Terri's Fight - (Daily Thread/Updates) November 8 -10

Link to article on Michael Schiavo from hometown newspaper, information on death by starvation and dehydration, information on hospice eligibility and hospice and medicare/medicaid fraud, e-mail address for Judge Greer, transcript of Larry King Live interview with Michael Schiavo and George Felos, Terri's address at the hospice and the address for the foundation, to send cards for Terri's birthday (December 3), transcript of O'Reilly interview with Kate Adamson, e-mail addresses for Florida legislature, transcript of Abrams Report interview with George Felos and Pam Anderson, transcription of Terri's bone scan, legalese for dummies version of Gov. Bush's motion to dismiss Sciavo's suit against the Constitutionality of Terri's Law, link to FatherOfLiberty's research on HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy), links to ACLJ involvement in Schiavo case and Father Rob Johansen's daily update.

There are four other relevant posts that I want to highlight here in case anyone missed them or didn't get pinged. These are a general Terri thread troll alert, an especially thoughtful post about the sincere effort that FReepers are making in Terri's behalf, the Father's Love Letter , and remarks made by Jim Robinson on this issue and reposted here by lonevoice.

This thread serves as a place for posting all new general information and references, along with links following Terri's case, plus information on cable news and talk radio shows dealing with the issue, court cases and press releases. This is also the place to post contact information, prayers and general discussion.

If you have something that qualifies as BREAKING NEWS or FRONT PAGE NEWS, please post it on a separate thread in that category in order to give it maximum exposure and then post a link to the article/thread here so that it will be included in the next update of links. Also, if you post links to articles from original sources and there is also a thread on FR, please link to the FR thread. Many original links become corrupt over time and we want to be able to access the information at will.

There was a tremendous amount of information posted on the previous thread. For anyone who hasn't been following the daily threads, links to relevant posts and information from the previous thread are contained in the body of the present one. I have found that very helpful in trying to find something later. You people are doing a spectacular job of getting information out and also in helping to keep all of us updated here. What a great joint effort. This fight, to me, illustrates beautifully what Free Republic is about and what it means to be a FReeper. Way to go FRiends. Keep up the good work!

The Terri Schiavo Case

Schiavo tapes: snippets, then not much

A review of four hours of tape on public record shows a few powerful images suggesting Terri Schiavo can respond, but also hours where she has no signs of consciousness.

By STEPHEN NOHLGREN, Times Staff Writer
Published November 10, 2003

She seems to smile at her mother's voice. Her eyes follow a shiny balloon. Asked to open her eyes, she arches her eyebrows as far as they will go.

These and other fleeting images posted on the Internet have turned the heart-wrenching case of Terri Schiavo into a constitutional showdown.

But such moments that suggest awareness - culled from four hours of medical examinations that were videotaped in the summer of 2002 - are rare compared to the times when Schiavo lies in bed, slack-jawed and seemingly unresponsive, her limbs stiff, her eyes vacant, her hands curled in tight contractions.

The St. Petersburg Times reviewed all four hours of tapes, which now are public record in the Pinellas County Courthouse. Over and over, Robert and Mary Schindler beg their daughter to demonstrate any sign of consciousness. They have contended for more than a decade that she smiles and laughs in direct response to their conversation. They have told the court that her eyes follow them around the room.

These tests, these videos, offered a chance to show the judge firsthand.

"It's Mommy. Look this way," Mrs. Schindler urges at one point. "Can you say, "No, no, no' like you did before? No, no, no?"

"Terri, Terri, Terri. Can you look over here, sweetheart?"

Here and there, their daughter's glances and moans seem to coincide with what's being asked of her and might lead one to conclude that she responds. But more often than not, the parents' entreaties fall flat.

A judge who viewed all four hours concluded that Terri Schiavo exists in a hopeless vegetative state and ordered that her feeding tube be removed, as her husband requested. Appellate judges, who also saw all four hours, agreed.

Still, there's no denying the haunting power of a few, select moments. They seem to suggest that Schiavo - brain-damaged as she is - retains some shred of awareness and will. They are so disconcerting the Florida Legislature took one look at the snippets, overturned those judicial rulings and empowered the governor to put Schiavo back on the feeding tube.

Yes, the mother's words do seem to prompt what seems like a smile from Terri. Not just once, but twice. Her eyes do follow a balloon on three separate occasions, surprising even a doctor selected by her husband, Michael Schiavo.

But mostly, the Schindlers conduct one-sided conversations with Terri. They speak of family vacations, barbecues and newborn relatives. They profess to spot nuances in their daughter's face that aren't readily apparent to an outsider's eye.

At one point her father gets gruff while trying unsuccessfully to get her to follow a Disney-character balloon. "Come here, Terri, no more fooling around. No more fooling around with your Dad."

He pokes her in the forehead to make sure she's awake. "No more fooling around with your Dad. Listen to me. You see the balloon? You see Mickey?"

Later, he apologizes, telling her others have admonished him for his tone. "I'm not going to lecture you anymore. I was scolded. No more lectures. You do as you please."

Neither the father's gruff admonition nor his soothing apology seem to elicit any reaction from his daughter.

These ministrations are painfully poignant, right down to the music from a portable radio/cassette player.

From the movie Titanic: "Near, far, wherever you are. ... my heart will go on and on."

From James Bond: "Live and let die. Live and let die."

Medical uncertainties

Theresa Maria Schiavo's brain suffered terrible trauma 13 years ago, when her potassium levels dropped so low her heart stopped beating.

For a few years, her family and husband, Michael, worked toward recovery. Then, he changed his mind. It was hopeless, he contended. She would not have wanted to live like this.

