I think the most disgusting thing I can think of
right now is the fact that Greer ordered the starvation to start at the beginning of Holy week.
You know he did that on purpose.
Allegations of abuse continue in Terri Schiavo case
Kale Nestor and his wife, Christine, with back to camera, and five of their children stopped at Hospice House Woodside in Pinellas Park, Fla., to pray the rosary for Terri Schiavo with others who gathered for prayer Feb. 26.
By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
Florida’s Sixth Circuit Court Judge George Greer had a busy week hearing a variety of legal motions in the controversial case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
The cognitively-disabled woman, a former parishioner of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Southampton, has been at the center of a seven-year legal battle between her husband, Michael, who contends she would prefer to die, and a her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, who believe she could be helped with proper therapy. The CS&T has tried repeatedly to contact Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, for comment, but he has not returned CS&T calls.
Judge Greer has ordered the removal of Terri’s feeding tube at 1 p.m. on March 18, unless her parents prove that their legal motions have merit. However, last week Greer notified Schindler family attorneys that he intends to deny — without a hearing — several of their motions, including one asking the court to remove Terri’s husband as her legal guardian.
According to Barbara Weller of the David Gibbs Law Firm, this motion avers more than two dozen Florida state law violations committed by Michael Schiavo during the past 10 years. The Schindlers are also objecting to Schiavo’s late filing of the state’s mandatory annual guardianship plans, which would be grounds for Schiavo’s dismissal as Terri’s legal guardian.
“This petition has been filed since 2002 with the court and it’s never been heard,” Weller said.
The guardianship issue was at the heart of another ruling in the case: Greer granted media access to a motion filed by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF). The DCF is requesting 60 days to investigate 30 detailed allegations of abuse, neglect or exploitation of Terri Schiavo by her guardian, which the agency received on Feb. 18 and Feb. 21, 2005.
The complaints involve many of the same issues contained in the family’s motion, such as failure to file proper guardianship plans, failure to provide therapies and lack of communication as well as visitation issues.
“The allegations in the abuse reports go to the heart of whether abuse, neglect and/or exploitation has been perpetrated by the guardian,” the DCF motion states, “such that any relief afforded by this court to this guardian prior to the conclusion of such investigation would be tragically misplaced.”
The DCF motion is asking for an injunction against Michael Schiavo to prevent him from withdrawing his wife’s feeding tube until the investigation is complete. The DCF motion also asks the court to provide Terri Schiavo with her own legal counsel.
Greer was expected to rule on the DCF motion during the week of March 7. As The CS&T went to press, no ruling had been made.
Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, maintains that the DCF intervention is political, and similar to actions taken by Gov. Jeb Bush in October 2003, when the Florida legislature passed a law that allowed him to order Terri’s feeding tube to be reinserted after she went six days without food or water.
The DCF motion to intervene in the case “reeks of political arm-twisting,” Felos said. “Anyone can see what clearly is happening. The governor and the Legislature — the politicians — have tried to do an end run around the court system. They did it in October 2003, and that’s what they’re trying to do now.”
Politics have become part of the case. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) announced plans to introduce the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act the week of March 6. The bill provides incapacitated persons facing court-ordered death the same due process rights as death-row inmates.
Weldon, who is a medical doctor, does not believe Terri is in a persistent vegetative state and thinks that persons such as Terri should have their own independent counsel. Weldon believes that in cases like Terri’s, patients should be afforded the same rights as those accorded to death-row inmates — namely, to have a de novo review, which is a review of the evidence by another court.
The Schindler family has been fighting for years to have a court investigate allegations that Michael Schiavo systematically neglected and abused Terri since her collapse from unknown causes on Feb. 25, 1990.
The Schindler family and Michael Schiavo had a falling out shortly after Michael won more than $2 million in malpractice awards on behalf of his wife. The family alleges that beginning in Feb. 1993, Michael halted all of Terri’s therapy, denied the family access to her medical information and placed a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order on her medical chart.
The Schindlers say hospital staff twice alerted them that Michael refused to allow Terri to be treated for serious urinary tract infections. Schiavo admitted under oath that he knew this action could cause Terri’s death; however, the family’s motion at that time to have him dismissed as a guardian was denied. One of Terri’s nurses, Carolyn Johnson, said in a sworn affidavit that Michael Schiavo would not allow the staff to put a washcloth in Terri’s hand to keep her fingers from closing in on themselves.
