Schiavo Passes

booker · 03-31-2005, 09:34

U.S. National - AP

Schiavo Dies 13 Days After Tube Removed

16 minutes ago U.S. National - AP

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose 15 years connected to a feeding tube sparked an epic legal battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died Thursday, 13 days after the tube was removed. She was 41.

Schiavo died at the Pinellas Park hospice where she lay for years while her husband and her parents fought over her fate in the nation's longest, most bitter right-to-die dispute.

Her death was confirmed to The Associated Press by Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, and announced to reporters outside her hospice by a family adviser.

Brother Paul O'Donnell, an adviser to Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, said the parents and their two other children "were denied access at the moment of her death. They've been requesting, as you know, for the last hour to try to be in there and they were denied access by Michael Schiavo. They are in there now, praying at her bedside."

Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 after her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance that was believed to have been brought on an eating disorder. Court-appointed doctors ruled she was in a persistent vegetative state, with no real consciousness or chance of recovery.

The feeding tube was removed with a judge's approval March 18 after Michael Schiavo argued that his wife told him long ago she would not want to be kept alive artificially. His in-laws disputed that, and argued that she could get better with treatment.

During the seven-year legal battle, Florida lawmakers, Congress and President Bush tried to intervene on behalf of her parents, but state and federal courts at all levels repeatedly ruled in favor of her husband.

After the tube that supplied a nutrient solution was disconnected, protesters streamed into Pinellas Park to keep vigil outside her hospice, with many arrested as they tried to bring her food and water. The Vatican likened the removal of her feeding tube to capital punishment for an innocent woman.

The Schindlers pleaded for their daughter's life, calling the removal of the tube "judicial homicide."

RIP

**The Reaper** · 03-31-2005, 09:50

RIP.

TR

vsvo · 03-31-2005, 10:50

Rip

**Roguish Lawyer** · 03-31-2005, 11:28

I really couldn't care less. My God, do you know how much good TV was displaced by stupid updates on her condition? RIP, but I cannot understand why anyone other than the family members thought this was any of their business.

NousDefionsDoc · 03-31-2005, 11:30

13 days. Bad way to go.

Rest in Peace.

lrd · 03-31-2005, 11:33

Rest in Peace.

rubberneck · 03-31-2005, 11:48

May she finally find peace.

I could really care less.

Not to be a smartass or a member of the grammer police, but that sentence is incorrect. The way you wrote it means that you could indeed care less about her and her condidition implying that you care on some level. If you meant that you didn't care at all it should be "I couldn't care less....".

**Peregrino** · 03-31-2005, 11:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer

I could really care less. My God, do you know how much good TV was displaced by stupid updates on her condition? RIP, but I cannot understand why anyone other than the family members thought this was any of their business.

Finally, 14 years after it should have happened, in a public spectacle that has me condemning ALL of the players. May she finally rest in peace. I do have to disagree with the TV comment though. Broadcast TV hasn't had anything worth watching in MANY years so I can't say this media circus interrupted anything of value. Just my .02 - Peregrino

**Roguish Lawyer** · 03-31-2005, 11:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubberneck

May she finally find peace.

I could really care less.

Not to be a smartass or a member of the grammer police, but that sentence is incorrect. The way you wrote it means that you could indeed care less about her and her condidition implying that you care on some level. If you meant that you didn't care at all it should be "I couldn't care less....".

I am guilty. Nice work.

booker · 03-31-2005, 13:34

have to agree with RL and Peregrino, thousands of people across the country may be in similar situations, yet there is no media coverage. In the end, she would have been best served if the media had kept their noses out of it...

Archangel · 03-31-2005, 15:19

I felt sorry for Terri. She was a beautiful woman before the stroke. May her soul rest in peace.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...oman_ny115.jpg

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...oman_ny114.jpg

It's crazy how the media can twist & turn the story around to make one party seem as if they are the bad guys in a the story. In this case, they made her husband out to be the bad guy throughout this circus.

However, they did not point out some crutial facts like how he turned down several multi-million dollar offers to relinquish all of his rights & turn Terri over to her parents. Also, how he refused to divorce her (eventhough he has children from another woman) because again, he did not want to turn Terri's fate over to her parents. In my mind, eventhough he moved on with his own life when she was brain-damaged, he stayed true to his promise to her as a husband to honor her wish that she would not have wanted to be kept alive under those circimstances.

Heartbreaking story...

jatx · 03-31-2005, 17:03

It was stories like this one that led me to stop watching TV years ago. While the country has been obsessing about Ms. Schiavo, I have been reading Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Wind, Sand and Stars in the evenings.

Gypsy · 03-31-2005, 19:02

May she rest in peace...and her truth somehow be known, what ever it was.

I personally did find it rather selfish that the husband asked her family to leave before she passed.

Pandora · 03-31-2005, 20:23

I understand the sentiment, Gypsy.

Nonetheless, any decision made by any one at all that made Terri's passing a quiet, dignified journey home without recriminations and dramatics was a good decision.

RIP

Gypsy · 04-02-2005, 14:14

Things that make you go hmmm. She's gone...her body is cremated as of this morning. I still hope her truth comes out. And I think Greer needs to recuse himself.

Saturday, April 2, 2005 10:38 a.m. EST

Agency Had 89 Abuse Reports on Schiavo

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...2/123129.shtml

Florida's Department of Children and Families had received nearly 90 allegations that Michael Schiavo had abused his wife in recent years - but a Florida judge ruled yesterday that DCF summaries of those allegations must remain secret.

The St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune had filed suit for the release of the abuse summaries, which covered 89 reports - the Times said Friday.

But state Judge George Greer ruled Friday the records belong to DCF, and although Terri Schiavo's husband can have access to the abuse files, the records cannot be made public, The Associated Press reported.
During a hearing Thursday, just hours after Terri Schiavo died, DCF attorney Jennifer Lima-Smith asked Greer to keep its records sealed, saying, "It's time to end this case."

Just a few weeks ago, however, the agency was pressing for a full-blown abuse probe.

In the petition filed with Greer's court in early March, the DCF asked him not to remove Schiavo's feeding tube until the agency could investigate 34 pages of materials documenting allegations of abuse, the Orlando Sentinel reported at the time.

The DCF petition said the materials were sent to its abuse hotline on Feb. 18 and Feb. 21, and by law, the agency had to conduct an investigation.

"The allegations in the abuse reports go to the heart of whether abuse, neglect and/or exploitation has been perpetrated by the guardian [Michael Schiavo]," the DCF's 10-page petition said, according to the Sentinel.

The allegations were based partly on bone scans showing Terri Schiavo suffered fractures, as well as statements she made to family and friends that she was unhappy in her marriage, the AP reported Friday.

Responding to allegations of abuse in 1992, Michael Schiavo told the Tampa Tribune: "I've never, ever struck a woman, especially my wife. I was raised better than that."

He called the abuse allegations "utterly ridiculous," suggesting instead that Terri's injuries may have been caused during physical therapy sessions.