By: Bill McGinty
Posted on 03/16/2005 6:50:09 PM PST by BykrBayb
By: Bill McGinty
Supporters like the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the
Christian Defense Coalition say they expect people to
try to enter the Woodside Hospice to “rescue” Terri
Schiavo if her feeding tube is removed. The Pinellas
Park Police has officers stationed in the parking lot
and inside the front doors of the hospice in case those
threats are attempted.
The Florida Legislature is now working on a bill that
Governor Bush says he will sign into law that would
prevent the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.
The bill should be on the floor for debate by mid-
Friday.
Terri Schiavo has been in what doctors call a
persistent vegetative state since she collapsed from a
heart attack in 1990. Terri’s Schiavo’s husband Michael
Schiavo told a local newspaper that Terri would not
want to live this way and that the government should
stay out of family business.
You'd have people flying in from around the world to join THAT line. Could be 10K. Hope it doesn't get that far. They need to get this bill to the governor.
Pictures of him have the same effect. According to some nurses of Terri's, he can be very threatening at 6'6" and uses it. There are depositions of Terri's nurses that are jaw dropping. I'll post this interview.
Carla's story can be found at ProLifeBlogs.com
Terri Schiavo: March 15, 2005
Former Nurse Reveals Terri Schiavo's Capabilities Carla Sauer Iyer, a nurse who cared for Terri Schiavo from April 1995 to July 1996 at Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center was recently interviewed by David Allen. Although we’ve posted several articles in the past based on her affidavits, she revealed a few additional details in the interview that have not been widely reported.
During the period in which she daily cared for Terri there was no publicity. “Just Michael [Terri's husband] trying to accelerate her death,” she said. Iyer explained that she would often sneak Terri’s parents, the Schindlers, into see her and that Michael refused to allow therapy of any kind. In fact, he was physically intimidating and would very loudly command the nurses “this is my order and you're going to follow it.”
“We were very intimidated … the whole place,” Iyer revealed, adding that some nurses had a restraining order against Michael Schiavo because his “behavior was so bad.”
When Terri had a urinary or upper respiratory tract infection Michael was visibly excited and would visit more often, asking “is she dead yet?” According to Iyer, at one point Michael exclaimed, “When is that b**** going to die?”
After Michael’s visits, Iyer stated that Terri, at times, became symptomatic for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Iyer said she found an unexplainable bottle of fast acting insulin concealed in Terri’s wastebasket that she speculates could have been used to induce the condition. She filed a police report but heard nothing further regarding the incident. Subsequently she received death threats she believes were related to notifying the authorities and was later released from her position as a caregiver because of her actions in support of Terri.
The nurses, including Iyer, interacted with Terri and daily witnessed her respond, laugh, and make requests. “We had her at the front of the nurse’s station… everyone loved Terri,” Iyer said.
When asked about the accuracy of the videos available on the internet Iyer said they were realistic but failed to capture Terri’s personality and, if anything, did not represent the extent of Terri’s ability to respond and communicate.
Iyer witnessed Terri consuming pudding and milkshakes every night and has previously testified that she fed Terri Jello. She witnessed Terri responding to her name, following others with her eyes and head and even moving her body with purpose.
In her prior affadavit, Iyer documented Terri's vocabulary:
Terri’s medical condition was systematically distorted and misrepresented. When I worked with her, she was alert and oriented. Terri spoke on a regular basis while in my presence, saying such things as "mommy," and "elp me." "Help me" was, in fact, one of her most frequent utterances. I heard her say it hundreds of times. Terri would try to say the word "pain" when she was in discomfort, but it came out more like "pay." She didn’t say the "n" sound very well. During her menses she would indicate her discomfort by saying "pay" and moving her arms toward her lower abdominal area. Other ways that she would indicate that she was in pain included pursing her lips, grimacing, thrashing in bed, curling her toes or moving her legs around. She would let you know when she had a bowel movement by flipping up the covers and pulling on her diaper.
Certainly this is a story that is not being carried by the mainstream press and has been supressed from judicial decisions. Iyer's testimony brings to light several facts including:
Terri Schiavo is not a "vegetable" and is not "brain dead". She recognizes and responds to others and makes attempts to verbally communicate.
Terri is not on life support but does receive food and water through a removable tube, which experts testify would not even be necessary if she were given therapy. This assisted feeding is a natural means of preserving life and not a medical act of life support or heroic measures.
Twelve medical experts and nurses who cared for her confirmed these facts. Video available through BlogsforTerri.com shows Terri responding and interacting with others. Health care workers have testified under oath that she expresses herself using words, such as "mommy" and "help me".
Terri is a person with disabilities who thinks and expresses her moods and desires. She is loved by her family and responds to their visits with smiles and laughter.
Terri Schiavo may be the victim of ongoing negligence and injustice. She has been denied therapy and rehabilitation by her guardian since 1991. Florida’s guardianship laws REQUIRE that these necessary services be given to her.
Terri Schiavo deserves to have medical tests and therapy. She does not deserve to be starved and dehydrated to death.
The best that may be done here is to memorialize that which can't be finally moralized.
Prolonged debate is a luxury available only to the easily comforted.
