Posted on 03/26/2005 1:00:05 PM PST by BellStar
Because I try to track down facts before I write about a subject, I have not written about Terri Shiavo and the battle over her condition. What actually happened to Terri back in 1990 that caused her to be the topic of world conversation today? Before we decide to permanently dispose of her, shouldn’t we first find out how she got into this predicament?
Well, she collapsed, we are told by her husband Michael, in 1990 and was taken to the hospital . Some stories say she had a heart attack. Other stories, including a medical report by Dr. William Hammesfahr, a world-reknowned neurologist, totally refute any heart attack. Hammesfahr reported:
“Ms Schiavo was in her usual state of good health until 2/25/90, when her husband reported that he was awakened from sleep approximately 6 Am by her falling. He reports that she was unresponsive. "Paramedics were called, and aggressive resuscitation was performed with 7 defibrillations en route. “In the Emergency Room, a possible diagnosis of heart attack was briefly entertained, but then dismissed after blood chemistries and serial EKG's did not show evidence of a heart attack.”
Some reports guess that she collapsed due to an effort to lose weight – although, she was not at the time overweight. Hammesfahr’s report stated:
“The patient had a difficult hospital course with the development of poorly controlled seizures and prolonged coma state requiring, for a time, ventilator support. However, the staff noted improvement, and it was recommended by several physicians that she be discharged to an intensive rehabilitation center.” In 1992, Michael Shiavo sued for malpractice and won over a $1 million. He was personally awarded $300,000 for his “loss” and $700,000 for Terri’s rehabilitation and care for the rest of her natural life. However, the therapy, after the award, was not approved by Michael Shiavo and she was confined to a nursing home after the settlement.
It was after the settlement that Michael first claimed that Terri had previously stated that she didn’t want to be kept alive by artificial means — a statement he never mentioned during the malpractice trial. He has never produced any written proof that Terri said that.
Beginning almost immediately after receiving the malpractice funds, Michael Shiavo, as Terri’s legal guardian, began to refuse approval for ANY therapy or rehabilitation efforts and she has been confined to bed.
Since 1995, Michael Schiavo has lived openly with a girlfriend, Jodi Centonze, with whom he has two children, while remaining legally married to Terri, as well as being her legal her guardian.
In 1998, Michael Schiavo petitioned the court to have Terri’s feeding tube removed. In 2003, Michael Schiavo’s attorneys reported that the trust fund was down to $50,000, with more than $430,000 going to “pay for court costs associated with her husband’s legal battle to remove his wife’s feeding tube.” Meanwhile, Medicaid helps to pay Terri’s $5,000-a-month nursing costs at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida. 13
During this time period, Terri’s parents have attempted to gain guardianship over their daughter. During the legal battles that have ensued, in 2003 a a deposition was taken from Dr. William Campbell Walker, a radiologist, concerning a bone scan the hospital did on Terri in 1991. That bone scan revealed what Dr. Walker reported at the time as “compression fracture in the 19 vertebral body of the spine.”
For seven years as Terri has been consistently denied rehabilitation treatment that, according to several doctors, would have significantly improved her chances of recovery, Michael spent her money awarded for her therapy on lawyers trying to get her starved to death. Several doctors pointed out, including Dr. Hammesfahr, that Terri not only CAN swallow on her own, but frequently DOES swallow and pictures shown clearly indicate, as Hammesfahr and other testify, that she can and does respond to voice commands and particularly to her parents.
This would indicate that she is NOT in what the State of Florida defines as a “vegetative” state. It also makes me wonder, now that the feeding tube is removed, if any effort to help her swallow water or food is being made today, or whether under the court order spoon feeding also has been outlawed? Terri's parents, if they just came and got her and took her home, I guess would be arrested for kidnapping under Florida's legal system.
At this point, the legal system of Florida has, in the words of one legal observer, created the “framework for legal euthanasia.” Of course, euthanasia is technically the practice of killing someone painlessly because they prefer death to life for whatever reason. I would not classify starvation as a “painless” way to die.
Dr. Hammesfahr stated in his report:
“In the spring of 2000, three physicians, including Dr. Jay Carpenter, who is a former Chief of Medicine at Morton Plant Hospital, filed affidavits after observing Ms. Schiavo. All three physicians stated that it is visually apparent that Ms Schiavo is able to swallow and, in fact, does swallow her own saliva. “The patient continued with no physical therapy, communication or speech therapy, or routine medical screening evaluations and treatment such as dental care, mammography, gynecological exams or pap smears during this time."
Under these conditions and questions, it would appear to me that Terri SHOULD have a totally different guardian, such as her parents, until some questions are answered about the spinal and other injuries that appeared on her bone scan a decade ago. Why is it that a man who clearly wants his wife dead, cannot explain how she actually got into the state she is in, or produce ANY proof, other than his unsubstantiated words, that she would want to die, is being unquestioningly defended by the Florida courts?
Increasingly, it appears to me, that Terri would have gotten better care had her husband never won that malpractice suit and been given $1 million to spend – much of it on lawyers to legally kill off his wife.
