Terri Schiavo

9:06:02 AM EDT

Back To Iraq

I talked to my son yesterday about 3pm in the afternoon.  I was in a good mood and as usual was looking forward to speaking with him.  I was getting ready to go to my sisters for a family barbeque and had a little free time so I thought I'd call my son.  He is presently stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY and spends weeks at a time in the field training to return for his second tour to the war in Iraq.

 

As I spoke to him, knowing that he is returning, he assured me that between July and September of this year he will be deployed for a year.  His whole unit has a scheduled 2 week vacation in June to spend with their families before they leave.

For some reason, my heart broke, I got a lump in my throat and my knees became weak.  Maybe it just hit me that it is part of a definite plan.  As soon as we hung up the phones I broke down.  Here I am fixing to leave to go to my sisters and I felt devastated and wondered how I could put on a smile. I pulled myself together and knew that staying home was not the answer because I would most assuredly be devastated the remainder of the day if I didn't go to the barbeque.

 

When I got home very late at night, I talked with my Father about my son.  Most parents can relate to the love they have for their child.  Even though he is grown and has left the nest several years ago he is still my little boy.  My Father understands that to me he is still my little child.

 

I realized while speaking my heart to my Father that I long ago put his life in God's hands and that my worrying needlessly shows a serious lack of faith in His capabilities.  Of course, as a parent, worrying is natural because we want only the best for our children and we do worry about their safety and their paths they choose in life.  It's ok to worry to a point, but to let it control me and consume me is wrong.

 

For me, I know that my son is in the very best of hands.  God can do more for him than I can.  When I speak with my Father about my concerns I ALWAYS end our conversations with a flood of peace.  I felt like ten tons of bricks were lifted off my shoulders when I rose up from my knees. 

 

My Father assures me, in my heart, that He hears my pleas, understands my heart and my concerns.  I know that if I can learn to give my cares to Him totally than I feel a relief.  Guess it's like a little child who has a boo-boo and mom or dad kisses it and puts a bandage on it...somehow, it miraculously feels better.

 

I know that when the time comes for him to leave for Iraq that it will crush my heart.  But, I also know that I can go to my Father and that He will comfort me.  I know that my Father will not let anything happen to my boy that is not part of His perfect plan.  It is not for me to question Him, but to trust Him.

 

I surely have a lot to learn.  I must learn that when I need Him that He is there for me.  He loves me and has never let me down.  There has been many times I have questioned the outcome of many issues I have faced.  There are many of those issues I still don't understand their purpose.  But, that is when trust and faith kick in.

 

So, I have to learn that He loves my son more than I do.  I pray that there will be angels to surround him and protect him.  I pray that others who know and love him will keep him before God's throne.  And when they think of him (and all our heroes
 that fight for Americas safety) that wherever they are and whatever they are doing that they will pause and whisper a prayer.

 

I pray that I can stay focused and learn to have faith and trust.  I pray for strength for my son both physically and mentally.  I pray, I pray, I pray!

 

 

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9:59:01 AM EDT
 

Terri Schiavo's Final Hours

An Eyewitness Account

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
President, National Pro-life Religious Council

You may have seen on the news that I was at Terri Schiavo's bedside during the last 14 hours of her earthly life, right up until five minutes before her death. During that time with Terri, joined by her brother and sister, I expressed your care, concern, and prayers. I told Terri over and over that she had many friends around the country, many people who were praying for her and were on her side. I had also told her the same things during my visits to her in the months before her feeding tube was removed, and am convinced she understood.

I've known Terri's family for about six years now and they put me on the visitor's list. Terri was in a hospice but there were police officers stationed outside her room. If I were not on that visitor's list I could not get in that room beyond the armed guard because the visitor's list was kept very, very small and very well controlled. The reason? The euthanasia advocates had to be able to say that Terri was an unresponsive person in some kind of vegetative state, coma or whatever terminology they want to use to suggest that she was completely unresponsive. The only way to prove she was responsive was to see her for yourself.

I went down to see her in September 2004 and again in February 2005.

When her mom first introduced her to me, she stared at me intently. She focused her eyes. She would focus her eyes on whoever was talking to her. If somebody spoke to her from the other part of the room she would turn her head and her eyes towards the person who was talking to her.

You know what some of the doctors have dared to say about this? "Oh, it's just reflex reactions. Unconscious reflex reactions." Interestingly, that's exactly the same thing they say about the unborn child when you look at the video The Silent Scream when the child opens his mouth and tries to move away from the instrument that is about to destroy him. They say, "Oh, that's just an automatic reflex." That's the phrase they always use to dehumanize the person.

