Posted on 04/06/2005 5:03:58 AM PDT by johnny7
I spent much of last Thursday trying to sort out my feelings about the death of Terri Schiavo. Had I been her mother I would have done my utmost to preserve my daughter's life, just as Mary Schindler did. I would have fought the doctors and the courts and Terri's husband, Michael. I would have railed and screamed and prayed. To watch your precious daughter die by starvation is far more painful than accepting your own mortality: this is a child you have nurtured and played with and shepherded through the turbulence of teenhood and dressed in a wedding gown.
Had I been her husband, Michael, I would have found it equally painful to watch my beautiful wife descend into a form of torpor and to remain in this state for 15 years. Michael has been vilified for starting a relationship with another woman and having children with her. But for the first years of Terri's hospitalization he did his utmost to seek special therapies for her; he bought her comfortable, stylish clothing so she would look her best; he enrolled in nursing school so he could understand the complexities of her medical care. I can't judge him for entering another relationship. He was a young man; he wanted children. Why he didn't divorce Terri, I don't know. Clearly he still felt responsible for her.
The reasons for Terri's death, however, go beyond the removal of a feeding tube and family and court battles. They go beyond medical ethics and religion. Terri suffered from an eating disorder that led to dangerously low potassium levels that led to cardiac arrest. Her brain was not fed with enough oxygen and this led to severe damage to her cerebral cortex, the seat of reason and emotion. She lapsed into a vegetative state. Her brain could make her heart beat but it couldn't make her sensible to her surroundings. Terri had been an overweight teenager, at one point weighing 250 pounds. Didn't her loving parents worry when they saw their daughter shrink to 110 pounds? Didn't her husband notice she ate very little and purged after meals? Did her family or her friends question her extreme eating habits?
It is likely Terri was complimented by how terrific she looked and this would have encouraged her to continue to deprive her body of food. It is true the bloated features in her high school class picture had been transformed; the bulimia had allowed her to become a delicate beauty. She resembled the young Elizabeth Taylor. Her weight loss was validated, at a horrible cost. Terri Schiavo's case, like that of singer Karen Carpenter who died of anorexia, is an excruciating reminder to parents to be vigilant about their children's eating habits -- even if those children are young adults and tell us to mind our own business. We need to persist in helping them. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, "anorexia and bulimia affect nearly 10 million women and 1 million men (primarily teens and young adults)." That is a huge number of our children.
If Terri's parents or her husband or her family doctor had stopped for a moment and wondered about her swanlike transformation, maybe she never would have suffered that cardiac arrest and lapsed into catatonia. But our society admires thinness -- the Rubenesque Marilyn Monroe likely would be considered too plump these days -- and so some of our children, in the quest to look attractive, may starve themselves. Even to their death. That is what Terri Schiavo's story has communicated so clearly.
So some have said. Others have said other things.
All the blame placing in the world isn't going to cover for what Michael Shaivo and his cohorts did to Terri.
Well of course everybody believes Mike-Terri was in a persistant punch drunkness state, right from their very first lovers quarrel.
I have three daughters. They all have lost some wieght recently and are all around 110. They look great. Do you think I should call an ambulance?
And cause her back to be broken?
Wow, the date on the bone scan in March 5, 1991. I thought it was 2 years later.
Excessive hydration? This I can't believe...I drink iced tea all day long, I also take Green Tea Capsules. Tea has caffeine, which is a diruetic and causes dehydration. Also, tea contains antioxidants (flavonoids), which reduce the risk of heart disease by half, according to studies I have read. I force myself to drink a full glass of water several times a day when I take my meds to insure that I don't get dehydrated.
It has nothing to do with nurses. The rate is approximately six times the rate for females. The same could be said of any group, for example, "Among holders of California driver's licenses, there are 6 times as many males who have committed murder than females." As a former prison medic, I'd like to ask that you please don't smear males in health care. Males have a significantly higher pre-disposition for aggressivess. It has nothing to do with the job. Thanks.
You're the one who brought up this possibility -- obviously you know something the rest of us don't. Will you share with the class and please answer the question, "What makes you think that someone "beat the crap out of her" as opposed to some other likely explanation?
Did she say that? Did others? Did a doctor conclude that? Does CPR count as "beating the crap out of her"?
Please. There must be some fact-based reason for yourr statement, otherwise I'm sure you wouldn't have made it.
Bulimics are not angels? Wow, interesting concept. And sad commentary.
susie
I have three daughters. They all have lost some wieght recently and are all around 110. They look great. Do you think I should call an ambulance?
"Shorten your nomer to just 'Aleck'."
Reading comprehension is a challenge for some. :-)
POTASSIUM: Potassium is essential to humans in that it assists in maintaining a normal heart beat. Potassium also assists nerves and muscles to function. Further, it regulates fluid levels or balance inside of each cell. A deficiency of potassium can lead to irregular heart beat and, generally, body fatigue. 5-6 cups of tea daily can provide as much as 75% of our daily requirements (based on an adult intake of 2000 calories).
So...the tea would not have contributed to the low potassium level, it seems to me that it would have raised it. More likely...IF she had bulimia (note the big IF), it was the vomiting, not the tea intake that caused it. That Ad Litem apparently is not a doctor and should therefore be discounted as to Terri's supposed condition.
Yes but don't let them do CPR on them. It might cause fractures of the spine in two places, both sides of the sacroiliac, both ankles, a femur and several ribs. /s
#41 My understanding is that MS threatened to divorce her if she regained that weight. If she had an eating disorder, he exacerbated it.
This article is designed to attack the Schindler family and their supporters with misinformation.
If her husband hadn't known she was purging herself, then no one would have known it.
I wonder if even that information is true. How do we know that she was bulimic or whatever?
There's a cartoon depicting Janet Reno commenting that since the Davidians were abusing children,(false claim)she decided to wipe all the children out. Similarly, since Terri Schaivo had an eating problem, Michael decided to starve her to death! Life is filled with irony.
Yes.
>> Does CPR count as "beating the crap out of her"?
Not a chance.
All of a sudden your answers are real brief. C'mon. This is breaking news!
So, Terri was assaulted, brones were broken (because a nameless doctor says so) -- more. Gimme more! Let's go!
Who's the doctor? When did he say this (in writing, in court, under oath)? What bones were broken and when?
Who could have done such a thing?
OR, are you just content to spread your rumors and gossip and innuendo then leave the thread? Is that what it is?
I can't understand why he didn't review the case de novo and reexamine rulings about which grave doubts have been raised. If nothing else, the disputed rulings are the ones causing the huge public controversy, so those are the ones that most needed to be investigated fairly and put to rest.
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