Posted on 08/29/2003 10:41:03 PM PDT by kimmie7
'Exit protocol' for brain-disabled woman? Husband orders wife removed from hospital despite severe illness
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 29, 2003 6:15 p.m. Eastern
By Sarah Foster © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A five-year legal battle over whether a brain-disabled woman should be allowed to live or forced to die of starvation took another turn today when Michael Schiavo ordered his wife Terri removed from a hospital where she is being treated for a severe infection.
Terri Schindler-Schiavo before her disability.
The move back to a hospice where the Florida woman has lived for more than three years could lead to her death, a family spokeswoman told WorldNetDaily.
"The family is very concerned Terri won't be properly cared for at the hospice and won't make it through the weekend," said Pamela Hennessey.
Terri still is reported to be "extremely congested and at least a bit feverish," Hennessey said.
The Schindler family fears this move is intended as an "exit protocol," with the intention of hastening her death, Hennessey said in a just-issued statement.
"There can't be any way Terri was well enough to leave the hospital," Terri's sister Suzanne Schindler-Carr told Hennessey. "She's still such a very sick girl."
It was the second such crisis in less than two weeks and the most recent development in the on-going battle between Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and their son-in-law that began with his efforts to remove the feeding tube Terri depends upon for sustenance.
Michael Schiavo (Photo: WFLA-TV)
According to documents filed with the court, Terri was transferred Sunday from the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast to the emergency room of Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla., because of vomiting, fever, coughing, and severe diarrhea. Tests revealed lung congestion and an elevated white blood cell count, indicating a "substantial infection."
The Schindler's attorney Patricia Anderson said a federal statute prohibits an institution from discharging a person before they've been stabilized medically. But a patient can always discharge himself against medical advice.
"Since Michael Schiavo is Terri's legal guardian, he can do that, and that's what he's doing," said Anderson.
By order of an appeals court, Judge George Greer of Florida's 6th Circuit Court will hold a hearing Sept. 11 to set a date for removing the feeding tube, which would lead to starvation within 10 to 14 days.
Schiavo's request to order Terri returned to the hospice was faxed to Greer yesterday by his legal representative, right-to-die attorney George Felos, and is the second attempt this week to ensure his wife receives no medical treatment.
The day following her readmission to Morton Plant, Felos filed papers asking the court to order all treatment for Terri stopped "other than comfort care" for her infection and any additional medical problems that might arise.
In an emergency motion faxed Monday afternoon to Greer, Felos argued that since the courts of Florida had approved the removal of her feeding tube, death by starvation was a foregone conclusion and there was no need to intervene.
"Given the imminence of the ward's death, further treatment (other than comfort care) for the ward's infection and other medical problems is unnecessary, unwarranted, inappropriate, and futile," he declared.
He also requested an "immediate hearing" to set the date for removal of Terri's feeding tube.
Judge Greer denied the motion Tuesday, stating such a determination would require a hearing, but endorsed Schiavo's request to return her to the hospice.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the Schindlers have been locked in a decade-long battle with their son-in-law over the care and custody of their daughter, who suffered massive brain damage when she collapsed at their home 13 years ago under unexplained circumstances at the age of 26.
The bitter dispute over Terri's quality of care erupted five years ago into a full-blown euthanasia battle when Schiavo petitioned the court for permission to have her feeding removed, claiming she is in a persistent vegetative state and would not want to be kept alive by "artificially." Although Terri breathes on her own and maintains her own blood pressure, she requires a tube for nourishment and hydration. The Schindlers and a number of doctors and therapists believe that with therapy she could be rehabilitated, but the courts have consistently sided with Schiavo and attorney George Felos.
This current emergency medical crisis was essentially a replay of events two weeks ago when Terri was taken to Morton Plant because she was coughing up blood and appeared to have aspiration pneumonia. She was returned to the hospice less than a week later, before she had fully recovered.
As before, the Schindlers have not been apprised their daughter's condition, despite a 1996 court order in which Schiavo agreed to inform the Schindlers of any changes in his wife's physical condition.
The Schindlers learned about Terri's emergency transfer from the hospice to the hospital Monday morning, hours after the fact. Not until their attorney Patricia Anderson received a fax from George Felos informing her of Terri's sudden crisis did they have any information.
Pamela Hennessey recalled last Monday's events for WorldNetDaily.
"As soon as they heard, her parents went immediately to the hospital and to the admissions section, and the first thing admissions said was there's no one here by that name," said Hennessey.
