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Date Posted: Wed, Oct 22, 07:39:01pm
Author: scap
Subject: I wouldn't call it a victory...
In reply to: cheryl 's message, "Terry's execution stayed, new guardian too!!!" on Tue, Oct 21, 03:02:40pm

http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031022_1576.html

Fla. Family Can't Visit Disabled Woman
Family of Disabled Fla. Woman Now Under Treatment by Orders Gov. Jeb Bush Barred From Seeing Her

The Associated Press

CLEARWATER, Fla. Oct. 22 — The family of a disabled woman now under treatment by orders of Gov. Jeb Bush is barred from seeing her because her husband won't allow it, the family's attorney said Tuesday.
Michael Schiavo is Terri Schiavo's official guardian, and can designate who is allowed to see his wife. She had gone without food and water for six days under a court order that allowed her husband to remove the feeding tube that kept her alive for more than a decade.

Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday, acting under a hastily approved law by the Florida Legislature, ordered Terri Schiavo taken to a hospital where doctors could begin the process of rehydrating and eventually feeding her.

Attorneys for parents Bob and Mary Schindler said Terri Schiavo's brother, Bob Schindler Jr., was turned away Tuesday night when he attempted to see his sister. It was not clear what condition Terri Schiavo was in Wednesday morning, about 12 hours after she was moved from a Pinellas Park hospice where she was dying to Morton Plant Hospital in nearby Clearwater.

"They have been told Terri can have no visitors under Michael's order," said Tom Brodersen, a paralegal who is a member of the Schindler's legal team that has waged a years-long court battle to keep Terri Schiavo alive.

George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday morning.

The fight over Terri Schiavo's life took a dramatic twist Tuesday with Bush's intervention in the decade-long legal battle between the Schindlers and their son-in-law.

Michael Schiavo says his wife never wanted to be kept alive artificially and doctors have testified she is in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers dispute she had such wishes and say their daughter has enough functioning ability to laugh, cry and react to them.

Felos called the reinsertion of the tube "an absolute horrible tragedy for Terri Schiavo."

"The governor of the state of Florida does not have the right to trump a patient's personal choice," he said.

Felos said that on Tuesday, Terri was showing signs of massive organ failure and that the reinsertion of the tube is just prolonging her death. He said he did not know her condition Wednesday.

"She was literally absconded from her death bed in the middle of her dying process," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Observers wondered whether the Legislature and the governor overstepped constitutional boundaries by ramming through legislation that overruled the courts.

"It presents a new legal issue that I've never heard of," said former Florida Supreme Court Justice Stephen Grimes.

The feeding tube was removed last Wednesday after a court refused to intervene. Doctors said the 39-year-old woman would die within a week to 10 days without nutrition and water.

On Tuesday, an ambulance took Schiavo from a Pinellas Park hospice to Morton Plant Hospital after Bush issued his order to resume feeding her. A crowd cheered outside as she left. A hospital spokeswoman on Wednesday said she could not release any information on Schiavo.

Hours earlier, the Senate voted 23-15 for legislation to save Schiavo. Within minutes, the House voted 73-24 to send the bill to Bush. The governor signed it into law and issued his order about an hour later.

"It's restored my belief in God," said Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler.

Michael Schiavo, meanwhile, was "deeply troubled, angry and saddened that his wife's wishes have become a political pingpong," Felos said. "He, as many others, is absolutely stunned at the course of events."

Suzanne Carr, the woman's sister, called the lawmakers' action "a miracle, an absolute miracle."

Felos scrambled to try to stop Bush's order. He filed a request for an injunction, but Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer denied it on technical grounds. Felos refiled the request and State Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird also refused to grant it.

"We won. Terri won," her father said after the ruling.

Felos said he believes the legislation is unconstitutional. It is Terri Schiavo's right under the Florida Constitution to not be kept alive artificially, and the courts have affirmed that, he said.

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said the action by Bush and the Legislature "violates the core principles" of a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The court ruled in a Missouri case that Nancy Cruzan, who had been fed through a tube for seven years, could be permitted to die if "clear and convincing evidence" proved that was what she wanted. Her parents had fought for the right to remove the tube.

Schiavo never signed a living will, which lets people exercise their right to die should they become comatose. But her husband says she told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially; her parents said she never told them of the wish.

"I've never seen a case in which the state legislature treats someone's life as a political football in quite the way this is being done," said Tribe.

