Terri's Story

Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation ^ | December 3,2006 | Schindler Foundation

[8mmMauser]

Theresa Marie Schindler was born to Robert and Mary Schindler on December 3, 1963. She was the first of three children the Schindlers would have.

Terri was a shy, but comical, child who had an affinity for music, animals and the arts. She kept a small circle of friends and was dear to schoolmates, neighboring families and her own extended family.

Following high school, Terri came into her own. She developed a knack for sketching and doodling. She enjoyed outings with her friends. She was an adoptive mother to the family’s dog, Bucky.

Terri attended Catholic School while growing up and remained close to her faith throughout her life.

In 1983, Terri met Michael Schiavo at Bucks County Community College and the two began dating. He was the first romantic interest Terri had.

The couple was engaged within a few months and married a year later at Terri’s church in Southampton, Pa. She was 21.

In 1986, Terri and Michael relocated to Pinellas County, Florida and her parents followed three months later.

In 1990, at the age of 26, Terri suffered a mysterious cardio-respiratory arrest for which no cause has ever been determined. She was diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy – neurological injury caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. Terri was placed on a ventilator, but was soon able to breathe on her own and maintain vital function. She remained in a severely compromised neurological state and was provided a PEG tube to ensure the safe delivery of nourishment and hydration.

On March 31, 2005, Terri Schindler Schiavo died of marked dehydration following more than 13 days without nutrition or hydration under the order of Circuit Court Judge, George W. Greer of the Pinellas-Pasco’s Sixth Judicial Court. Terri was 41.

[8mmMauser]

Ping to above.

[T'wit]

"Kewl," as the kids say :-) "We will not forget." The world will not forget. Injustice is not forgotten. What happened to Terri stained our fair country and must not happen again.

[8mmMauser]

A new possible entry to the presidential race is one who would have sided with Terri. Could it be Gilmore may rise like a phoenix out of the ashes singed by legend-in-his-own-mind Jimmy Webb?

Were he to run, Mr. Gilmore might find himself frequently hearing the name "Terri Schiavo," despite having no direct role in that controversy. In 1998, Mr. Gilmore intervened in a Virginia case strikingly similar to that of the Florida woman whose case became a national debate in early 2005 and eventually spurred congressional intervention.

After a car accident, Kentucky newscaster Hugh Finn emerged in a persistent vegetative state and was taken to a Manassas nursing home. As in the Schiavo case, the victim's spouse contended that Finn had preferred to die rather than persist in a vegetative state; other members of Finn's family disagreed. A legal battle ensued over the decision to remove the feeding tube. Days before Finn's tube was to be removed, Mr. Gilmore announced that the state would appeal the legal decision authorizing the removal of the feeding tube, contending that that the decision amounted to euthanasia. The Virginia Supreme Court rejected the appeal, and Finn died eight days after the feeding tube was removed.

Gilmore Ponders Joining Crowded Republican Presidential Field

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[8mmMauser]

Haleigh Poutre related...

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley has launched a homicide investigation into the death of a 2-month-old Dracut boy, an alleged victim of shaken baby syndrome who was taken off life support yesterday afternoon.

Snip...

Dracut police said Williams reported that the baby was choking. Doctors at Lowell General Hospital, where the baby was first taken, found the baby to be in respiratory distress, and by Thursday he was declared brain dead at Floating Hospital at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston.

Yesterday, doctors performed surgery to harvest the baby's organs for transplantation, said Coakley. At the time, life support was withdrawn and Liam's death was officially announced by authorities.

"So this is officially a homicide investigation into the cause of death of Liam Garvey," Coakley said at a press conference with officials from the Dracut police.

Snip...

Authorities said they have moved carefully in the past few days in deciding whether to withdraw life support, concerned about the issues that arose in the case of Haleigh Poutre, a victim of alleged child abuse. After taking custody of the comatose girl last fall, DSS moved quickly for a court order to remove her life support.

Four months later, after winning the high court's approval to withdraw life support, DSS officials said they discovered the girl was breathing on her own and was capable of responding to commands.

The 12-year-old girl from Westfield is now at a Brighton rehabilitation hospital in stable condition, her case causing statewide reforms to be enacted on end-of-life cases involving minors in state custody.

Baby's death investigated as homicide, Coakley says

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[8mmMauser]

Thanks, T'wit. Hearing from Mikey's former lawyer, this excerpt...

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How can we change the rules to avoid family feuds faced in the Terry Schiavo Case for 15 years? Let Constance d’Angelis, former attorney for Michael Schiavo, share her first-hand insights and alternative solutions to help families keep the peace.

(PRWEB) December 25, 2006 -- How can we resolve family matters without dragging everyone through painful court battles? How can we change the rules to avoid family feuds faced in the Terri Schiavo Case for 15 years? Let Constance d’Angelis, former attorney for Michael Schiavo, share her first-hand insights and alternative solutions to families keep the peace.

After the first removal of the gastric tube Constance said; “The Schiavo case does not belong in an adversarial, combative and war-like forum. These people are the core of our fabric as a society. They are a family. What have we done?”

