Terri Schiavo, 41, Dies in Florida Hospice

 

Severely Brain-Damaged Woman's Feeding Tube Was Removed 13 Days Earlier Following Extensive Legal Battle

 

(Note: God bless our Terri, our brave, courageous and faithful Terri. Michael and his coterie cannot hurt her any more. Though the major muzzled media and their cohorts continue to perpetuate untruths, they will only harm the countless others who are -- by way of this ushered-in euthanasia agenda -- going to follow Terri. Heaven welcomes you, Terri!)

 

March 31, 2005

 

 

By William Branigan

 

Washington Post Staff Writer

 

Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose condition ignited a protracted legal struggle, died today at a Florida hospice, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed under a court order.

Representatives of both sides in a dispute over her fate confirmed the death shortly before 10 a.m. EST.

The death of Schiavo, 41, ended the court battle that had pitted her husband, who wanted to take her off artificial life support, against her parents and siblings, who sought to keep her alive at all costs. But the death appeared unlikely to quell the broader controversy fueled by the Schiavo case, one that set right-to-life, antiabortion and conservative religious groups -- with backing from President Bush and Republican leaders in Congress -- against advocates of a "right to die" when the brain no longer functions.

Schiavo's death, at the Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, came 15 years after she suffered cardiac arrest, experienced a loss of oxygen to the brain and slipped into a coma as a result of an eating disorder. She later emerged from the coma, but she never regained consciousness and remained in what doctors said was a "persistent vegetative state."

In response to requests by Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, a Florida judge last month set March 18 as the date for removal of the feeding tube through which she had been receiving nutrition and hydration. In her condition, she was unable to swallow.

In recent weeks, Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, repeatedly sought the intervention of federal and state courts, the Florida and U.S. legislatures and the administrations of President Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Congress responded by hurriedly passing an extraordinary new law, signed by President Bush shortly after 1 a.m. on March 21, that transferred jurisdiction in their daughter's case from state to federal courts. But in a rapid series of decisions, courts at both the state and federal levels refused to order the reinsertion of the feeding tube, and the U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 turned down the Schindlers' request to intervene in the case.

By the next day, Terri Schiavo was showing signs of dehydration, and family members said her life was slipping away. Protests outside the hospice by right-to-life activists intensified, and several people, including children, were arrested for symbolically trying to enter the hospice to offer her water -- which she could not have consumed orally.

"Terri is weakening," Robert Schindler said Friday. "She's down to her last hours. So something needs to be done, and it has to be done quick."

But Schiavo, a Roman Catholic, held on through Easter Sunday, when she was given last rites and Easter communion by priests who visited her in the hospice. She received a drop of wine on the tongue and was anointed with holy oil, one of the priests said.

In their latest court filing, the Schindlers claimed that their daughter not only had some awareness, but had attempted to say, "I want to live," before her feeding tube was removed. It was a last-ditch attempt to refute years of diagnoses that she had suffered an irreversible loss of brain function and had no cognitive ability. A judge rejected the claim.

Two weeks ago, the Senate majority leader, Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), jumped into the fray, disputing the conclusion that Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. On the basis of videotapes that he viewed in his office, and speaking as a former heart surgeon, Frist declared that Schiavo "certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."

As the controversy swirled, Frist and other Republicans seized on the issue as a chance to affirm what President Bush has called "a culture of life" that he seeks to promote in U.S. society. But there were also signs that some Republicans viewed the case in political terms as a way to rally socially conservative core supporters.

An unsigned memo distributed to Republican senators as they were considering legislation in the Schiavo case said, "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue." The memo called the case "a great political issue" and suggested that it could be used against Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection next year, because he had refused to co-sponsor the legislation. GOP leaders later disavowed the memo, insisting that their motives were life-affirming, not political.

In any case, any political dividends seemed to vanish when polls showed Americans overwhelmingly opposed the federal intervention in the Schiavo case, and President Bush's approval rating plummeted to an all-time low.

