On WFLA Tampa now - Terri Schiavo review is denied

WFLA | August 22, 2003 | WFLA

[ican'tbelieveit]

I am going to get in trouble for this, but I disagree with you guys on this. For one thing the husband is her next of kin. Secondly, what is wrong with humanely letting someone go in her state?

I watched my brother take his wife off of life support after 2 years of grueling cancer treatment. Yes, we could have kept on going and trying to keep her alive, but if you would have seen what condition she was in, there was no other choice. Within 30 seconds of pulling her off of the ventilator, she passed on. She is now in heaven, no more suffering.

On the other side of the coin, her family would not have allowed my brother to pursue any medical treatment for her at all, if they had the choice to make. They were of a religious sect that believes you will be cured by God if you have asked for forgiveness for all of your sins. If you are not being cured, you must be holding on to something.

[I still care]

She is not in a coma. She responds. She is aware of many things.

Her husband constantly denies medical treatment for her, such as antibiotics, hoping she will die.

He has never allowed her to have any kind of therapy, and works hard to keep stimulation at a minimum for her, so she will not recover at all. The family has had many doctors in who feel she will substantially improve with therapy, he will not allow it.

This is not just pulling the plug on an unconscious woman on a machine. She breathes on her own. She is not in pain.

The husband is living with another woman and has a child by her. The parents are fixated on trying to help their daughter, and he is fixated on putting her in her grave.

The question is, if her mother and father see their daughter as precious, and want to spend resources, money and time, loving and caring for her, why does he want her dead SO badly?

[dandelion]

Synopsis HERE - http://becki-snow.blogspot.com/

[CONSERVE]

It seems alot of people are afraid to look on the links to see exactly what is going on here.
I think anyone who saw the videos would know this woman is not in a coma.
That and the lack of rehabilative care she has been denied by her husband
although he has the money for this I think would change alot of minds.

[Damocles]

I'm hoping you're speaking from ignorance (curable) and not stupidity (terminal).

This case has more twists than an anabolic pretzel and BTW she is not in a "coma". Check out this amazing video here.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Thank you for that additional information. Does the husband have life insurance on his wife?

[dandelion]

She's not comatose - she tries to talk to her mother, she breathes on her own, and she smiles when people she knows walk in the door. She is a living, breathing human being who only needs help being fed because they FORCED her to use a feeding tube - and now they will starve her to death because they say she can't feed herself.

If "unable to feed self" is the new determining factor for coma, then Christopher Reeves, babies, and all pets are in comas, too...

[CONSERVE]

she was awarded a big settlement for malpractice that was to be used for her care that he hasn't used.
When she dies he gets it all.

[Teacher317]

what is wrong with humanely letting someone go in her state

What, exactly, IS her "state"? It certainly seems to differ according to the person you ask. The fact that the court won't even review the case is troubling in and of itself. If (big if, of course) this is indeed an attempted murder, with the help of the state authority, who exactly would prosecute it?

[ican'tbelieveit]

Which court denied the request of the parents? They can always appeal to a higher court.

[nina0113]

It's not a question of "letting her go" - she's not on a ventilator. It's a question of deliberately refusing to feed an aware and responsive woman who is too disabled to hold a spoon to feed herself.

It's going to take a couple of weeks for her to starve to death, because she is in reasonable physical health. Of course, she'll die of thirst first, as the nurses and staff stand around watching. I wonder if they'll bother to avoid eye contact.

[I still care]

I think this is a different situation than your sister in law. Cancer is a terminal, progressive disease. This is from a one time injury.Therapy has actually been withheld from this woman to prevent her from improving.

I saw this done in a hospital once to an elderly woman. The nurses were all upset. She had a stroke, but with a feeding tube was starting to improve. She smiled and tried to talk to you.

Her doctor told us he actually prescribed too thick a mixture to go down the tube, so it would have to have it pulled. He did this on the instructions of the family. The nurses hated him behind his back, but it was all legally done.

After a few days she grew weaker and died. The head nurse cried when she died, from frustration. She said to me, "She could have gotten better, but they didn't want her to."

She left quite a bit of money to her family.

[nuffsenuff]

What the hell is wrong with the Florida Supreme Court?

I don't know the details of what's going on, but if this woman can respond to other people, starving her to death is murder.

I mean, where are the doctor's? Isn't this against the Hipocratic (sp?) oath?

[CONSERVE]

Hit the link in post # 10 it will explain it all.

[nickcarraway]

This is horrible.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[dandelion]

What would happen if we marched on the hospital? Why can't we do a sit-in and demonstrate when they try to kill her? There has to be some sort of response that will get their attention...

[jmc813]

What was the movie where that black guy holds a hospital hostage until they treat his son? I wouldn't mind seeing something like this happen here.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Your arguments are rational. First of all, not all cancers are terminal. Secondly, lots of people die from one time injuries.

But, saying that, I am not saying what this man is doing is right. Please remember when people post, they may not know all the little details. I did not. I just saw lots of people slamming a husband.

[ican'tbelieveit]

That should be: your arguments are not rational.