FOXNEWS ALERT! Listed under "right-to-die" (not LIVE), Did Donna Fiducia (sp?) just say Terri was brain-dead? I didn't have a recorder going.
May God spare this woman from those who are trying to kill her. I will do what I can to help her. Parayers, phone calls, letters and more prayers...
By reinserting the tube at each feeding? NO.
Those tubes are inserted in a hospital ER special procedures room or OR.
Nursing homes and hospice do NOT withdraw and reinsert the tubes.
It is a surgical procedure. Very minor to be sure and only takes a few minutes, but they cut into the person and insert the tube and then inflate the balloon to secure, then stitch it into place.
Confused patients and caretaker accidents can cause the tube be pulled out, but it is painful, often causing skin tears and has a very high rate of infection. You don't just ram a tube back into them.
Give this a little thought if you don't believe me...Feeding tubes go through the external abdomen into the stomach. Think of the layers of tissue and the potential for infection.
Maybe you are thinking that one of those large syringes (50 mil) that are used to inject the nutritional formulas via the TUBE into the stomach. They are used to pull the fluid out of the stomach via the TUBE to measure how much was absorbed and then that fluid is re-injected (via the TUBE) gross, but that's what they do) and additional nutrition is added (via the TUBE)as needed to maintain calorie or fluid measurements.
The TUBE does not come out. It has a stopcock valve on it to open or close it, but the TUBE is sewn in.
Just as another poster explained to you already.
Read my post 83. I never said the tube was removed at each feeding.
SOmetimes the balloon deflates for some reason. This happened to my Dad a coule of times. He went to the ER one time and then next he replaced it himself. I helped him do it.
It is very important to keep the area where the tube enters the body very clean and dry. My dad would do this two, sometimes three times a day, depending on if there was leakage or not. He had the tube for three years so he was very practiced on its' care and maintenence. I have a lot of experience with it as well since I was his primary caregiver.
For instance, about a year ago I related a very casual story about a 4 year boy who was hit by a car and his (drunk) mother tried to refuse transport to the hospital. The little guy had bruising already on his chest and his vital signs weren't stable.
In order to take this kid to the ER, I had to get a police order to authorize it according to Texas law. Temporary emergency custody.
I got seriously flamed for DAYS on that thread because I "took away the rights of the mother" (legal next of kin) by asking the police to intervene.
But some freepers want to call out the MILITARY against a hospice?
In HUNDREDS of posts, I had maybe 50 different posts that didn't brand me as some sort of liberal who wants government control over every aspect of our lives. I just did what had to be done to give the kid a chance to live. The little boy would have died BTW, if I had not done that. He couldn't have waited much more than 20 minutes longer.
I see a very big difference between asking a police officer, already on the scene take custody of the kid for the 40 minutes I was with him and a National Guard units with guns and tanks. But the flaming I got was some of the most intense you have ever seen on FR.
Finally, "state endorsed executions' as you call it happen every single day, every hour, across the nation.
It's just not fought out so publically or contested as hotly most of the time.
We should be focusing our attention on getting firm resolutions on the existing laws and not keeping the focus on one woman for all these years. Granted, right this minute we don't have a choice. This is an emergency, but should it have been allowed to continue for all this time as an emergency? I don't think so. We should have forced the issue many years ago. Everybody gets fired up, on both sides when a judgement is about to take effect or expire.
This should have been legally resolved how many years ago? 12? 15? Think of how many other Terris have died over all this time that no one mentions.
Sorry to unload all this on you. Please, don't take it personally. It's really not intended to be.
DJ, let me apolgize. That post was supposed to go to don-o.
Actually I got your post and don-o's bit mixed up.
Blinachka, yes, the balloons do tend to deflate over time. I guess stomach acids break it down?
Sorry to all three of you for getting that post sort of tangled up.
Tammy
Ok. I get yelled at all the time. *sniff sniff*
(did the ploy for sympathy work?)
Oh, come on. I'm used to fending off brutally hateful posts from "conservative" libertarians. This is nothing.
But some freepers want to call out the MILITARY against a hospice?
It's really not against the hospice. She just happens to reside there. Neither it is really against the local police who are following orders. It would be correct to say it is against Judge Greer and others who abuse judicial office.
We should be focusing our attention on getting firm resolutions on the existing laws and not keeping the focus on one woman for all these years.
I, too, feel badly for all the other similar victims. But it may take this one woman's very visible struggle to galvanize sides and focus energies so the laws can be changed.
There are some problems at the hospice. Policemen are overzealous and they are taking pics of who's at the prayer vigils but peaceful Terri supporters are threatened if THEY take pics. There's some STUFF going on. There's more but I guess that's enough for now.
It would be correct to say it is against Judge Greer and others who abuse judicial office.
But it may take this one woman's very visible struggle to galvanize sides and focus energies so the laws can be changed.
In three sentences you conveyed what I tried to say in many, many paragraphs!
I really wish I could do that! :-)
LOL!!!
Have a good night! I'm busy building two laptops and need to sign off.
Don't misunderstand I definitely agree with all of you about the evil heart inside of that man. My comments were actually meant to be outside of this particular case.
I would be thrilled if he found himself helplessley staring at an endotracheal tube coming right at him.
Nite!
It's regular police. Pinellas Park police.
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