Felos will have five days to file additional arguments with the judge and the state will have five days after that to respond. The judge will then hold another hearing.

"It is simply inhumane and barbaric to interrupt her death process," Felos said. "Just because Terri Schiavo is not conscious doesn't mean she doesn't have dignity."

Court-appointed doctors have described Schiavo as being in a vegetative state, caused when her heart stopped in 1990 from a suspected chemical imbalance.

(if a husband tried to prohibit a brain-undamaged wife from seeing her parents, he would've been arrested for domestic abuse...hmmm, false imprisonment and possibly kidnapping, NO??)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/10/22/coma.woman/index.html
Terri Schiavo's husband grants her parents visitation rights
Wednesday, October 22, 2003 Posted: 9:11 PM EDT (0111 GMT)

An ambulance returned Terri Schiavo to hospice care in Florida on Wednesday evening.

PINELLAS PARK, Florida (CNN) -- The husband of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a Florida right-to-die controversy, dropped his objections Wednesday to letting her parents visit her, attorneys said.

It was not immediately clear when Bob and Mary Schindler and Terri's siblings would be allowed to visit. They will not be entitled to updates on her medical condition.

Terri was moved late Tuesday to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater after Gov. Jeb Bush ordered her feeding tube reinserted. Throughout Wednesday, she was being rehydrated intravenously in preparation for reinsertion of the feeding tube.

The parents and Terri's husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, have been at the center of a lengthy and contentious battle over whether Terri should be kept alive indefinitely in a persistent vegetative state with the feeding tube, as the parents want, or allowed to die, as the husband wants. A court ruled that the tube could be removed last week, but the state Legislature quickly passed a law giving the governor the right to intervene.

In another development, David Demeres, the chief judge of Pinellas County Circuit Court, ordered lawyers for both sides to reach an agreement within five days to designate an independent guardian for Terri, as required under the law signed by the governor.

The new guardian would become Terri Schiavo's advocate in legal proceedings, but Michael Schiavo would remain the decision-maker.

If an agreement cannot be reached, Demeres said, he will appoint Dr. Jay Wolfson, a professor of health and law at Stetson University, as the guardian. Wolfson also works for the College of Public Health at Florida State University and the College of Medicine at the University of South Florida.

The law passed by the state Legislature Tuesday and quickly signed by Bush authorized the governor to issue an executive order reinserting the feeding tube and said a "guardian ad litem" should be appointed to the case.

A guardian ad litem is a person appointed by the court to represent the best interests of one or more children in a court action that may affect them. "Ad litem" is Latin for "for this litigation."

Schiavo's lawyer: New law is unconstitutional
Also Wednesday, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo said the new law allowing Bush to order her feeding tube reinserted is unconstitutional.

A circuit court judge in Pinellas County Tuesday rejected a request for an emergency injunction filed by Schiavo's husband Michael which would have prevented the re-feeding of his wife, but the judge did give attorneys five days to file paperwork for a permanent injunction.

"Each of us -- and the Florida Supreme Court has said this -- has a right to control our own body," said George Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo. "We have a fundamental right to make our own medical treatment choices, and the state doesn't have a right to override our wishes."

Felos also said Terri Schiavo cannot recover, despite her family's assertions.

"If you look at a brain scan of Terri, where her cerebral cortex used to be is a black hole filled with spinal fluid," he said. "There is simply no hope of recovery for Terri."

But Bob Schindler insisted Wednesday his daughter is "alert, active, a live human being" and said videotapes that showed her condition moved Bush to act on her behalf.

Terri Schiavo
"We have close to 15 doctors who are on record with the courts saying she can improve and will improve," Schindler said.

Bush ordered Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted Tuesday evening after the Florida Legislature rushed through a bill giving him the power to keep her alive over her husband's objections. But Felos said Bush's order may have harmed Schiavo.

"Terri was almost a week into her death process," Felos said. "The doctors have said that introducing hydration and nutrition artificially, she may have already suffered massive organ failure and kidney damage. What this may have done is just prolonged her death process."

Doctors said last week Schiavo would have died within two weeks without the tube, which provided her with nutrition and hydration for more than a dozen years.

Father: 'She's never had a chance'
Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when she collapsed from heart failure. She recovered from the heart attack, but oxygen was cut off to her brain, leaving her in what doctors call a "persistent vegetative state." She is responsive to stimuli, doctors have said, but has no significant brain function and cannot feed herself.

In a statement issued after he signed the bill and ordered restoration of the feeding tube, Bush said he was moved by the case.