I told Terri she has many people around the country and around the world who lover her and are praying for her. She looked at me attentively. I said, "Terri now we are going to pray together, I want to give you a blessing, let's say some prayers." So I laid my hand on her head. She closed her eyes. I said the prayer. She opened her eyes again at the end of the prayer. Her dad leaned over to her and said, "OK Terri now here comes the tickle," because he has a mustache. She would laugh and smile and after he kissed her I saw her return the kiss. Her mom asked her a question at a certain point and I heard her voice. She was trying to respond. She was making sounds in response to her mother's question, not just at odd times and meaningless moments. I heard her trying to say something but she was not, because of her disability, able to articulate the words. So she was responsive.

Now, the night before she died I was in the room for probably a total of 3-4 hours, and then for another hour the next morning -- her final hour.

Brothers and sisters to describe the way she looked as peaceful is a total distortion of what I saw. Here now was a person, who for thirteen days had no food or water. She was, as you would expect, very drawn in her appearance as opposed to when I had seen her before. Her eyes were open but they were going from one side to the next, constantly oscillating back and forth, back and forth. The look on her face (I was staring at her for three and a half-hours) I can only describe as a combination of fear and sadness … a combination of dreaded fear and sadness.

Her mouth was open the whole time. It looked like it was frozen open. She was panting rapidly. It wasn't peaceful in any sense of the word. She was panting as if she had just run a hundred miles. But a shallow panting. Her brother Bobby was sitting opposite me. He was on one side of the bed I was on the other facing him. Terri's head in between us and her sister Suzanne was on my left. We sat there and we had a very intense time of prayer. And we were talking to Terri, urging her to entrust herself completely to the Savior. I assured her repeatedly of the love and prayers and concern of so many people.

We held her hand and stroked her head. During those hours, one of the things I did was to chant, in Latin, some of the most ancient hymns of the Church. One of the chants I used was the "Victimae Paschali Laudis," which is the ancient proclamation of the resurrection of Christ. There, as I saw before my eyes the deadly work of the Culture of Death, I proclaimed the victory of life. "Life and death were locked in a wondrous struggle," the hymn declares. "Life's Captain died, but now lives and reigns forevermore!"

And then we had just times of silence … just sitting there in silence trying to absorb what was happening.

But besides Bobby and his sister and Terri herself, you know who else was in the room with us? A police officer. The whole time. At least one. Sometimes two. Sometimes three armed police officers in the room. You know why they were in the room? They wanted to make sure that we didn't do anything that we weren't supposed to do, like give her communion or maybe a glass of water. In fact, Bobby, sitting on the other side of the bed, would occasionally stand up to lean over his sister. When he stood up and did that, the officer would change position. He would move around towards the foot of the bed so that he could have a direct line of sight on what we were doing. The morning that she died we went in there fairly early and I had to go back outside in front of the hospice to do an interview. In order to go out on time I had a little timepiece in my hand and at the beginning of our visit I put it in my left hand, leaned over Terri and extended my right to bless her and we began praying. I closed my eyes and I felt a tap on my left hand. It was the police officer who said, "Father, what do you have in your hand?" I said, "Oh, officer, it's a little time piece." "I'll have to hold it while you're here," he said. We couldn't have anything in our hands. He didn't even know what it was. Maybe I was going to try to give her communion. Maybe I was going to try to moisten her lips. Who knows what terrible thing I was about to do?

You know what the most ironic thing was? There was a little night table in the room. I could put my hand on the table and on Terri's head all within arms reach. You know what was on that table? A vase of flowers filled with water. And I looked at the flowers. They were beautiful. There were roses their and other types of flowers and there was another one on the other side of the room at the foot of the bed. Two beautiful bouquets of flowers filled with water. Fully nourished, living, beautiful. And I said to myself, this is absurd. This is absurd. These flowers are being treated better than this woman. She has not had a drop of water for almost two weeks. Why are those flowers there? What type of hypocrisy is this? The flowers were watered. Terri wasn't. The other irony is - had I dipped my hand in that water and put it on her tongue - the officer would have led me out probably under arrest. He would have certainly led me out of the room. Something is wrong here.

As you may have also seen, those who killed Terri were quite angry that I said so. The night before she died, I said to the media that her estranged husband Michael, his attorney Mr. Felos, and Judge Greer were murderers. I also pointed out, that night and the next morning, that contrary to Felos' description, Terri's death was not at all peaceful and beautiful. It was, on the contrary, quite horrifying. In my 16 years as a priest, I never saw anything like it before.

After I said these things, Mr. Felos and others in sympathy with him began attacking me in the press and before the cameras. Some news outlets began making a story out of their attacks and said I was "fanning the flames" of enmity and hatred.

