Terri responding to her mother in video clip available on terrisfight.org
Posted on 01/05/2005 12:26:07 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
LIFE AND DEATH TUG OF WAR
Surprised lawyer finds
Terri Schiavo alert
1st visit contradicts claims of 'persistent vegetative state'
Despite the widely believed claims of her husband, Terri Schiavo is purposefully interactive, curious and expressive with her parents, according to a surprised lawyer who visited for the first time the brain-damaged Florida woman embroiled in a euthanasia dispute.
Terri responding to her mother in video clip available on terrisfight.org |
After a 45-minute visit Christmas Eve, attorney Barbara Weller concluded Schiavo was so alert that she "should have been gathered around the Christmas dinner table enjoying the holiday with her family."
Weller, along with attorney David Gibbs, took over the lead counsel role in September for Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who are in a protracted legal battle with her husband, Michael Schiavo, to keep their daughter alive.
Gibbs also was present during the Dec. 24 visit.
Not knowing what to expect, Weller said in a narrative posted on the family website she "prepared for the possibility that the Schindlers love their daughter and sister so much that they might imagine behaviors by Terri that aren't actually evident to others."
But she was "very surprised" to find that, "From the moment we entered the room, my impression was that Terri was very purposeful and interactive and she seemed very curious about the presence of obvious strangers in her room."
Noting that Terri was not in bed but dressed and groomed and sitting in a chair without any tubes attached, Weller wrote:
The thing that surprised me the most about Terri as I took my turn to greet her by the side of her chair was how beautiful she is. I would have expected to see someone with a sallow and gray complexion and a sick looking countenance. Instead, I saw a very pretty woman with a peaches and cream complexion and a lovely smile, which she even politely extended to me as I introduced myself to her. I was amazed that someone who had not been outside for so many years and who received such minimal health care could look so beautiful. She appeared to have an inner light radiating from her face. I was truly taken aback by her beauty, particularly under the adverse circumstances in which she has found herself for so many years.
As WorldNetDaily has reported, Terri collapsed in 1990 in the couple's St. Petersburg apartment. For reasons never satisfactorily explained, oxygen to her brain was cut off for several minutes, leaving her unable to talk and dependent on a feeding tube for food and hydration at the age of 26.
In a 2000 trial, Michael Schiavo persuaded Florida probate Judge George Greer that Terri is in a "persistent vegetative state," which in the absence of a written directive, allowed Michael Schiavo to request removal of her feeding tube.
In November, however, Greer ruled the tube cannot be removed until the Schindlers have exhausted all avenues in their quest for a new trial to determine whether or not their daughter would want to be starved to death.
Michael Schiavo insists he simply is carrying out his wife's wishes, but Terri's parents contend Terri is alert, has a strong will to live and could be significantly rehabilitated with aggressive therapy. More than a dozen physicians, therapists and speech pathologists have stepped forward to state agreement with the Schindlers.
The parents also assert Michael Schiavo's interests are conflicted since he has lived with another woman for at least nine years with whom he has had two children.
Weller said that during the visit Dec. 24, "Terri's parents, sister and niece went immediately to greet Terri when we entered the room and stood in turn directly beside her head, stroking her face, kissing her and talking quietly with her.
"When she heard their voices, and particularly her mother's voice, Terri instantly turned her head towards them and smiled," Weller continued. "Terri established eye contact with her family, particularly with her mother, who spent the most time with her during our visit."
Weller said the "whole experience was rather moving."
"Terri definitely has a personality," she said. "Her whole demeanor definitely changes when her mother speaks with her. She lights up and appears to be delighted at the interaction. She has an entirely different reaction to her father who jokes with her and has several standing jokes that he uses when he enters and exits her presence."
Weller said she "never imagined Terri would be so active, curious, and purposeful."
"She watched people intently, obviously was attempting to communicate with each one in various ways and with various facial expressions and sounds," she said. "She was definitely not in a coma, not even close. This visit certainly shed more light for me on why the Schindlers are fighting so hard to protect her, to get her medical care and rehabilitative assistance, and to spend all they have to protect her life."
Court documents and other information are posted on the Schindler family website.
Links to all "Terri briefs" regarding the governor's defense of Terri's Law are on the Florida Supreme Court website, public information.
Thank you for posting, JH ... God Bless Terri and her family. All this time she's endured .. because it is God's wish. Prayers for Terri and her family and for the surrender of her despicable husband to the inevitability of life. BTTT!
More prayers for Terri on their way...
BTTT!
It's because Michael forbids it! He controls who sees her, when, and under what conditions. He will order her to be sedated so she is less responsive before anyone of any authority would be allowed to see her!! I'm sure he would resort to such horrible measures!!
Because Michael refuses to divorce her and give her over to the family...she collapsed under questionable circumstances...it is in his best interest that she never be allowed to be rehabilitated!!
Oh, but it IS perfectly believable! Liberals need no proof and certainly accept no criticism when it comes to their undying commitment to euthanasia and to any of their other unnatural schemes. Anyone who is not a "fully functional" human being/contributing member to society is subject to their crypto-Nazi tests for fitness to live. The liberal has arrogated unto himself the power to define who is and who is not a human being, and, by "God," he is not afraid to exercise that power to its most extreme conclusions. Wesley Clark, former general and presidential candidate, said, "Life begins with a mother's choice." The liberal can concoct and enforce ridiculous laws, regimes and utopian schemes such as affirmative action, hate crime laws, speech codes, etc., to "level the playing field," for example, or to define special rights for "minorities," to enhance the humanity of society's alleged victims while diminishing the humanity of others (the so-called oppressors and ruling class) who are not on their beloved "endangered human species" list. So, why not also define the fitness to live for adult human beings, just as the Nazis did not so very long ago?
Maybe he strangled her?
You said he wont divorce her. I thought it said he remarried.
Is this bum a bigamist?
It's a good thing I'm not Terri's father.
I'd hand that bas**rd his head.
No, she's in a persistant vegetative state and needs to die.
/sarcasm
"It's because Michael forbids it! He controls who sees her, when, and under what conditions. He will order her to be sedated so she is less responsive before anyone of any authority would be allowed to see her!! I'm sure he would resort to such horrible measures!!"
The alternative is to declare Michael legally insane in that he would want to have a young woman legally killed for no other reason then for her to be out of his life.
This would invalidate his claim and allow the family to take custody.
2. Euthanasia
Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.
In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).
EV John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Ping!
No, he's not remarried...he just lives with a fiance who has already given him 2 children! She wants to get married in a Catholic ceremony, and that wont be allowed if he divorces Terri.
Also, think about this...
If he divorces Terri, wouldn't he have to share the marital assets with her? Half of everything he has...including everything he has gotten with their award money!
What a creep this guy is!!
The family has tried to take custody back of Terri...the judge that is over this case is corrupt, and the others are relying on him to make the best decision.
I have followed Terri's case fairly closely and anyone reading some of the more absurd court decisions must suspect that there is diabolical influence at work here.
We rejoice over the influence that the Internet is having, but...
Through the Internet I have known for, I think, at least two years that Terri is alert, and here this lawyer claims to be surprised.
Has he been living in a cave?
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