"Like the tens of thousands of Floridians who have raised their voices in support of Terri Schiavo's right to live, I have been deeply moved by these tragic circumstances," Bush's statement read. "My thoughts and prayers remain with Terri and those who love her."

Schiavo, who was being cared for at a hospice in Pinellas Park, was moved by ambulance to Morton Plant Hospital in nearby Clearwater. An attorney for Schiavo's parents, Pat Anderson, said she was told Schiavo was being rehydrated intravenously in preparation for reinsertion of the feeding tube. When the tube will be reinserted is not immediately known.

Felos said when a court ruled recently that her feeding tube could be removed it was on the basis of Terri Schiavo's own wishes not to be kept alive by artificial means. He said Terri Schiavo told her husband, "I never want to be kept alive artificially."

But Bob Schindler told CNN that he has affidavits from doctors saying she can recover with therapy.

"We've been fighting for the right thing, which is to give her a chance," Schindler said. "She's never had a chance, and that's the most despicable part of this. She was literally shelved. She has not been out of this room over here in the hospice for three years."

Michael Schiavo, who has one child with his long-time girlfriend, is his wife's legal guardian. Bushnell said the appointment of an additional guardian would not mean that he would be replaced as guardian.

The parents have accused Michael Schiavo of being motivated by selfish reasons. Michael Schiavo won $1.2 million in a malpractice case against his wife's gynecologist and another $250,000 in a settlement with her general practitioner.

Most of that money was to go toward her treatment. In addition, he received $300,000 for pain and suffering and loss of consortium.

The husband has declined to comment on whether there is an outstanding life insurance policy on his wife.

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Replies:

Disabled Are Fearful: Who Will Be Next? -- scap, Thu, Oct 30, 02:57:26pm

Victims .... -- cheryl, Fri, Oct 31, 06:00:59am

Re: Victims ....and profiteers -- scap, Fri, Oct 31, 12:33:38pm
- "Healthcare Financing Specialist" to "independently" decide if Terri should be allowed to live -- scap, Fri, Oct 31, 05:50:56pm