Actually, there's a simple reason why they are so angry with me. They had hoped that they could present Terri's death as a merciful and gentle act. My words took the veil of euphemism away, calling this a killing, and giving eyewitness testimony to the fact that it was anything but gentle. Mr. Felos is a euthanasia advocate, and like all such advocates, he needs to manipulate the language, to sell death in an attractive package. Here he and his friends had a great opportunity to do so. But a priest, seeing their work close-up and then telling the world about it, just didn't fit into their plans.

One of the attacks they made was that a "spiritual person" like a priest should be speaking words of compassion and understanding, instead of venom. But compassion demands truth. A priest is also a prophet, and if he cannot cry out against evil, then he cannot bring about reconciliation. If there is going to be any healing between these families or in this nation, it must start with repentance on the part of those who murdered Terri and now try to cover it up with flowery language.

Another aspect of the Terri Schiavo tragedy is that many people misunderstand its cause and therefore its solution. They think the problem was that Terri did not leave any written instructions about whether she wanted to be kept alive. In order to avoid any such problem in their own lives, they are now told that they have to draw up a "living will." This is both erroneous and dangerous.

Terri's case is not about the withdrawal of life-saving medical treatment, but rather about the killing of a healthy person whose life some regarded as worthless. Terri was not dying, was not on life support, and did not have any terminal illness. Because some thought she would not want to live with her disability, they insisted on introducing the cause of death, namely, dehydration.

So what good is a living will supposed to accomplish, aside from saying, "Please don't argue about killing me, just kill me?"

The danger in our culture is not that we will be over-treated, but rather that we will be under-treated. We already have the right to refuse medical treatment. What we run the risk of losing is the right to receive the most basic humane care — like food and water — in the event we have a disability.

Our culture also promotes the idea that as long as we say we want to die, we have the right to do so. But we have a basic obligation to preserve our own life. A person who leaves clear instructions that they don’t want to be fed is breaking the moral law by requesting suicide.

If you want to make plans for your future health care, do not do so by trying to predict the future. The reason you cannot indicate today what medical treatments you do or don't want tomorrow is that you don't know what medical condition you will have tomorrow, nor what treatments will be available to give you the help you need. Living wills try to predict the future, and people can argue over the interpretation of a piece of paper just as much as they argue about what they claim someone said in private.

The better solution is to appoint a health care proxy, who is authorized to speak for you if you are in a condition in which you cannot speak for yourself. This should be a person who knows your beliefs and values, and with whom you discuss these matters in detail. In case you cannot speak for yourself, your proxy can ask all the necessary questions of your doctors and clergy, and make an assessment when all the details of your condition and medical needs are actually known. That's much safer than predicting the future. Appointing a health care proxy in a way that safeguards your right to life is easy. In fact, the National Right to Life Committee has designed a "Will to Live," which can be found at www.nrlc.org and which I recommend highly.

I am in regular contact with Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her siblings, Bobby and Suzanne. They are strong Christians with a beautiful, gentle spirit. If you wish to relay a personal message to them, you can send it to terri@priestsforlife.org and I will pass it along to them myself.

Meanwhile, let us continue to commend Terri to the Lord, mindful of the equal value of every life, no matter how prominent or obscure, healthy or sick.

Priests for Life
PO Box 141172
Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. 888-PFL-3448, (718) 980-4400
Fax 718-980-6515
Email mail@priestsforlife.org

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6:45:04 PM EDT

April 22, 2005

The Side Effects of Witnessing Murder

By: Cheryl Ford RN

Three weeks have passed since Terri Schindler-Schiavo was forced to die an inhumane and tragic death. Thousands who were against Terri's killing claim they find themselves awake at all hours of the night trying to come to terms with what happened to Terri. Many state they are suffering from overwhelming depression, frustration, and feelings of powerlessness. Others find themselves struggling to understand how America stood by and allowed Terri to be publicly murdered and not receive judicial or police protection.

Only a few short weeks ago, we witnessed thousands upon thousands of people from all over the world rise in protest to the heinous crime involving the murder of Terri Schindler-Schiavo. During the long 14 day period, as Terri laid suffering from starvation and dehydration, members of the US Congress gathered in a weekend forum to vote on a bipartisan bill that would assure Terri's constitutional rights. The bill was aimed at saving her life. The President of the United States who was preparing for Easter with his family, was urgently flown from his vacation ranch home in Texas to the White House to sign a bill that was passed in a 203 to 58 vote. So,why now are we faced with feeling the unsettling side effects of Terri's murder? Why do many seek answers to questions such as: How does a nation justify, publicly watching the death of an innocent disabled woman while no one was capable of stopping her murder?

