BY MAYA BELL, WES SMITH AND SEAN MUSSENDEN
The Orlando Sentinel
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - (KRT) - Terri Schiavo's parents got renewed hope early Wednesday that their daughter's feeding tube could be reinserted after an appeals court in Atlanta agreed to consider a petition for a new hearing.
The ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was called a possible miracle by the handful of protesters still keeping vigil outside the hospice where Schiavo, 41, has been without food or water since March 18.
"I think this is an answer to our prayers, and it's a miraculous thing that she's still alive in time for this," said William Thomas, a Schiavo supporter from St. Petersburg.
It was unclear what impact the ruling might have. Attorneys for neither the Schindlers nor Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, could not be reached for comment early Wednesday.
Earlier, Bob and Mary Schindler turned to the Rev. Jesse Jackson to help their cause.
Jackson arrived in a white stretch limousine to pray privately with the Schindlers in their retreat, a gift store, across the street from the Woodside Hospice.
Then he called a handful of black Florida senators in Tallahassee, imploring them to change their votes and revive a bill aimed at restoring the feeding tube that has kept Terri Schiavo alive since her collapse 15 years ago.
"This is one of the profound moral, ethical issues of our time_the saving of Terri's life," Jackson said, speaking to reporters after his closed-door prayer and phone session. "We ask today for some hard hearts to be softened up."
The bill, which would forbid the removal of a feeding tube from patients who did not specify their wishes in writing, failed by three votes last week. But Jackson said at least two opponents indicated a willingness to change their minds.
Mary Schindler added her weary voice to his pleas, begging state senators to act quickly.
"Please, please pass this new bill," she said, outside the hospice where her oldest child lay dying. "Terri is still fighting. She's still alive. She's trying with all her might. She does not want to die."
She also made a direct plea to her son-in-law and his girlfriend, with whom he has two toddlers.
"Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me," she said.
Bob Schindler, who had visited their daughter earlier, said that it was not too late to halt the death process.
"She's alert. We still have her. It's not too late to save her," he said.
Meanwhile, as he has since his wife's feeding tube was disconnected, Michael Schiavo remained out of view and at his wife's bedside, one of his attorneys said.
"He continues to believe it's not appropriate to air this in public during her last days," Hamden Baskin III said. "He believes she ought to be allowed a few days of dignity and peace. It's time for everybody but family to step out."
At most, Terri Schiavo is expected to live 14 days without her feeding tube, which was removed under a court order won by her husband.
After a seven-year legal battle against his in-laws, the courts agreed his wife is in a persistent vegetative state and would not want to be kept alive artificially.
She did not, however, put those wishes in writing, and her parents dispute them and her diagnosis. They insist she communicates with them and could recover some brain function with proper rehabilitation.
Hours after Jackson's departure, Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist and spokesman for the Schindler family, said Jackson had created an "unbelievable new momentum" in Tallahassee.
His enthusiasm, however, was not shared by state Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, one of the Schindlers' most stalwart supporters in the Legislature.
"I have not heard of anyone who has switched," Webster said. "I don't put a lot of stock in what I call `secret admirers,' talk about people who might do something. This case has had a lot of secret admirers."
Senate Democratic Leader Les Miller of Tampa said he_and the Legislature_were finished with the Schiavo case.
"We voted. It's time for this Legislature to move on," said Miller, a member of the legislative black caucus.
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who visited the hospice Tuesday night, said he has been making calls to see if there is anything that can still be done at the state and federal level.
Santorum, who is from the Schindlers' home state, has been a leading supporter of their efforts in Congress and is the first congressman to go to the hospice.
"My feeling is she is still alive. We need to keep trying," Santorum said. "This is about trying to do the right thing for a woman we believe has been wronged by the system."
Jackson's appearance was another odd twist in a case of unpredictable and astonishing turns. Just 10 days ago, Congress met in an extraordinary Palm Sunday session to pass an unprecedented special act giving the Schindlers the right to take their battle against their son-in-law to the federal courts, which eventually rebuffed Congress.
Now, the religious activists who helped thrust Terri Schiavo's plight into the national consciousness, prompting Congress to act, find themselves sharing a stage and an issue with a champion of liberal causes.
Terry, best known as the founder of the radical anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said Tuesday, "I could not in my wildest dreams have pictured this."
As Jackson returned to his limousine, walking past protesters who have stood vigil outside the hospice for days, he was cheered and applauded. One man yelled, "Bush voters for Jesse Jackson! Bless you, sir! Bless you, sir!"
In other developments Tuesday, an appellate court upheld Pinellas Circuit Judge George W. Greer's ruling refusing to let the state Department of Children & Families intervene in the Schiavo case. The state agency had requested the intervention and an expedited hearing of its appeal, hoping to forestall the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
But the gambit failed. The 2nd District Court of Appeal issued its opinion without comment_and just a day after the agency filed its written arguments in the appeal.
George Felos, another of Michael Schiavo's attorneys, expressed relief that the bitter dispute was finally coming to an end.
Schiavo is "in a peaceful condition. She is in a restful condition. She's under no distress," he told CNN. "She didn't want to be kept alive artificially. She wanted to die with dignity, and she's receiving her wish."
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John Kennedy and Beth Kassab of the Tallahassee bureau contributed to this report.
Je$$e Jacka$$ is a media whore. Where was his concern earlier???
"My feeling is she is still alive. We need to keep trying," Santorum said. "This is about trying to do the right thing for a woman we believe has been wronged by the system."
Thanks for posting, TexKat! Good info.