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>http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031022_1576.html > >Fla. Family Can't Visit Disabled Woman >Family of Disabled Fla. Woman Now Under Treatment by >Orders Gov. Jeb Bush Barred From Seeing Her > >The Associated Press > >CLEARWATER, Fla. Oct. 22 — The family of a disabled >woman now under treatment by orders of Gov. Jeb Bush >is barred from seeing her because her husband won't >allow it, the family's attorney said Tuesday. >Michael Schiavo is Terri Schiavo's official guardian, >and can designate who is allowed to see his wife. She >had gone without food and water for six days under a >court order that allowed her husband to remove the >feeding tube that kept her alive for more than a >decade. > >Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday, acting under a hastily >approved law by the Florida Legislature, ordered Terri >Schiavo taken to a hospital where doctors could begin >the process of rehydrating and eventually feeding her. > >Attorneys for parents Bob and Mary Schindler said >Terri Schiavo's brother, Bob Schindler Jr., was turned >away Tuesday night when he attempted to see his >sister. It was not clear what condition Terri Schiavo >was in Wednesday morning, about 12 hours after she was >moved from a Pinellas Park hospice where she was dying >to Morton Plant Hospital in nearby Clearwater. > >"They have been told Terri can have no visitors under >Michael's order," said Tom Brodersen, a paralegal who >is a member of the Schindler's legal team that has >waged a years-long court battle to keep Terri Schiavo >alive. > >George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, did >not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday >morning. > >The fight over Terri Schiavo's life took a dramatic >twist Tuesday with Bush's intervention in the >decade-long legal battle between the Schindlers and >their son-in-law. > >Michael Schiavo says his wife never wanted to be kept >alive artificially and doctors have testified she is >in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers >dispute she had such wishes and say their daughter has >enough functioning ability to laugh, cry and react to >them. > >Felos called the reinsertion of the tube "an absolute >horrible tragedy for Terri Schiavo." > >"The governor of the state of Florida does not have >the right to trump a patient's personal choice," he >said. > >Felos said that on Tuesday, Terri was showing signs of >massive organ failure and that the reinsertion of the >tube is just prolonging her death. He said he did not >know her condition Wednesday. > >"She was literally absconded from her death bed in the >middle of her dying process," he told ABC's "Good >Morning America." > >Observers wondered whether the Legislature and the >governor overstepped constitutional boundaries by >ramming through legislation that overruled the courts. > >"It presents a new legal issue that I've never heard >of," said former Florida Supreme Court Justice Stephen >Grimes. > >The feeding tube was removed last Wednesday after a >court refused to intervene. Doctors said the >39-year-old woman would die within a week to 10 days >without nutrition and water. > >On Tuesday, an ambulance took Schiavo from a Pinellas >Park hospice to Morton Plant Hospital after Bush >issued his order to resume feeding her. A crowd >cheered outside as she left. A hospital spokeswoman on >Wednesday said she could not release any information >on Schiavo. > >Hours earlier, the Senate voted 23-15 for legislation >to save Schiavo. Within minutes, the House voted 73-24 >to send the bill to Bush. The governor signed it into >law and issued his order about an hour later. > >"It's restored my belief in God," said Schiavo's >father, Bob Schindler. > >Michael Schiavo, meanwhile, was "deeply troubled, >angry and saddened that his wife's wishes have become >a political pingpong," Felos said. "He, as many >others, is absolutely stunned at the course of events." > >Suzanne Carr, the woman's sister, called the >lawmakers' action "a miracle, an absolute miracle." > >Felos scrambled to try to stop Bush's order. He filed >a request for an injunction, but Pinellas Circuit >Court Judge George Greer denied it on technical >grounds. Felos refiled the request and State Circuit >Judge W. Douglas Baird also refused to grant it. > >"We won. Terri won," her father said after the ruling. > >Felos said he believes the legislation is >unconstitutional. It is Terri Schiavo's right under >the Florida Constitution to not be kept alive >artificially, and the courts have affirmed that, he >said. > >Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said the action >by Bush and the Legislature "violates the core >principles" of a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision. > >The court ruled in a Missouri case that Nancy Cruzan, >who had been fed through a tube for seven years, could >be permitted to die if "clear and convincing evidence" >proved that was what she wanted. Her parents had >fought for the right to remove the tube. > >Schiavo never signed a living will, which lets people >exercise their right to die should they become >comatose. But her husband says she told him she would >never want to be kept alive artificially; her parents >said she never told them of the wish. > >"I've never seen a case in which the state legislature >treats someone's life as a political football in quite >the way this is being done," said Tribe. > >Felos will have five days to file additional arguments >with the judge and the state will have five days after >that to respond. The judge will then hold another >hearing. > >"It is simply inhumane and barbaric to interrupt her >death process," Felos said. "Just because Terri >Schiavo is not conscious doesn't mean she doesn't have >dignity." > >Court-appointed doctors have described Schiavo as >being in a vegetative state, caused when her heart >stopped in 1990 from a suspected chemical imbalance. > >(if a husband tried to prohibit a brain-undamaged wife >from seeing her parents, he would've been arrested for >domestic abuse...hmmm, false imprisonment and possibly >kidnapping, NO??) > >http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/10/22/coma.woman/index.html > Terri Schiavo's husband grants her parents visitation >rights >Wednesday, October 22, 2003 Posted: 9:11 PM EDT (0111 >GMT) > >An ambulance returned Terri Schiavo to hospice care in >Florida on Wednesday evening. > >PINELLAS PARK, Florida (CNN) -- The husband of Terri >Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a >Florida right-to-die controversy, dropped his >objections Wednesday to letting