbalance and has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than a decade. Doctors have said there is no hope for her recovery.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has fought to have her feeding tube removed, saying his wife did not want to be kept alive artificially.
Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, dispute that claim and have fought to keep their daughter alive, saying they believe she could be rehabilitated.
Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for six days in October before the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush enacted a special law to have it reinserted. The law also required a guardian to be appointed.
George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed briefs this week challenging the constitutionality of the governor's action. The state is expected to respond on Monday.
The judge said that if the law is found to be unconstitutional, Wolfson is to cease his work.
The Schindlers had objected to Wolfson's appointment, claiming comments he made to a television station indicated he was biased against the newly enacted law. The judge said he found no evidence of bias.
Wolfson did not return calls seeking comment.
The judge ordered Wolfson to report to the governor in 30 days, but said the deadline could be extended if needed.
Sounds familiar. They say Terri's smiles are just "reflex". Funny how doctors don't know sh-t sometimes.
How true. We see case after case after case where doctors have said "There is no hope" -- then, we see that the patient DID recover.
Ping for Mrs Zip.
I think the difference is that Maria Tetto's parents have already been able to prove that their daughter could recover, while Terri's parents have never been allowed to even try.
So for Maria it's a fait accompli that doctors and euthanasiasts cannot deny.
If Terri ever is allowed proper rehabilitation (and it may take years, as it did with Maria), we'll see a lot of people have to eat crow.
Agreed.
5. Based on my experience and my observations, Mrs. Schiavo is clearly aware of her environment and interacts with it, albeit inconsistently. She is able to comprehend spoken language, and can, at least inconsistently, follow simple one-step commands. This is documented both in the MediPlex records and in the following behaviors noted in the following video segments:
Can't do those things if there aren't any brainwaves. I guess Maria Tetto is relevant to Terri's case.
By Randy Schultz, Palm Beach Post Editor of the Editorial Page
Sunday, November 2, 2003
If you listen only to Gov. Bush and the Legislature talk about Terri Schiavo, you might think that the courts have rushed to end the life of a helpless woman. If you read what the courts actually have done and said, you understand that the governor and Legislature are wrong.
The story line from Tallahassee is loving parents vs. scheming husband, aided by reckless, uncaring judges. To the rescue come a compassionate, moral governor and Legislature. In reality, the cast and the roles don't line up quite so perfectly.
Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer has received most of the criticism because he ruled for Michael Schiavo. Reviewing his decisions, however, has been the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal, which in June entered the ruling that led last month to the removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube, which led to "Terri's Law," which led to the case being national news.
Chief Judge Chris Altenbernd, who wrote the ruling, is an Eagle Scout with two children. Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican, named him to the appeals court. Carolyn Fulmer, one of the concurring judges, also has two children. Democrats Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles put on her on the circuit and appeals court, respectively. Judge Thomas E. Stringer has four children. Gov. Graham put him on the county court, Gov. Martinez put him on the circuit court, and Gov. Bush put him on the appeals court.
So this panel can be labeled neither "liberal" nor "conservative." Let's deal, then, with the two counts of the indictment: that the court acted hastily, and that the court is uncaring.
The June ruling was the fourth that the 2nd DCA has issued in the Schiavo case. Each time, the court eventually has upheld Judge Greer's finding that Terri Schiavo did not want to be kept alive artificially, and that the feeding tube can be removed.
In its third ruling, the appeals court noted that "clear and convincing evidence at the time of trial supported a determination that Mrs. Schiavo would have chosen in February 2000 to withdraw the life-prolonging procedures." Yet even then, the court did not dismiss outright the late claim by Terri Schiavo's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, that therapy could help their daughter.
So the appeals court sent the case back to Judge Greer. The Schindlers, though, had to show that treatment would "significantly" improve Ms. Schiavo's life. The court ordered an examination by five physicians. At Judge Greer's hearing, the Schindlers "presented little testimony." The doctor who caused the appeals court to order the review did not appear. The one who did made a weak case.
"It is likely that no guardianship court," the judges said, "has ever received as much high-quality medical evidence in such a proceeding." The appeals court looked at the full-length videotapes of Ms. Schiavo, not the excerpts on TV news programs. The judges examined brain scans. The conclusion: Terri Schiavo is in a permanent vegetative state.