"Then they did confirm she was there, but did not tell them what room she was in, Hennessey continued. "So the Schindlers had to carry on for at least an hour before they found out where Terri even was. They never got any indication of her condition, diagnosis, prognosis, nothing. And they still haven't. All they know is Terri has a massive infection and fever."
Pat Anderson reports Mary Schindler has been with her daughter every day, all day until 8 p.m., when hospital rules dictate they must leave. Bob Schindler says she holds Terri in her arms, and when they started to leave, Terri's eyes fill with tears.
'Exit protocol'?
Terri's current medical crisis drew the attention of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who said he was "disturbed" by rumors about Schiavo's actions related to Terri's current care. In his letter to Greer Tuesday requesting a delay in removal of Terri's feeding tube until certain issues are investigated, Bush called specific attention to Schiavo's request to disallow treatment.
"It has come to my attention that Mrs. Schiavo has contracted a life-threatening illness and that she may be denied appropriate treatment," the governor wrote. "If true, this indicates a decision by her caregivers to initiate an 'exit protocol' that may include withholding treatment from Mrs. Schiavo until her death, which would render this court's ultimate decision moot."
Bush urged Greer to ensure that "no act of omission or commission be allowed to adversely affect Mrs. Schiavo's health before the September 11th hearing you have set. No one involved should be permitted to circumvent due process or the court's authority in order to achieve personal objectives in this case."
THAT IS COMPLETE AND UTTER BS .. This Judge needs to be brought up on ethic charges IMO!!
Please read about this case .. This Judge has denied her family any rights .. he has denied therapy to imporve he life .. he has denied proper tests to be done .. he has denied given her an independent guardian to look after her best interest
About the only thing he has agreed to is keeping her husband who I might add there are questions about abuse .. to be her legal guardain .. and this Judge has agreed with her husband to disconnect her feeding tube so that she starves to death.
Live well, Felos, lest ye rely on the ill-informed for your right to recover at some future date.
I certainly hope that was sarcasm.....her family has been begging for YEARS for her husband to just divorce her and go -- to let them take care of her and provide her care and he refuses!
Take a good, unbiased, unpessimistic look at the facts in this case and you'll find that something stinks about all this -- and it ain't disinfectent, baby!!!!!!!!!!
This information was not made known to the Schindlers, but the judge and Mike Schiavo's attorney knew that the doctors testimonies were tainted by conflict of interest...
TERRI SCHIAVO TO DIE IN ATTORNEY'S "DEATH FACTORY"? SUNCOAST HOSPICE BOSS WAS GEORGE FELOS...
Shame on Greer, instead; and yes, I do think he wants her dead. Why, I intend to find out...
Felos filed papers asking the court to order all treatment for Terri stopped "other than comfort care" for her infection
Curious.
I didn't know that a "vegetable" could experience discomfort.
Methinks the ghoul has tripped himself in his own words. By acknowledging the need for "comfort care", he has acknowledged the fact that she is capable of suffering.
In other words, he has admitted that she is not in a "persistent vegetative" condition.
http://www.hospicepatients.org/n-valko-terminal-sedation.html
It gave me a terminal case of the creeps.
What is important to note is that in the appropriate use of terminal sedation, the patient is sedated and death ensues from the underlying illness, NOT from the sedation itself! If the patient is sedated and the patient simply dehydrates over several days and dies of circulatory collapse, not the disease process, then the "terminal sedation" is not palliative care, but imposed death: euthanasia. If the patient is truly actively dying, and is then terminally sedated, the patient quite often does not have time to dehydrate, even though fluids are not being given, and the patient dies as a natural result of the terminal illness. The R.N. who called today stated that his hospice's medical director gave an example of a cancer patient without family support who wished to die at home. The medical director stated that in such a case, terminal sedation was appropriate and the patient could be sedated into a coma simply because nobody else was in the home to care for the patient and because the patient did not want to die in a facility. There was no mention of terminal agitation, delirium, severe anxiety related to respiratory problems or psychotic episodes ... in which sedation would be appropriate. In other words, the medical director was asserting that it was "ok" to hasten death intentionally by using terminal sedation. In fact, in the same hospice, a nurse on the hospice's ethics board told the group that they should look themselves in the mirror every morning and tell themselves, "I hasten people's deaths to eliminate their suffering, and that is ok."
from http://www.chninternational.com/terminal_sedation_1.htm
If she isn't brain-dead, and I have read that she is not, it is her family's responsability to have her cared for and in the event that they cannot then it is the State of Florida's responability to do so.
There is a substantial fund existing for the sole purpose of caring for her.
Her "husband" (ahem) will inherit it when she dies.
Cui bono?
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