her parents visit her, >attorneys said. > >It was not immediately clear when Bob and Mary >Schindler and Terri's siblings would be allowed to >visit. They will not be entitled to updates on her >medical condition. > >Terri was moved late Tuesday to Morton Plant Hospital >in Clearwater after Gov. Jeb Bush ordered her feeding >tube reinserted. Throughout Wednesday, she was being >rehydrated intravenously in preparation for >reinsertion of the feeding tube. > >The parents and Terri's husband and legal guardian, >Michael Schiavo, have been at the center of a lengthy >and contentious battle over whether Terri should be >kept alive indefinitely in a persistent vegetative >state with the feeding tube, as the parents want, or >allowed to die, as the husband wants. A court ruled >that the tube could be removed last week, but the >state Legislature quickly passed a law giving the >governor the right to intervene. > >In another development, David Demeres, the chief judge >of Pinellas County Circuit Court, ordered lawyers for >both sides to reach an agreement within five days to >designate an independent guardian for Terri, as >required under the law signed by the governor. > >The new guardian would become Terri Schiavo's advocate >in legal proceedings, but Michael Schiavo would remain >the decision-maker. > >If an agreement cannot be reached, Demeres said, he >will appoint Dr. Jay Wolfson, a professor of health >and law at Stetson University, as the guardian. >Wolfson also works for the College of Public Health at >Florida State University and the College of Medicine >at the University of South Florida. > >The law passed by the state Legislature Tuesday and >quickly signed by Bush authorized the governor to >issue an executive order reinserting the feeding tube >and said a "guardian ad litem" should be appointed to >the case. > >A guardian ad litem is a person appointed by the court >to represent the best interests of one or more >children in a court action that may affect them. "Ad >litem" is Latin for "for this litigation." > >Schiavo's lawyer: New law is unconstitutional >Also Wednesday, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo said the >new law allowing Bush to order her feeding tube >reinserted is unconstitutional. > >A circuit court judge in Pinellas County Tuesday >rejected a request for an emergency injunction filed >by Schiavo's husband Michael which would have >prevented the re-feeding of his wife, but the judge >did give attorneys five days to file paperwork for a >permanent injunction. > >"Each of us -- and the Florida Supreme Court has said >this -- has a right to control our own body," said >George Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo. "We have >a fundamental right to make our own medical treatment >choices, and the state doesn't have a right to >override our wishes." > >Felos also said Terri Schiavo cannot recover, despite >her family's assertions. > >"If you look at a brain scan of Terri, where her >cerebral cortex used to be is a black hole filled with >spinal fluid," he said. "There is simply no hope of >recovery for Terri." > >But Bob Schindler insisted Wednesday his daughter is >"alert, active, a live human being" and said >videotapes that showed her condition moved Bush to act >on her behalf. > >Terri Schiavo >"We have close to 15 doctors who are on record with >the courts saying she can improve and will improve," >Schindler said. > >Bush ordered Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted Tuesday >evening after the Florida Legislature rushed through a >bill giving him the power to keep her alive over her >husband's objections. But Felos said Bush's order may >have harmed Schiavo. > >"Terri was almost a week into her death process," >Felos said. "The doctors have said that introducing >hydration and nutrition artificially, she may have >already suffered massive organ failure and kidney >damage. What this may have done is just prolonged her >death process." > >Doctors said last week Schiavo would have died within >two weeks without the tube, which provided her with >nutrition and hydration for more than a dozen years. > >Father: 'She's never had a chance' >Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when she >collapsed from heart failure. She recovered from the >heart attack, but oxygen was cut off to her brain, >leaving her in what doctors call a "persistent >vegetative state." She is responsive to stimuli, >doctors have said, but has no significant brain >function and cannot feed herself. > >In a statement issued after he signed the bill and >ordered restoration of the feeding tube, Bush said he >was moved by the case. > >"Like the tens of thousands of Floridians who have >raised their voices in support of Terri Schiavo's >right to live, I have been deeply moved by these >tragic circumstances," Bush's statement read. "My >thoughts and prayers remain with Terri and those who >love her." > >Schiavo, who was being cared for at a hospice in >Pinellas Park, was moved by ambulance to Morton Plant >Hospital in nearby Clearwater. An attorney for >Schiavo's parents, Pat Anderson, said she was told >Schiavo was being rehydrated intravenously in >preparation for reinsertion of the feeding tube. When >the tube will be reinserted is not immediately known. > >Felos said when a court ruled recently that her >feeding tube could be removed it was on the basis of >Terri Schiavo's own wishes not to be kept alive by >artificial means. He said Terri Schiavo told her >husband, "I never want to be kept alive artificially." > >But Bob Schindler told CNN that he has affidavits from >doctors saying she can recover with therapy. > >"We've been fighting for the right thing, which is to >give her a chance," Schindler said. "She's never had a >chance, and that's the most despicable part of this. >She was literally shelved. She has not been out of >this room over here in the hospice for three years." > >Michael Schiavo, who has one child with his long-time >girlfriend, is his wife's legal guardian. Bushnell >said the appointment of an additional guardian would >not mean that he would be replaced as guardian. > >The parents have accused Michael Schiavo of being >motivated by selfish reasons. Michael Schiavo won $1.2 >million in a malpractice case against his wife's >gynecologist and another $250,000 in a settlement with >her general practitioner. > >Most of that money was to go toward her treatment. In >addition, he received $300,000 for pain and suffering >and loss of consortium. > >The husband has declined to comment on whether there >is an outstanding life insurance policy on his wife.
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