Terri Schiavo - so sad :(

[KYS]

When my Aunt and I saw her on T.V. and saw her moving,
we thought how could they remove her feeding tube?
How could they let her starve to death? How inhumane.


Then after listening to Dr.'s on the news etc.
we started to understand.
Neurological tests and brain scans indicate that her cerebral cortex is now principally liquid.

Removing the feeding tube will not be painfull to her because she can feel nothing.

The law in effect of removing a feeding tube
has been in effect for 20 years,
approved and in full support by the medical field
etc.
My immediate family has a living will.
One of my sisters drew one up for me about 5 years ago
and I left it with the hospital I go to and one with my sister.
My X-husband never had a living will, but told me under no
circumstance would he ever want to be kept alive
by a machine.

I can truely understand how the parents feel not
wanting to let go of their daughter.
But if this was truely Terri's wish
not to be kept alive this way, I can understand
her husband. I do not distrust her husband
nor her parants.
I think both want what is best for her in their hearts.

So any law that might be changed because of this
case might end up effecting all of us who
do not want to be kept alive by a machine
or any other method.

Read the next post. She does not feel pain.
This is not reversable.

[KYS]

It was hard for me to look at Terri moving and understand
what is really going on. I am certainly no medical expert.
This article might help us all understand a little what the
husband feels.


Parts of an article from St. Pettersburg Times Tampa Bay:
It had compared Terri's case with other cases.
Brain scans show that parts of Schiavo's brain have atrophied and been replaced by spinal fluid. With such severe damage, Schiavo can't show the recovery that Scantlin has, said Dr. Michael Pulley, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville.

"Those types of changes don't reverse," Pulley said. "If you lose big pieces of brain, regardless of what it is - trauma, stroke, surgery - it doesn't come back."

The only documented case of someone recovering from a permanent vegetative state came in the early 1980s, said Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurology professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School who has examined Schiavo.

And in that case, the patient's scan showed no brain atrophy, Cranford said. "The one thing we learned from that, you look at shrinkage of the brain," he said. "Terri has massive shrinkage."

Schiavo also has more severe brain damage than two patients in a New York study published this month, Cranford said. In that study, the patients diagnosed as minimally conscious showed increased brain activity when they heard audiotapes of loved ones' voices.

Cranford said it's hard for people without neurological training to accept that people in a vegetative state can't recover and aren't aware of their surroundings. They sleep. They wake. They grimace.

"It's very hard, because when you look at Terri Schiavo, you can think she's interacting, but she's not," he said. "When you have loving, caring parents like the Schindlers, you just want to deny they're in a vegetative state. It's a terrible syndrome."

- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press, Kansas City Star, New York Daily News and People magazine.

[Tonya]

I have such a hard time with this. I would never want to see anyone live like that. But on the same line, I would never want to see someone starve to death. For a situation like this, I wish that assisted suicide was legal. I wish she could die quickly with dignity instead of starving to death. But on the same token, I sort of feel like they should just allow God's will to be done. If she's meant to live, a miracle will happen when they take her off of support.

My father shot himself twice in the head when he was only 21. He was a vegetable. My mother was only 21 and I was 1 years old. It was such a huge and overwhelming decision for her. My grandmother did not want my father to go off of life support. My mother chose to take him off. My grandmother was very angry with her, but I think it was because grief was clouding her judgement. In retrospect, my grandmother understands that it was the best decision. It wouldn't have been fair to my father, myself, or my mother to keep him living. I couldn't imagine how differently my life would be if they'd kept him alive. I was adopted 2 1/2 years later and raised by a wonderful man. I know that is how my dad would have wanted it for me.

[moosmom]

The thing is the manner in which they have to die..starvation is a slow agonizing death..the body goes thru dehydration and organs shut down one by one...if it were just taking a person off life support, that is a completely different thing all together..I can see that being humane..but not removing a feeding tube and taking days to die..no way.