When trying to find any sense of understanding or acceptance regarding Terri's murder, we must discuss some aspects surrounding the topics of death. Death, as we all know, is defined as: "A permanent cessation of all vital functions." Due to its permanency, we find death very disturbing under any circumstance. Death creates a destabilization of our existence; knowing there is no turning back. Normally, we experience death when it results from illness, unexpected trauma, or old-age. We are seldom, if ever, confronted with the unique emotions associated with murder happening to our friends or a family member. When we hear about a murder we usually find ourselves gasping at the crime as it makes headline news.

The loss of human life is final and emotionally traumatizing on any society. Any way we wish to view it, the intentional infliction of death on a human being, will always be defined as murder. Our country bases its philosophy on the value of "preservation of all life," thus, creating its laws to say, under no circumstances should anyone take the life of an innocent human being. We ask, why was Terri allowed to be murdered as the world stood by and watched?

Once we are subjected to loss of life, we naturally emerge into what is known as the grieving process. Grief as we know it, has limitless boundaries. Often when we are forced to grieve, we flail aimlessly and timelessly into what appears to be an open abyss. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross describes in her book "Death and Dying," the 5 stages of grief as: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. In order to move through the grieving process, we must at some point encounter the 5 stages of grief. Many will vacillate between the phases of grief for an undetermined period of time.

We also know there are thousands of people who routinely struggle with the controversial issues surrounding the death penalty. It is not unusual, or unreasonable, for people to find difficulty digesting the legal liberties that are given to man when they are authorized to inflict the finalities of death upon any human being. Be the death penalty right or wrong, even those who struggle with it can often find some sense of rationale and acceptance in knowing that those on death row were convicted and tried for a crime which brought forth their death sentence.

However, what happens to the thousands who are reaching for that same sense of understanding and acceptance when grieving for Terri's publicly inhumane murder? Terri,was not a criminal and never hurt anyone. She was not tried or convicted of any crime. She was not terminally ill, or unhealthy. She was not taken off to the hidden ominous fields where victims are murdered by their unknown killers. Despite all, we had a nation that was forced to watch Terri's tragic and unnecessary death, making it difficult, if not impossible, to transition into the acceptance phase of grief.

We recognize that Terri was not any more special to her parents, than any other child is to parents who love them. It is a given that she will be just as missed by her family, as others tend to miss their family members when they die. However, as we seek some rationalization and acceptance in dealing with Terri's death, like we do in the normal grieving process of others, we find ourselves with an unsettling set of uncomfortable emotions. Could it be due to the disturbing visions of a Mother publicly pleading for the life of her daughter; a daughter who would not be dead if it weren't for an estranged spouse who intentionally starved and dehydrated her to death?

These visions leave the sane population very distraught. We find ourselves repeatedly asking, how do we move into the acceptance phase of grief after watching a disabled member of our society be murdered and denied the right to receive help?

We will remember Terri as the innocent woman who through her means of natural communications waited patiently each day for her loving and very dedicated family to visit her, so she could smile and laugh with them. We will recall how her biological family had struggled for years to be capable of providing her with the therapy that we all naturally reach for when we are hurting, or injured. We shall remember the look of love and warmth on the faces of Terri and her Mother as they embraced each other. Was the love and unity of the Schindler family so wrong a bond that we had to remove one of its members?

For Terri, sadly, the help that we normally would have expected to come her way, never arrived. Where does this leave the thousands of civilized people who are in shock, remembering the agonizing expressions on Terri's mothers face as she pleaded for someone, anyone, to help rescue her daughter?

How do we as a nation cope with Terri's unnecessary and brutal murder; a murder that we not only heard about over and over again through out every media source, but were also forced to watch as it appeared on national television for 14 long days?

How do we justify the murder of a woman who was healthy and did not have to die, yet, we did nothing to stop it? When did America begin denying a family the right to care for one of its members? Who will be next?

I personally refuse to accept the notion that we have become a barbaric society living amongst many others like George Felos, Michael Schiavo, George Greer, and Deborah Bushnell. The four people who comfortably watched Terri slowly have the life sucked out of her, and then later rationalized Terri's death as merciful.

Terri's death cannot be defined as anything but cold, callous, inhumane, unnecessary, unmerciful, wrong, and against all the laws that our country was founded upon. Laws that still read, MURDER is illegal! Assuming the majority of our world still believes murder is wrong, we must ask ourselves what can we do to prevent Terri's situation from happening to another individual? How can we seek justice for Terri and see to it that the four people who are responsible for the 14 days of her inhumane starvation and dehydration which brought upon her death, are brought to legal justice?

We must also ask ourselves, is it reasonable to suggest that the thousands who supported Terri, who were appalled and against her death, the emotionally unstable religious zealots that George Felos suggested they were? Or, is it more reasonable to say that it was Terri's estranged spouse, his euthanasia attorneys, and the judge in Pinellas County, who are the emotionally unstable death zealots who need to be convicted for their criminal actions?