It all makes me wonder just when Michael Schiavo made his first effort to kill Terri? Was it before or after she ended up in the hospital with an unexplained problem that put her in a coma?
The process of dying is not painless. On the other hand:
Methinks the descriptions of the effects of "STARVATION" are nowhere near as painful or as gruesome as widely reported (and exaggerated).
There are parents across this nation that make the decision, for the best of their child, to allow them to go, to preclude FURTHER suffering. The pain of death is less (often) than the process leading up to it.
Thanks, I read the whole thing, this is so sad.
We have zero showing that the Schindlers were in any way guilty of anything. Just saying they backed him is no case at all. To be guilty, they'd have to be knowing, willing partners in the swindle, conspiring to defraud the insurance companies. I don't believe there is any evidence of this, but even if there were, it would not exonerate Michael.
To me that is the whole issue also ..... guardianship.
MS should not be her guardian. They were only married for 5 yrs when this happened. In addition to the fact that he has a live-in girl friend for over 10 years and 2 children with her.
I caught a piece on CNN today, 1st time I put the TV on since all this started, because I can't stand the way it's being portayed.
Anyhow, they had a woman on, who's husband, and 2 children were hit by a train. They were in a car. The children survived, miraculously, but the husband was declared PVS.
I forget what state this was in. She fought with his parents to have his feeding tube removed. She wanted it removed and the parents didn't. She lost and he lived another 15 years. In that case, I believe she should have won guardianship because they were married quite awhile and had 3 children together. I think the kids were ages 8 and 10. Her 3rd child was not involved in the accident.
But what bothered me, was at the end of the piece, she said that the Bible says when you marry someone, you leave your family and go to or belong to another family.
But I can't really agree that Terri & Michael were family in the true sense of the word.
The court, in 1997 when Michael announced he was 'engaged' should have immediately conducted a guardianship hearing and transfered Terri to State guardianship. Because of this failure, we are in the present situation.
Questions that need to be immediately considered:
(1) Why did Michael choose to 'ignore' her wishes for nearly 7 years until 1997 when he announced he was'engaged' to Jodi Centonze and 'suddenly' remembered the conversation about life support with Terri from years before?
Respondent answer would most likely rationalize that it took that long before Michael Schiavo realized there was 'no hope for recovery...'
(2) However, the 1992 malpractice suit for $20 million was based on the premise/conclusion that Terri would NOT recover and she would require constant medical care for the remainder of her life estimated by Michael Shiavo and his laywers to be 51 years(which is the normal life expectancey)...Where were her WISHES at that time?
(3) The court, in 1997 when Michael announced he was 'engaged' should have immediately conducted a guardianship hearing and transfered Terri to State guardianship, at a minimum because of the obvious conflict of interest on the part of Michael Shiavo.
The court system failed to act at that point, and that is a major factor on why we are at the point we are today.
(4) Guardianship, by law and practice, is determined to be given to that person who is most heavily 'biased' in favor of the disabled person. Under most conditions this would be the spouse. However, most prudent courts, if during the guardianship period, the appointed guardian by circumstances or accident tilts the 'bias' away from the interest of the person so guarded, would conduct an immediate review, and at a minimum, transfer guardianship to the appropriate State agency.
Van & Katherine Jenerette - www.jenerette.com
I don't think that the Court can order the state NOT to do an autopsy beforehand. The State has the duty to do an autopsy when the death is under unusual circumstances.
"death under unususal circumstances"
These circumstances were ordered by the court, and thus not unusual. Look it up in the posts here on FR and elsewhere. The petition to grant a cremation has already been approved by the court. Cremation is going to happen immediately and every physical evidence of Terri is going to be obliterated, with prior brain activity unchecked in a PET scan prior to death not done, and possible foul play from an earlier circumstance eliminated in the oven after death, her ashes scattered in the wind.
Sorry to be so dark here. I have lost all faith in the court, its officers and representatives, its appointees and advisers, and its guarantees of life and liberty.
Can I believe my eyes? No one has mentioned on this thread, the neck trauma that was reported at the time she was admitted to the hospital?
Isn't a man allowed to dispose of his property as he will ?
I thougth the Dred Scott case settled this.
Wouldn't want to overturn settled Constitutional Law ...
I Remember Mary Mostert from way back in Mike Reagan days?
Before FreeRepublic was M R Forum was all we had and Mary was the best on that website.
...And in so doing,turn a tidy sum,perchance....
Think the translation is "murder." There is a difference.
The Cause of Terri problems in 1990 have NOT been determined.
Any orders issued by the Judge Re the disposition of Terri's body would be civil and probably against the Schindlers not law enforcement.
The court can order whatever it pleases as long as the local cops back them up and the state is unwilling to challenge them.
IMHO, the murder started in 1990 and finished in 2005.
That is ridiculous. Why is Michael more believable? B/C he "remembered" that she said something 7 years later? Did she ever say she wanted to be starved to death? When in doubt, shouldn't we err on the side of LIFE, especially when she did not have a terminal illness and had loving parents able and willing to take care of her and get her therapy and rehab, which could possibly help her? Especially since Michael refused to do so? You make absolutely no since, and sound like you would approve of the Nazi useless eater policies.
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