“After about two years, I quit this job because I was so disillusioned with the way Terri was treated,” Johnson wrote. “Someone, somewhere along the way, should have reported this.”
Carla Sauer Iyer, a registered nurse who took care of Terri at Palm Garden, said in a sworn affidavit that “Terri’s medical condition was systematically distorted and misrepresented ... When I worked with Terri, she was alert and oriented. Terri spoke on a regular basis ... saying such things as ‘help me’ and ‘Mommy’ ... .”
Iyer claimed to have made numerous entries on Terri’s chart about her responsiveness, only to discover later that all such notes were removed.
Iyer also claims that on five different occasions, Michael, who is a registered nurse, visited Terri for approximately 20 minutes with the door locked. “When he left, Terri would be trembling, crying hysterically, and would be very pale and have cold sweats,” Iyer said.
On those occasions, Iyer said, she checked Terri’s blood sugar and found it so low she had to put dextrose in Terri’s mouth to counteract it.
Along with Iyer, another nurse named Heidi Law said in a sworn affidavit that Michael was often heard making comments such as “When is that bitch going to die?” and “Can’t anything be done to accelerate her death? Won’t she ever die?”
Iyer said she was so concerned, she called the police to report these comments and other activities at the nursing home related to Terri’s care, and claims she was fired for doing so.
The written testimonies of Carolyn Johnson, Carla Iyer and Heidi Law were all dismissed by the court without a hearing. Attorneys for Gov. Bush would later bring up the same allegations in their motion for a new trial, demanding that they be investigated. Their request was also denied.
During the 2000 trial, Terri’s long-time friend and classmate, Diane Myers, said “Michael didn’t want a TV in her room because he didn’t want her to see anything about the trial. What’s that about? He’s arguing that she has no conscious thought, so what does he care? There was no TV, no flowers, nothing in her room — for a woman who lived for sunlight. She loved the sun. She loved the beach. She loved being outside. Terri used to start tanning when the first ray of spring started.”
In addition to his attempts to have Terri’s feeding tube removed, Schiavo again tried to convince the court to let him deny Terri treatment when she came down with pneumonia in 2004. Felos argued that she should be allowed to “die naturally.” The court refused his request.
Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615
Five ways to help Terri Schiavo
By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
Want to help Terri? Here are five suggestions from her family’s Web site:
1. Florida’s House and Senate are considering a dehydration and starvation protection act that would require stronger evidence of informed consent prior to removing assisted food and fluids from an incapacitated patient. If you are a Floridian, a disability advocate or an elder-care advocate, you can let Florida’s lawmakers know that you want them to consider such an act. Contact Florida’s lawmakers here: www.flsnate.gov — Senate www.myfloridahouse.com — House
2. The U.S. Congress was scheduled to begin hearings of a bill titled the Incapacitated Person’s Legal Protection Act on Tuesday, March 8. This bill, if signed into law, would entitle incapacitated persons to a federal review of their rights (known as habeas corpus) and would help ensure that they have been fairly represented. You can encourage your representative to give this act favorable consideration. Habeas corpus protections are currently available for the worst of convicted criminals; this new law would make it clear that disabled Americans are entitled to as much legal protection. Contact your representative here: http://www.house.gov/writerep/ — US House of Representatives http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ — US Congress
3. Seventeen doctors — neurologists, physicians and pathologists — have signed statements in Terri Schiavo’s guardianship proceedings to support new neurological testing protocols for her. This is important in view of recent findings that may support the position that Terri is not in a persistent vegetative state and can be trained to communicate in spite of her limitations.
Disability advocates across North America are calling for an immediate moratorium on deprivation deaths for disabled people such as Terri until these new protocols can be enacted. To find the contact information for your state representatives and request that they consider such a moratorium, go to: http://www.house.gov/writerep/ — US House of Representatives or http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ — US Congress
4. The Justice Coalition has petitioned the governor of Florida to invoke statutory protections for Terri Schiavo pending an investigation into abuse, neglect and exploitation against her. Sign the petition at http://www.justicecoalition.org/petition2.htm
5. Terri’s family has filed a number of motions and petitions in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Pinellas and Pasco Counties, and continue to process several different appeals in the Florida courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Read the latest at http://www.terrisfight.org — and use the information to write letters to legislators or the media