Most importantly, as a civilized society we must question, are we prepared to challenge the inhumane laws that killed Terri? Or, are we willing to allow her death to be in vain and chalk it up to becoming the new season preview for Reality Guardianship Murders?

I do believe that it is vitally important for every person who grieves Terri's tragic death to have all of these questions answered in an effort to enter into the Acceptance phase of grief.

© by C Ford 2005- All Rights Reserved

About the Author: Cheryl Ford is a licensed Registered Nurse in the state of Washington. She is the founder and CEO of her own company which assists in the financial, social and clinical assessment and placement of patients requiring a wide range of skilled medical treatment to over 450 licensed Adult Family Homes. The licensed Adult Family homes are owned and operated by physicians and nurses. While also maintaining another residence and an additional business in the state of Florida, her involvement as an activist in the Terri Schiavo case has arisen as a concerned citizen, as well as from the many years of knowledge she possesses as a Clinical Case Manager, licensed Registered Nurse and former firefighter/paramedic.

Fight4Terri @aol.com

Theresa Marie Schindler
December 3, 1963 ~ March 31, 2005
Light a candle For Terri at her online Memorial Website
Memory-of.com - Memorial website in memory of Theresa Schindler (1963-2005)
http://theresa-schindler.memory-of.com/about.aspx

Visit: www.fight4terri.blogspot.com

Cheryl Ford, RN (Fight4Terri@aol.com) is not affiliated with any other group and works to protect the rights of the disabled community.

Fight4Terri does not wish to forward unsolicited mail.
Please type the word "unsubscribe" in subject heading if you prefer to not receive anymore updates about Terri and your screen name will be immediately deleted from Fight4Terri's address book.

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1:49:10 PM EDT
Feeling Worried

  When A Son Goes To War  

 

 His clothes came back today, Lord.

The clothes of my boy, who isn't old enough to vote yet, only old enough to kill.

I've just unpacked them and put them away, Lord; his crumpled socks, his scuffed loafers, the bright plaid shirt he wore, and the underwear. (I wish I'd gotten the shorts whiter; why didn't he tell me they were torn?)

But it's too late for regrets.

  Whatever I did for him or failed to do has been done.

 I can't call him back from this the way I could when he just playing war in the yard -  bang, bang, you're dead! I can't yell, "Now you kids stop fighting, you're going to hurt each other." (Though I am yelling silently the same words, somewhere inside: Men, men, stop fighting, stop hurting each other).

 I couldn't stop him, Lord, and I don't think even you, who symbolize peace, would have wanted me to.

 "I don't believe in war or killing, but I won't get out of it either, " he said. 

 "This is my country, and if it needs me I'll go and get it over with."

Get it over with...Those words haunt me

.  I try not to let them, I deny their awful possibility.

His life, his young life is only beginning... and will it ever be over with?

 Will wars ever truly be over with and stop?

 What a strange world--forgive me, God--you've given us. 

Animals eating each other.

 Men eating each other.

The butchery, the carnage.

 Are men no better than the beasts?

 We, who were made in your image?

We, whom your own son came to teach the patterns of peace?

"Peace, where is your peace?" the women implore.

 But war is too big for women, or women's prayers.

 Perhaps we too are only beasts of burden.

The burden of the children we carry in our bellies, and carry always in our hearts,wherever they are.

And the weight is insupportable. It brings us literally to our knees in a time of war.

 This is the burden of women  since the world began.

Women have no enemies but war.

 It is only the men who make war.

 Yet war itself is man's enemy too.

My son's dearest enemy as he gives up his girl and his school and his car and sends back a little bundle of clothes to be put away, like his life, in a dresser drawer.

Our men, our good, decent, fair-minded men, are of bearing the world on their shoulders, sick of the bloody finger which keeps beckoning, "This too is your job, this too is your war." Yet they go.

 Because they are decent and fair.

Hating it, yet they go, as my son has gone.

Because there will be no rest for the men or peace for the women so long as any nation, denying you, enslaves its own people; and through walls and barbed-wire fences and armed watchtowers tries to force the way of enslavement and God-denial upon other people everywhere.

And so, Lord, it's with pride as well as that I put these clothes away.

 The crumpled socks, the gaudy shirt, the underwear.

 Thank you for my son, for his willingness to do his part.  