Starvation IS a very cruel way to die. I believe in a Living Will and have one myself. But this is not a case of not taking any extra measures to prolong her life. It's also not a case where she is brain dead. This woman is very much alive. To cause her to starve to death to me is SO inhumane.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

The more I hear about this, the more upset I get.
If her husband loved her so much and wanted to carry out her wishes, why did he wait 10 years before he decided to start trying to get her off life support in the first place. He had no problem with her being on life support until he got her money legally.

Seems like her "wishes" should have been carried out immediately.

Also, CNN reports she had filed for divorce before her illness. Also, there have been rumors of abuse. Maybe her husband is afraid she will recover and tell some things. I've seen the film where she follows a balloon with her eyes and moves her head along with it. I believe she knows what is going on. Or at least some of it.

People in comas are often aware of things going on, seems to me she very well could be also.

I can't help it. I think it's legalized murder, plain and simple.
Maybe this is how to commit the "perfect crime."

[lizbud]

This certainly is a very emotional and sad case. I feel very sorry
for everyone concerned. There was an interesting article on BBC
website about it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4362679.stm


I never knew how she came to be so sick or that the feeding
tube had been removed twice before & then replaced.

So sad for all of them.

[Kfamr]

And now they're plugging her back in!?!?! My mom just told me on the news that they've plugged her back in.



And what has this done.. killed the remaining 2 brain cells she maybe possibly had left?

[dukedogsmom]

I cannot believe that! She should have been let to die so long ago. I don't mean to sound harsh but I'm so tired of hearing about it. If you can't live without machines, then you're not alive. Let the poor person die and find peace.

[Lilith Cherry]

I agree with Dukedogsmom! It is inhumane to keep her alive on machines and feeding tubes.... there is no quality of life whatsoever and if it were one of our beloved pets I am sure we would not do so. It is a tragedy that should not be prolonged.

[Lillycat]

i agree w/momoffuzzyfaces.......there is much more to this than what we are being told......miracles happen every day as we all have been witness to time after time....

[moosmom]

Michael Schiavo, who has since started a family with another woman

What happened to the part in the wedding vows "In sickness and in health"????? Did he not hear that part of it, or did the jerk think it only applied to her???

UGH!!!

[GraciesMommy]

And I remember when this first all started and he refused her therapy...parents had to fight that too...and lost..he only let her have minimal therapy saying it was a waste of $.

[LKPike]

I'm not understanding why hes ("husband") doing it, and for so many years.
Is he supposed to get super rich when she dies or something?

Whatever the reason, its incredibly sickening to me that a "Doctor" would rather watch a human being starve to death in several weeks time, instead of giving her a quick lethal dose like they do with some prisoners.

[lbaker]

For this poor womans mind, body and spirit to recover would be more than a miracle... it would be a scientific, medical impossibility. No way, no how. For "our" government to interfere is the crime that's being committed here and it stinks Physical responses to outside stimulation does not indicate awareness, happiness, thought process or joy.. or feeling. It is a muscular, involuntary response, nothing more. Has she not suffered enough? Let her go with peace and prayers from us, the living.

[Luvin Labs]

As for the 'till death us do part', he already feels she is dead since she (so he says) stated to him she does not want to be like that... that some doctors feel she has zero chance of recovery, and less chance of any cognitive abilities (docs say her brain is atrophied too much).

From what I've read, he won't be "super rich" because that money will be going to her medical bills and fees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo

That site has a bunch of stuff about this case.

I find it very interesting/disturbing that there is information that is NOT (that I know of) being investigated. Nurses say she reacts saying "mommy" "help me" and stuff, as well as not being allowed to see if she can swallow on her own.

As well as information from his ex girlfriend about him stalking her... as well as info about her conversations with friends and her brother about wanting to divorce her husband as he's controlling and abusive.

Why aren't they investigating him?

They frankly, should reinsert tube, start therapy, take her out from the 'care' of her 'hubby' and see what happens. Though I think 15 years is WAY TOO much to try to help her, maybe she will recover.... maybe. Then she can perhaps tell us something.

IF she only had a living will this would have been over with eons ago.

And now they're plugging her back in!?!?! My mom just told me on the news that they've plugged her back in.

They did? I just read on CNN that they have not replaced her feeding tube (she can breath on her own)...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/19/sc...ged/index.html