- (Editor's note: This report contains quoted language
and descriptions of alleged multiple instances of denied medical care that
some readers may find offensive.)
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- (CNSNews.com) - A federal judge Tuesday refused to stop
a Florida court from ordering the removal of a disabled woman's feeding
tube at the request of her husband. However, the judge gave the woman's
parents ten days to amend their lawsuit against the husband, the hospital
caring for the woman and the hospice where she is being kept in anticipation
of her death by starvation or dehydration. The lawsuit also named the husband's
attorney as a "non-party co-conspirator" to the alleged violations.
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- Robert and Mary Schindler filed an <http://www.zimp.org/complaint.pdf>emergency
complaint Saturday with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District
of Florida in Tampa in an effort to block their daughter's husband and
legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, from moving forward with plans to remove
his wife's feeding tube. Thirty-nine year old Terri Schindler Schiavo suffered
a brain injury in 1990 under questionable circumstances. That injury, complicated
by a lack of therapy for more than a decade, has required that she be given
nutrition and hydration through a gastrostomy or "feeding tube."
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- Since receiving a $1.2 million medical malpractice award
on behalf of his wife, Schiavo has provided only subsistence care for her
and, based on affidavits included with the Schindlers' suit, allegedly
forbidden medical professionals from providing his wife with any therapy
or rehabilitation. He is currently allowing her to receive limited medical
treatment for a severe infection under a court order.
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- Former caregivers file affidavits supporting allegations
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- Three medical professionals who had cared for Terri in
the past filed affidavits accompanying the lawsuit, disputing Michael Schiavo's
claims that his wife was in a "Persistent Vegetative State,"
which is the requirement under Florida law for a feeding tube to be removed.
The medical experts also chronicled a long history of alleged denial of
care and therapy by Schiavo.
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- <http://www.cnsnews.com/pdf/2003/aff1.pdf>Carolyn
Johnson, a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), cared for Terri in a nursing
home in the early 1990s. She described her shock at being ordered not to
provide the same care for Terri as a patient in the same room with a similar
brain injury was receiving.
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- "I learned, as part of my training, that there was
a family dispute and that the husband, as guardian, wanted no rehabilitation
for Terri," Johnson explained. "Once, I wanted to put a cloth
in Terri's hand to keep her hand from closing in on itself, but I was not
permitted to do this, as Michael Schiavo considered that to be a form of
rehabilitation."
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- Another CNA, <http://www.cnsnews.com/pdf/2003/aff3.pdf>Heidi
Law, cared for Terri at a convalescent center in the mid and late 1990s.
Law described similar orders she received not to encourage Mrs. Schiavo's
recovery.
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- "I know that Terri did not receive routine physical
therapy or any other kind of therapy. I was personally aware of orders
for rehabilitation that were not being carried out," Law alleged in
her affidavit. "Even though they were ordered, Michael [Schiavo] would
stop them. Michael [Schiavo] ordered that Terri receive no rehabilitation
or range of motion therapy."
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- Law also alleged that her attempts to document Terri's
potential for improvement were thwarted.
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- "I made extensive notes and listed all of Terri's
behaviors, but there was never any apparent follow-up consistent with her
responsiveness," Law said. "There were trash cans at the nurses
stations that we were supposed to empty each shift, and I often saw the
notes in them."
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- Law directly disputes Michael Schiavo's claim that Terri
is in a Persistent Vegetative State, as well. In her affidavit, she detailed
how she routinely provided Terri with a wet washcloth filled with ice chips
to keep her mouth moistened and, on at least three occasions, fed Terri
flavored gelatin.
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- "I personally saw her swallow the ice water and
never saw her gag. [Another CAN] and I frequently put orange juice or apple
juice in her washcloth to give her something nice to taste, which made
her happy," Law recalled. "On three or four occasions I personally
fed Terri small mouthfuls of Jell-O, which she was able to swallow and
enjoyed immensely."
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- Nurse recalls Schiavo asking, 'When is that bitch gonna
die?'
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- <http://www.cnsnews.com/pdf/2003/aff2.pdf>Carla
Sauer Iyer was a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) at the same convalescent
center in the mid 1990s, and also cared for Terri. She described Mr. Schiavo
as being "focused on Terri's death.
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- "Michael [Schiavo] would say, 'When is she going
to die? Has she died yet?' and 'When is that bitch going to die?'"
Iyer charged. "Other statements which I recall him making include,
'Can't anything be done to accelerate her death, won't she ever die?' When
she wouldn't die, Michael [Schiavo] would be furious."
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- Conversely, Iyer said that when she would have to call
Schiavo to inform him of a downturn in Terri's condition, Schiavo would
be elated.