 

Written by:Marjorie Holmes Her book: I've Got To Talk To Somebody, God  

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12:06:58 PM EDT

Schiavo Autopsy Will Not Confirm Diagnosis http://www.medpagetoday.com/tbindex.cfm?tbid=789   PINELLAS PARK, Fla,-Neurologists say the autopsy that is planned to be performed on Terri Schiavo will not definitively confirm a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state.   "Persistent vegetative state or minimally conscious state is a clinical diagnosis," says Michael De Georgia, MD, head of the neurology/neurosurgery intensive care unit at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. "It cannot be confirmed by autopsy."   Patients in a persistent vegetative state are a subgroup who suffer severe anoxic brain injury and progress to a state of wakefulness without awareness.   Michael Schiavo, husband and guardian of Terri Schiavo, and Mary and Bob Schindler, Ms. Schiavo's parents, engaged in a contentious public and legal dispute over the decision to remove Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube, but both said they wanted an autopsy and both say the post-mortem exam will provide evidence to finally nail down Ms. Schiavo's diagnosis.   Michael Schiavo said all along that his wife was in a persistent vegetative state and that she would not want to be maintained in that state. The Schindlers contended that their daughter was minimally conscious and would not agree to have her feeding tube removed.   The tube was removed by court order on March 18 and neither the intercession of Congress nor more than a score of court challenges succeeded in replacing the tube.   "The [pathologic examination of the] brain can't tell if there isa persistent vegetative state or not," says Harvard neuropathologist E. Tessa Hedley Whyte, MD. "The autopsy will show damage -- probably mostly scarring now -- and that damage will most likely correspond to some extent to what was seen on images."   According to court records, CT scans performed in 1996 and 2002 revealed "diffuse encephalomalacia and infarction consistent with anoxia, hydrocephalus ex vacuo, neural stimulator present."   Dr. De Georgia says that the extent of brain damage, confirmed on autopsy, "does reflect the absence of viable brain cells and the fewer brains cells a patient has the less likely it is that the patient will be conscious. But there is no standard cutoff that says if you lose this many brain cells you are in a persistent vegetative state."   Michael Williams, MD, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, puts it this way. "If you only had the brain to look at and you didn't know anything about the history of the patient, pathology alone cannot prove or disprove a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state."   Dr. Williams says it is likely that autopsy will show "widespread damage to the cortex -- a condition called laminar necrosis -- and it is likely that there will also be significant damage to the thalamus."   While Dr. Williams says the autopsy can't confirm the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, he says that receiving an autopsy report sometimes helps a family that is struggling to accept the diagnosis. "Sometimes additional evidence from a CT scan or an autopsy report -- something concrete -- helps bring some final understanding or acceptance," he says.

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8:35:54 PM EDT

Excellent outline that I received in email from our Terri Yahoo Group:

submitted by: salcaffe@yahoo.com

As a physician, I am appalled by the non-discovery construction of this autopsy.  First of all, there is no way to absolutely correlate anatomical structure with intellectual function.  The brain is remarkably plastic.  There was little consistent re-training in Terri's case.  I have seen very astute elderly patients who died with most of their sensibilities and faculties intact and who during their final hospital stay and work-up, or at autopsy - (usually performed because of some family members concern about diagnosis or interplay of possibly inherited tendancy) were discovered to have severe cortical atrophy that seemed almost inconsistent with the functioning of the living patient we had all known  
Additionally, because of the horrific, prolonged dehydration there would be a substantial shrinkage of all highly hydrated tissues, such as brain tissues. If the pathologist go by any ususal standard comparison of measuring their "findings" against typical or standard findings, it'll be tough not to make a mistake.  I think it'll be pretty easy to find that by weight, volume, size of cortical tissues, etc. that Terri's brain won't "measure up."   
Second, there is no way that flat plate, X-Rays of the bones will show much of anything.  To ascertain years old abuse to boney structures, a post-mortem MRI would have needed to have been ordered (excluding the skull perhaps if the thalamic device would have ruined the machine) or at minimum a CT and those were denied by the final Greer judicial order supporting the appointed pathologist doing whatever he alone deemed medically appropriate ( Oh, plus after the fact, questionable assistance from only Thogmartin's selected "team.").   What they are doing is medically a joke.  It's practically like looking for the AIDS virus using a 16th century, Leevenhoek microscope.  They'll see nothing. The court ordered pathologist announced that he would not be using the most effective discovery tool.  What a ruse!  What an obvious way to NOT find anything.  Ordinary X-rays, even a CT, anything short of an MRI bone scan, will only show recent breaks - the structures apparent from a few years past - at most.
Third,  It's Standard Operating Procedure in ANY questionnable death for there to be an observing second, equally qualified pathologist.  It's just good medicine. And ususally when there are two points of view, the second professional is appointed by the side espousing the second view.  A medical viewing pathologist selected by the "other side" would have provided some semblance of compassionate intellectual solace, someone like Dr. Baden would have been a perfect choice, or another pathologist of his recommendation. Particularly where the conclusions have to be couched and should include a discussion of limitation of findings due to instrument limitations or due to patient condition, i.e. dehydration.  But that, the balance provided by the observing pathologist, would have been in the case of good medicine or in the case of an attempt at scientific understanding, not in the case of a faux medical due diligence or legal cover up.  But again, the Judge ruled against this; Greer ruled to allow only whatever the "esteemed" Dr. Jon Thogmartin deemed appropriate.  
Basically, Judge Greer ruled against opportunities to side with good, standard medicine practice in two instances, even after Terri Schiavo's death. Also by permitting cremation, the judge has permitted no civil redress of any questionnable autopsy findings.  Basically it's not scientific at all.  It's medically clear, this autopsy is a legally sanctioned farce, constructed to be "Pinellas county's way, or the highway."
I expect nothing LESS than a full exoneration from the autopsy finding.  The fact that they're taking so much longer than is the usual clinical "turn around time" means to me that they're doing every possible thing, double checking all misrepresentations or distortions to look for any verbal "give-aways."    Real data, with clear, unsubtle findings and and incontrovertable autopsy conclusions has, in my experience in 20 yrs of working in various hospital communities, taken maybe a little more than a week of intense analysis.  With ambigous or complex conclusions, maybe the pathologists would ask for another week of special stains or sending specimens out for colleageal consultation. Particularly with the amount of intellectual and legal muscle devoted to this, I can't understand how other consulting physicians and laboratories wouldn't have expedited every subsequent requested consultation. This is so divergent from what I've seen, read and hear in standard, ordinary medical practice that even though I don't want to believe there is any "cover-up," the realities keep leaping out at me.  
This autopsy procedure just isn't fitting with anything I've ever seen or known about before.  I'm not a pathologist, but I have individually treated dozens of brain-damaged children and adults with varied etiologies and I have attended hundreds of hours of medical presentations where there are cases with discussions about the correlations of the pathology/autopsy findings with clinical conditions. My medical society meeting are rife with medical-legal discussions about wrongful death situations and about what represents reasonable attempts to conduct unequivocal examinations of patients, both living and deceased.  This just doesn't fit.
I can only conclude that an airtight cover-up or medical-literary construction has taken much longer than a routine, careful forensic examination.





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8:33:58 PM EDT

To some "special Moms" this morning...love to each of you...   Those who are lucky to still be blessed with your Mom, this is beautiful.
For those who aren't, this is even more beautiful...

The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?"
she asked. And the guide said, "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be
old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the
beginning.

But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything
could be better than these years.

So she played with her children, she fed them, and bathed them, and taught
them to tie their shoe laces and ride a bike and do their homework and brush
their teeth. The sun shone on them, and the young mother cried, "Nothing
will ever be lovelier than this."

Then the nights came, and the storms, and the path was sometimes dark, and
the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and
covered them with her arms, and the children said, Mother, we are not
afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come." And the morning came, and
there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the
mother was weary too. But at all times she said to the children, "A little
patience and we are there."

So the children climbed, and as they climbed, they learned to weather the
storms.

And with this, she gave them strength to face the world. Year after year,
she showed them compassion, understanding, hope, but most of
all...unconditional love. and when they reached the top they said, Mother,
we could not have done it without you."

The days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the
mother grew old and she became little and bent.

But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And the
mother, when she lay down at night looked up at the stars and said, "This is
a better day than the last, for my children have learned so much and are now
passing these traits on to their children."

And when the way became rough for her, they lifted her and gave her their
strength, just as she had given them hers. One day they came to a hill, and
beyond the hill, they could see a shining road and golden gates flung open.
And the mother said, "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know
that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk with
dignity and pride, with their head held high, and so can their children
after them." And the children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother,
even when you have gone through the gates."

And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed
after her. And they said, "We cannot see her, but she is with us still.
Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence."

Your Mother is always with you. She is the whisper of the leaves as you
walk down the street. She is the smell of certain foods that you remember,
flowers you pick and perfume that she wore. She is the cool hand on your
brow when you're not feeling well. She is your breath in the air on a cold
winter's day. She is the sound of the rain. Your Mother lives inside your
laughter, and she is crystallized in every tear drop. A Mother shows every
emotion, happiness, sadness, fear, jealousy, love, hate & anger,
helplessness, excitement, joy, sorrow and all the while, hoping and
praying you will only know the good feelings in life. She is the place you came
from, your first home, and she is the map that you follow with every step
you take. She is your first love.

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8:31:11 PM EDT

The Right Stuff

Things that make you think a little........

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq during the month of
January.....In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January.   That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war attacked
us on multiple occasions.