An ABC News poll issued March 21 showed that the public supported the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube by 63 percent to 28 percent. The poll also found that 70 percent of Americans felt it was inappropriate for Congress to get involved in the case, and 67 percent said political leaders were trying to keep the brain-damaged woman alive in order to gain political advantage. Nearly eight in 10 Americans (78 percent) said they would not want to be kept alive if they were in Schiavo's condition.

A Gallup poll conducted after the intervention by Congress and the president found that Bush's approval rating had fallen to 45 percent, the lowest of his presidency, down from 52 percent the previous week. The Gallup organization speculated that the Schiavo controversy was a major factor, but said economic issues, including rising gasoline prices, could have contributed.

According to court documents, Terri Schiavo had struggled with weight problems as a teenager, reaching 250 pounds at one point before starting a weight-loss program with the guidance of a doctor. She had dropped 100 pounds by the time she met Michael Schiavo, and she continued to lose weight after they were married in 1984.

By the time she suffered cardiac arrest in 1990, she was down to 110 pounds. The heart attack was later attributed to a dramatically reduced potassium level in her body brought on by bulimia, an eating disorder.

For more than a year afterward, Schiavo received what court documents described as "aggressive therapy" in rehabilitation centers. In late 1990, her husband took her to California for experimental therapy for several months. In 1991, she received different physical, occupational, speech and recreational therapies at facilities in Florida, and attempts to rehabilitate her continued through 1994.

Nothing worked.

Meanwhile, Michael Schiavo had initiated a medical malpractice lawsuit against a doctor who had failed to diagnose her bulimia, and in 1993 he was awarded more than $1 million -- $750,000 for his wife and $300,00 for himself.

Following that judgment, a dispute surfaced between Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers, who sought to remove their son-in-law as Terri Schiavo's guardian.

By 1994, Michael Schiavo had abandoned his previous belief that his wife could be rehabilitated, acceding to "consistent medical reports indicating that there was little or no likelihood for her improvement," according to a December 2003 report to Governor Jeb Bush by a guardian ad litem.

In 1998, Michael Schiavo petitioned a court to determine whether his wife's feeding tube should be removed, taking the position that his wife had expressed a wish not to be kept alive in a vegetative condition and would choose to remove it if she could. The Schindlers argued that the feeding tube should be kept in place.

Following a trial in Pinellas County Circuit Court, Judge George W. Greer ruled in Michael Schiavo's favor in February 2000. He cited testimony on remarks Terri Schiavo made to five persons, including her husband and mother, to the effect that she would not want to be kept alive on artificial life support.

Greer also wrote in his ruling that the 1993 falling-out between Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers clearly "was predicated on money and the fact that Mr. Schiavo was unwilling to equally divide his [$300,000] loss of consortium award with Mr. and Mrs. Schindler." The judge added, "Regrettably, money overshadows this entire case and creates potential conflict of interest for both sides."

An appeals court upheld the decision in January 2001. In its ruling, Florida's Second District Court of Appeal said Terri Schiavo's brain had "deteriorated" in the decade since her heart attack. "By mid 1996, the CAT scans of her brain showed a severely abnormal structure," the court said. "At this point, much of her cerebral cortex is simply gone and has been replaced by cerebral spinal fluid. Medicine cannot cure this condition."

The 2003 guardian ad litem report by Jay Wolfson said neurological tests had measured Terri Schiavo's "persistent vegetative state," concluding that her cerebral cortex had shrunk and that her brain tissue had "continued to devolve."

The report said her behavior -- breathing on her own, sometimes appearing to track movements or respond to sounds when awake, occasionally groaning or making other noises -- is characteristic of persons in a persistent vegetative state. This behavior "is attributable to brain stem and forebrain functions that are reflexive, rather than cognitive," the report said

 

Copyright 2005, The Washington Post.