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- "Michael would be visibly excited, thrilled even,
hoping that she would die," Iyer recalled. "He would blurt out,
'I'm going to be rich,' and would talk about all the things he would buy
when Terri died, which included a new car, a new boat and going to Europe,
among other things."
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- Iyer also described incidents of Terri Schiavo talking,
moving voluntarily and responding to external stimuli, descriptions that
Iyer said were removed from Mrs. Schiavo's medical records. Both Law and
Iyer reported Terri verbally communicating, also contradicting Michael
Schiavo's claim that his wife was in a Persistent Vegetative State.
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- "During the time I cared for Terri, she formed words.
I have heard her say 'mommy' from time to time, and 'momma,'" Law
recalled. "She also said 'help me' a number of times."
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- Iyer described Terri as "alert and oriented,"
and said Michael Schiavo "systematically distorted" Terri's medical
condition.
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- "Terri spoke on a regular basis while in my presence,
saying such things as 'mommy' and 'help me,'" Iyer recalled. "'Help
me' was, in fact, one of her most frequent utterances. I heard her say
it hundreds of times."
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- Attorney named as 'non-party co-conspirator' to civil
rights violations
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- The lawsuit filed by Terri's parents accuses Schiavo,
both personally and in his official capacity as Terri's legal guardian,
of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act for refusing to provide
appropriate medical care and rehabilitation therapy, which are required
by the law and for seeking to deprive her of nutrition and hydration, which
is forbidden by the law.
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- George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney and a noted
author and advocate in Florida's so-called "right to die" movement,
is also named as a "non-party co-conspirator" in the lawsuit.
The Schindlers allege that Schiavo, with Felos' help, sought to deprive
Terri of her due process rights under the Fifth and 14th <http://www.cnsnews.com/Library/const-amend.htm%20>Amendments
to the U.S. Constitution.
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- The suit charges that Terri was denied a guardian ad
litem during most of the legal proceedings in which her husband sought
to end her life and, the remainder of the time, suffered from "ineffective
assistance of counsel, due process violations, and blatant conflict of
interest with Terri's guardian, defendant Michael Schiavo," who is
responsible for seeing that her legal interests are represented.
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- The only guardian ad litem and the only attorney to represent
Terri prior to her parents' intervention in the case were removed when
the attorney suggested that Michael Schiavo had a conflict of interest
that prohibited him from serving as Terri's guardian.
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- The complaint also alleges that Schiavo and Felos conspired
to deprive Terri of access to her priest in violation of the First Amendment
and that the use of a 1999 Florida law in her case represented a Fifth
Amendment due process violation of the constitutional prohibition on ex
post facto legislation since Mrs. Schiavo had suffered her injury in 1990.
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- All of the cumulative rights violations are alleged under
<http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=42&sec=1983>42
USC 1983, which provides that, "Every person who, under color of any
statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory
or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen
of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to
the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the
Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action
at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress."
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- The hospice where Terri Schiavo is being kept and the
hospital where her infection was supposed to have been treated are also
accused of violating the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. That law requires
that "handicapped" receive comparable medical care to that given
able-bodied patients with similar conditions or injuries. Both facilities
are subject to the Rehabilitation Act because they receive federal Medicare
funding. The hospital is also charged with violating provisions of the
Social Security law in <http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/42/chapters/7/subchapters/xviii/parts/d/sections/section_1395dd.html>42
USC 1395dd, which requires the examination and appropriate treatment of
emergency medical conditions and forbids the discharge of patients before
their conditions are stabilized. The Schindlers believe their daughter
was prematurely discharged from the hospital on more than one occasion
in an attempt to hasten her death.
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- Felos accused the Schindlers of trying to subvert the
Florida justice system.
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- "The purpose of this lawsuit is to invalidate the
lower court's decision," Felos told the Tampa Tribune Tuesday.
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- U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara gave the Schindlers
ten days to file an amended version of their lawsuit and offered Felos
an additional ten days to respond. He would not, however, block a hearing
scheduled for Sept. 11, during which Pinellas-Pasco Florida Circuit Judge
George Greer is expected to set a date for Terri Schiavo's feeding tube
to be removed.
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- Attorneys for both sides told reporters after the emergency
hearing Tuesday that they do not expect Greer to set that date any earlier
than the 20-day period set by the federal court for the Schindlers' amended
complaint and Felos' response.
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- http://www.cnsnews.com/Culture/Archive/200309/CUL20030903b.html
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- <http://www.apfn.org/apfn/terri.htm>http://www.apfn.org/apfn/terri.htm
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