Years of litigation culminated with testimony last November by the five doctors who did the videotaped exams - two picked by the Schindlers, two by Michael Schiavo and one by Circuit Judge George Greer, who oversees the case.

The two Schindler doctors said Terri Schiavo, now 39, shows awareness and might be helped by treatment. The other three doctors said she lives in a persistent vegetative state, with no hope of recovery. Greer and an appellate court agreed that her feeding tube should be removed. In October, the tube came out; Terri was expected to die within a few weeks.

Then, the Schindlers posted six segments of the videotaped exams, totaling 4 minutes and 20 seconds, at www.terrisfight.org The clips were seen by thousands of people, including members of Florida's Legislature. With two days of debate, the Legislature passed "Terri's Law" and Gov. Jeb Bush ordered her feeding tube reinserted. She had lived six days without nourishment.

"I said, wait a minute, that's not my definition of somebody in a comatose situation," said Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, after viewing the Web clips.

Such lay references to "comas" demonstrate the vexing nature of determining vegetative states. Comatose people's eyes are closed, but if their thinking functions remain, those people can be better off than people in true vegetative states.

Vegetative people may seem alert if their involuntary functions remain intact. They may blink, sleep, wake up, make sounds and flinch. They even may laugh, shed tears and utter random words. But the brain sections that control thought are gone. Most doctors agree that such patients have little or no awareness of self and surroundings, and will never improve.

Patricia Anderson, lawyer for the Schindlers, noted in court that doctors sometimes err. Some people tagged with the vegetative label later come out of it, including one patient who emerged after 22 months. His doctor? Minnesota neurologist Ronald Cranford, who testified that Terri Schiavo is a hopeless case.

Cranford acknowledged that misdiagnosis, saying he lacked the benefit of a brain CAT scan. Schiavo has undergone multiple scans, he said, and they show a decimated cerebral cortex, the thin brain coating that controls higher functions.

Radiologist William Maxfield, chosen by the Schindlers, testified that Schiavo's cerebral scans show improvement, but none of the other doctors supported him.

The Schindlers couldn't make their case with scans, or blood tests, or X-rays. They needed their daughter to perform. Her life depended on the doctors' exams and what four hours of video - taken as a whole - really show.

What about that balloon?

"Hi. It's Mommy. Hi baby, how are you?"

Mary Schindler enters the hospice room and breaks the silence that surrounds her daughter. She kisses Terri, strokes her face and fluffs her pillow. Terri's face seems to brighten. Her blinking slows. She seems to stare at her mother. Her mouth opens, as if smiling.

Is this the "pure love" of a disabled soul, as Anderson contends? Has that familiar voice and tender breath on cheek pierced through Schiavo's shroud?

Probably so, the two Schindler doctors testified.

No way, said the two doctors picked by Michael Schiavo and the doctor picked by the judge.

"This is a reflex response," testified University of Florida neurologist Melvin Greer, not related to the judge. "The muscles of the facial area will react to sensory and auditory stimulation."

In court, the doubters contended that Dr. Cranford elicited a similar reaction when he touched and talked to Schiavo much like her mother had.

The videotape seems less conclusive. Schiavo makes a smile-like expression with Cranford, but it is less pronounced than the two incidents with her mother.

In another scene, not posted on the Web, Robert Schindler reminds his daughter of her "lazy eye" syndrome and how, when she was a girl, she would annoy her mother by purposely lolling her eye around.

Schiavo makes a sound a lay person might interpret as a laugh. Her noises get louder and louder until they exceed any other sound she makes during all four hours.

"You sound like an air raid siren," her father says. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

She also seems to laugh, after a 45-second delay, when her mother plays loud piano music next to her ear. On another occasion, she seems to laugh at no apparent stimulus.

"What you see," said lawyer Anderson, "is a human spirit very nearly crushed by the most unimaginable circumstances saying, "Here I am. Here I am. I like that balloon. I love my mother. I like piano music.' "

George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, scoffed at the notion that a father's reminiscing prompted conscious laughter.

"If Terri has the ability to comprehend language and supposedly laugh and respond to the context of what she heard, then why doesn't Terri laugh when you say, "Terri, please laugh.' If she has the ability to comprehend language, why can't she follow a simple command" like blinking her eyes.

What about that balloon? The tapes indicate that her eyes followed it three times and failed to follow it twice. Cleveland neurologist Peter Bambakidis, appointed by the court to examine Terri, said the retina connects with regions of the brain that control involuntary reflexes. Her eyes follow things, he said, but she has no awareness of what she is seeing.

The single most dramatic moment occurred when William Hammesfahr, a Clearwater neurologist picked by the Schindlers, asked Schiavo to open her eyes.

At first, her eyelids barely flutter. She slowly turns her head toward Hammesfahr, gradually opening her eyes. Then her eyebrows lift into an exaggerated arch - the kind of face a cartoonist might draw to show astonishment.

A lay person could easily conclude that she somehow tapped into a latent reservoir of cognition, even if just for a second. Hammesfahr and her parents bubble with excitement.

"Good job!" the doctor exults. "Good job, young lady!"

But she never pulls it off again, or anything remotely like it. For nearly an hour, her parents and the doctor tell her to open her eyes, close her eyes, look this way, look that way - with little apparent response.

Judge Greer counted.

"By the court's count, (Hammesfahr) gave 105 commands to Terri Schiavo and, at his direction, Mrs. Schindler gave an additional six commands," Greer wrote. "He asked her 61 questions and Mrs. Schindler ... asked her an additional 11 questions. The court saw few actions that could be considered responsive to either those commands or those questions."

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.