But as Judge Altenbernd noted in June: "Each of us, however, has our own family, our own loved ones, our own children... we understand why a parent who had raised and nurtured a child from conception would hold out hope that some level of cognitive function remained. If Mrs. Schiavo were our own daughter, we could not but hold to such a faith."
So the court sees Terri Schiavo as a person. The court knows the tragedy, of her condition, the family fight, the unpleasant decision. "It is a thankless task," Judge Altenbernd wrote, "and one to be taken with care, objectivity and a cautious legal standard designed to promote the value of life.
"But it is also a necessary function if all people are to be entitled to a personalized decision about life-prolonging procedures independent of the subjective and conflicting assessments of their friends and relatives... the law currently provides no better solution that adequately protects the interests of promoting the value of life."
It should have ended there. The courts have spent years on Terri Schiavo's case and acknowledged the difficulty. The governor and Legislature spent two hours and proclaimed themselves saviors. So who's being reckless and uncaring?
That is misleading and disingenuous of you. It is the title of the article I linked to. Nevertheless, any layman can see from the videos of her that she does things that can't be done if there are no brainwaves.
I'll let her own credentials speak for themselves:
BEFORE ME the undersigned authority personally appeared Sara Green Mele, MS, CCC-SLP, who being first duly sworn, deposes and says:1. My name is Sara Green Mele, and I have been engaged in the continuous private practice of speech-language pathology since 1996, and have served on the staff of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago from 1996 to 1999 and from 2001 to the present. Prior to that I practiced cognitive therapy at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas Texas. In both settings I worked with the broad range of brain injured populations. The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago is affiliated with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and is recognized in the United States rehabilitation community as the top facility in the United States. The Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation is affiliated with Baylor University Medical Center, and is recognized in the United States rehabilitation community as one of the top ten facilities in the United States. I am a clinical lecturer at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and lecture for continuing medical education credits (CME) through the Rehabilitation Institute's continuing education program as well as at national conferences. In April of this year I participated in the presention of a two-day head injury course entitled Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Management in Traumatic Brain Injury to over two hundred health professionals in Tampa, Florida. My full curriculum vitae is attached.
2. In my practice, I treat many patients who have had diffuse brain injury, both anoxic and hypoxic, and I am familiar with states of impairment known as coma, coma-like, minimally conscious and persistent vegetative state. I regularly participate in the evaluation and cognitive/linguistic diagnosis of patients whose differential diagnosis include such conditions. In connection with my practice of speech-language pathology, I also evaluate patients, and train others in the evaluation of patients for swallowing function. During my career as a speech-language pathologist, I have personally treated approximately thirty patients similar to Terri Schiavo.
3. In evaluating patients for rehabilitation, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago does not track the diagnosis of patients by their referring caregivers, but rather evaluates them for itself because the misdiagnosis rate is so high.
And that's just an overview. I'd hate to have to read her full curriculum vitae. Whew!
You don't know that about Maria's case. The article does not say whether Maria had brain scans; and if she did, what they showed.
And, for that matter, you don't know that what you've asserted is true about Terri, either. All you have, in Terri's case, is the word of her so-called husband and his pro-euthanasia lawyer that the "cerebral cortex is virtually void of living tissue." (And what does "virtually" mean here, anyway?) I have not heard any doctor verify this.
For your statement to be believable, it would be necessary for new scans to be done, and interpreted by several independent doctors, not shills hired by Schiavo.
Even then, it's my understanding that doctors cannot be 100% sure of their interpretation of brain scans. It takes an autopsy for that -- and, hmmmmmmmmm, Schiavo has ordered that there be no autopsy upon Terri's death.
So it's not clear that these purported scans are "relevant," either. Maybe they could give some indication of whether Terri could be rehabiliated, or maybe not. What is the ethical reason for forbidding her parents to even try?
As for "relevance":
...Frank Tetto said doctors didn't believe at first that his daughter really smiled. The Tettos held their daughter's hand and she squeezed back. Doctors said that was a reflex rather than a sign of conscious behavior, said the Tettos...The Tettos said they had to convince doctors and insurance companies that their daughter would benefit from various kinds of therapy and come all the way out of a coma, and one day talk to them.
Substitute "the Schindlers" for "the Tettos," and "Michael Schiavo" for "insurance companies." Looks pretty relevant to me.
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