1. Why the Court System Doesn’t Work for Family Disputes
2. Alternative Dispute Resolution Practices
3. New Family Collaborative Council

Keep the Family Peace with New Alternative Dispute Resolutions

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[8mmMauser]

Step aside, Tom Tom, iPod, other amazing technological neat things. A new device is upon us, a Living Will transmitter.

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A Ravenna company is announcing a new invention and service that will provide essential medical and legal information to medical providers at the touch of a button.

My Life Plan Inc. has invented a new way to initiate advanced directives such as living wills, power of attorney, organ donations, medical history and other information.

Ruth Skocic of Garrettsville, one of the company's owners, said she used to be a social service coordinator at a nursing facility. Skocic said she became concerned how patients without guardians or advance directives can have problems with emergency medical intervention.

"I just saw the need. It was very hard for me to watch people suffer unnecessarily, and know that there had to be a better way." Skocic said.

Then came the Terri Schiavo case, in which the husband and parents of a comatose patient ended up in a bitter legal battle over what the patient wanted in the way of extreme medical intervention.

Skocic said the situation pushed her to come up with a better solution.

Life Plan improves access to living will

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[8mmMauser]

Thanks, narses. Ping to a thread by rellimpank on a recurring theme, and fascinating perspectives...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Any nurse can walk into a bad situation. The one Luanne Linnard-Palmer can't forget came as she readied a little boy for a blood transfusion only to be told by his mother "You know you're damning his soul to hell!"

The child's mother was a Jehovah's Witness, a faith that rejects blood transfusions. Her son had sickle cell anemia and had become extremely weak.

..........

When faith and medicine collide

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[8mmMauser]

Ping to a thread by NYer. Thanks, narses.

The Pope's Christmas message touched on euthanasia, right to die kill.

On Sunday the pope used his pre-Christmas Angelus blessing to underline the "value of every human life" amid controversy over the death of Italian right-to-die campaigner Piergiorgio Welby.

"The birth of Christ helps us to be aware of what human life is worth, the value of every human life, from his first moment to his natural decline," the pope said.

Welby, who died on Wednesday, had a civil funeral in Rome on Sunday after Italy's Roman Catholic church refused religious rites for the muscular dystrophy victim.

Welby's activism has sparked a debate on euthanasia in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy, where it is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, although patients are legally allowed to refuse care.

Pope celebrates Christmas mass

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[T'wit]

>> After taking custody of the comatose girl last fall, DSS moved quickly for a court order to remove her life support.

I never get over the bureaucratic madness of this one. Here is a little girl who has been horribly abused. She was burned with cigarettes, starved, pushed repeatedly down the stairs and beaten with a baseball bat. Our human sympathies cry out to save her, care for her, make her well. But look at the reaction of the agency charged with protecting children: the bureaucrats went straight to court to KILL her!

They had to be in the cannibal trade, selling human organs for profit.

[pickyourpoison]

"selling human organs for profit"

Human organs are big business..I'd like to hear the doctors
explain why she was misdiagnosed.

Doesn't the Bible say to beware of doctors and lawyers?

[T'wit]

>> Doesn't the Bible say to beware of doctors and lawyers?

Everybody says beware of doctors and lawyers :-) It is the wisdom of experience. Oh, did I mention politicians and tax collectors?

[Dante3]

So many said cases.

[T'wit]

>> I'd like to hear the doctors explain why she was misdiagnosed.

How much was Dr. "Humane Death," Ronald Cranford, paid to misdiagnose Terri Schiavo?

They didn't import Cranford all the way from Minnesota for his expertise. Florida has scads of neurologists. They hired him for one reason -- he always rigged his diagnosis to call for death.

[T'wit]

Oh, swell, automated mercy killing. They should call it "Electronic Nazi."

[floriduh voter]

Merry Christmas, Terri's Legacy listers.

[T'wit]

>> What have we done?”

That's the question we have been asking, Constance. You were on the team that looked at Terri's CTs and decided what CANNOT EVER be determined from CTs, namely, that Terri was in a PVS. You should have divined some coffee grounds and a steaming plate of chicken entrails, to make sure you had a solid lawyerly basis to kill Terri.

[T'wit]

Merry Christmas, FV!

[PhilDragoo]

Made the call that Florida governor shied from like a downed power line.

And almost had the tax cut Virginians wanted until Warner worked his evil.

Obviously Gilmore has too many scruples to succeed in a presidential bid.

Unless a tsunami removes conventional wisdom.

[Saundra Duffy]

In California, the authorities believe that lethal injection for capital punishment is cruel and unusual so they are re-thinking how they do away with murderers. I am going to suggest that they starve and dehydrate them to death. Michael Schiavo and his attorneys - and the court system - apparently think it's the way to go - very "peaceful". Could save the state a lot of money, too.

[bjs1779]

Dracut police said Williams reported that the baby was choking. Doctors at Lowell General Hospital, where the baby was first taken, found the baby to be in respiratory distress, and by Thursday he was declared brain dead at Floating Hospital at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston.

When was the baby brought to the hospital?