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OKEECHOBEE(FBW)—Just a few years ago 57-year-old Karen Weber sat around the kitchen table talking about the Terri Schiavo case with her husband, Ray, and her mother, Martha Tatro, 80.
None of the three could have anticipated the chain of events that began in November when Karen Weber had a seizure and then a paralyzing stroke.
Now in a nursing home in Okeechobee, the woman is at the center of a dispute between family members over whether she is competent enough to make her own decisions about basic medical care.
Karen Weber breathes on her own, but the stroke paralyzed her left side, leaving her unable to speak or swallow.
Terri Schiavo is the disabled Florida woman who died in 2005 in a Pinellas Park hospice after a Florida judge ordered her nutrition and hydration cease. It took her 13 days to die. Her husband prevailed in a polarizing court case that reached Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ray Weber, Karen’s husband of 34 years, sought to have her feeding tube removed in March and transferred to hospice. Weber’s mother, who says she is alert and responsive has indicated that she does not wish to go to hospice.
Okeechobee Circuit Court Judge F. Shields McManus in March issued an initial injunction to block the removal of the feeding tube and in May appointed for her an attorney and a committee of three to issue opinions on her competency. The three are: Laura Riley, a Jacksonville neurologist; and two psychologists, Anna Angeline, from Hobe Sound, and Stephen Alexander from West Palm Beach. A competency hearing has yet to be scheduled............
Schiavo-like case in Okeechobee garners interest... Stroke victim indicates she doesn’t want to di
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