In the two years since terrorists attacked us President Bush has
liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear
inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and
captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking,
but...It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take
the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.

We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time
than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.

It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines
to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the
police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaq



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9:17:18 AM EDT

Terri Schiavo Attorney Calls on Georgia Court to Feed Elderly Woman

To: National Desk

Contact: Mr. Steve Kluth of the Gibbs Law Firm, 727 399-8300

SEMINOLE, Fl., April 14 /Christian Wire Service/ -- David Gibbs of Gibbs Law Firm in Seminole, Florida, lead counsel for Robert and Mary Schindler, parents of the late Terri Schiavo, today called on a Georgia Probate Court Judge to protect innocent life in the case of Mae Magouirk, an 81-year-old widow whose feeding tube was removed with court permission. Mrs. Magouirk was placed in a hospice and denied substantial nourishment and fluids by her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy, even though Mrs. Magouirk was not terminal, comatose, or in a vegetative state, and even though the provisions of her Living Will request feeding and hydration. Mrs. Magouirk's brothers and sisters, who want to save her life, had Kenneth Mullinax, Magouirk's nephew and family spokesman, contact Mr. Gibbs regarding the legal issues in this life and death matter.

David Gibbs, whose office spoke with Mullinax, stated:

"I am shocked and dismayed that within mere hours of Terri's death, another court in Georgia was subjecting an 81-year-old widow to the very same inhumane treatment as Terri Schiavo."

Family spokesman Mullinax reported that Mrs. Magouirk was placed in a LaGrange, Georgia medical facility on March 13 with a dissected aorta, a congenital medical condition shared by other members of her family. Beth Gaddy, Mrs. Magouirk's granddaughter, subsequently determined that her grandmother should die rather than receive medical treatment and moved her to a hospice facility. After court proceedings, the intervention of a panel of 3 doctors, the support of the friends of Terri Schiavo, and the vocal outreach by her siblings in neighboring Alabama, Mrs. Magouirk was finally rescued from Hospice LaGrange on Saturday, April 9 and flown by lifesaver helicopter to the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center, where she is now receiving nourishment, fluids and proper medical attention.

Mr. Mullinax also reports that although a Troup County Probate Court compromise was reached on April 4 between all the parties, Beth Gaddy, Mae Magouirk's granddaughter, who was appointed as temporary guardian by Judge Donald W. Boyd, issued an order to the UAB Medical Center denying other family members full visitation rights and access to medical information. Mrs. Magouirk's brother filed a motion on Wednesday, April 13 before Judge Boyd asking for restoration of visitation rights and medical record access for the family members who want to keep Mrs. Magourik alive.

Gibbs said, "Our office would strongly urge Judge Boyd to grant the request of Mrs. Magouirk's closest living next of kin. In fact, after reviewing the circumstances of this situation and remembering our personal experience with Terri's case, we would suggest the judge go one step farther and recognize Beth Gaddy's financial interest in this case. Not unlike Michael Schiavo's conflict of interest with his wife, Beth Gaddy and her brother and sister are the sole beneficiaries of Mrs. Magouirk's estate. As such, Ms. Gaddy should not be given court authority to make medical care decisions intended to result in Mrs. Magouirk's death in violation of her written living will." That additional component in Mrs. Magouirk's case is one the Schiavo case did not have. Gibbs continued: "It would seem obvious that Judge Boyd should honor Mrs. Magouirk's living will and award her guardianship to family members who would honor her wishes. This case again points up the need for our nation to seriously consider the need for federal legislation permitting federal habeas-type review for court decisions that are intended to result in the death of the elderly and disabled."

Background:

Magouirk's Granddaughter, Elizabeth "Beth" Gaddy had her placed in Hospice LaGrange, Ga. on March 22 despite the objections of Magouirk's sister and brother, who are her closest living next of kin. Magouirk's siblings discovered that she was being denied life-sustaining nourishment and fluids on March 31 and have brought this matter before the courts and media in an attempt to save her life. Mullinax may be reached at (205) 408-7598.


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12:52:31 PM EDT

  Altho this story (below) surrounding nature and this momma duck is rather touching, my thoughts turn to Terri Schiavo.. a real live human being, who needed protecting and the secret service and many branches of law miserably failed (or outright ignored) her needs to survive.   The sad day has come when our secret service guards a duck and it's eggs.. and our Florida courts rule to purposefully starve and dehydrate a living, feeling human being to their death.   It is a mystery why the life of a duck and her eggs seem so much more valuable than that of a living human-being.

  Wanda Canaday
Orange Park, Florida  

   Secret Service Guards Mother Duck, Eggs  

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service, which has the job of guarding the president and other dignitaries, now has a new temporary duty — protecting a mother duck and her nine eggs.

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