- Barbara Weller is an attorney for Terri Schiavo's family.
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- This past Christmas Eve day, 2004, I went to visit Terri
Schiavo with her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, her sister, her niece,
and Attorney David Gibbs III. The visit took place at the Woodside Hospice
for about 45 minutes just before noon.
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- When I knew I was going to visit Terri with her parents,
I had no idea what to expect. I was prepared for the possibility that the
Schindlers love their daughter and sister so much that they might imagine
behaviors by Terri that aren't actually evident to others.
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- The media and Mr. Schiavo clearly give the impression
that Terri is in a coma or comatose state and engages only in non-purposeful
and reflexive movements and responses. I am a mother and a grandmother,
as well as one of the Schindlers' attorneys, and I could understand how
parents might imagine behavior and purposeful activity that is not really
there. I was prepared to be as objective as I could be during this visit
and not to be disappointed at anything I saw or experienced.
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- I was truly surprised at what I saw from the moment we
entered the little room where Terri is confined. The room is a little wider
than the width of two single beds and about as long as the average bedroom,
with plenty of room for us to stand at the foot of her bed. Terri is on
the first floor and there is a lovely view to the outside grounds of the
facility. The room is entered by a short hallway, however, and there is
no way for Terri to see out into the hallway or for anyone in the hallway
to observe Terri.
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- From the moment we entered the room, my impression was
that Terri was very purposeful and interactive and she seemed very curious
about the presence of obvious strangers in her room. Terri was not in bed,
but was in her chair, which has a lounge chair appearance and elevates
her head at about a 30-degree angle. She was dressed and washed, her hair
combed, and she was covered with a holiday blanket. There were no tubes
of any kind attached to her body. She was completely free of any restraints
that would have indicated any type of artificial life support. Not even
her feeding tube was attached and functioning when we entered, as she is
not fed 24 hours a day.
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- The thing that surprised me the most about Terri as I
took my turn to greet her by the side of her chair was how beautiful she
is. I would have expected to see someone with a sallow and gray complexion
and a sick looking countenance. Instead, I saw a very pretty woman with
a peaches and cream complexion and a lovely smile, which she even politely
extended to me as I introduced myself to her. I was amazed that someone
who had not been outside for so many years and who received such minimal
health care could look so beautiful. She appeared to have an inner light
radiating from her face. I was truly taken aback by her beauty, particularly
under the adverse circumstances in which she has found herself for so many
years.
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- Terri's parents, sister, and niece went immediately to
greet Terri when we entered the room and stood in turn directly beside
her head, stroking her face, kissing her and talking quietly with her.
When she heard their voices, and particularly her mother's voice, Terri
instantly turned her head towards them and smiled. Terri established eye
contact with her family, particularly with her mother, who spent the most
time with her during our visit. It was obvious that she recognized the
voices in the room with the exception of one. Although her mother was talking
to her at the time, she obviously had heard a new voice and exhibited a
curious demeanor.
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- Attorney Gibbs was having a conversation near the door
with Terri's sister. His voice is very deep and resonant and Terri obviously
picked it up. Her eyes widened as if to say, "What's that new sound
I hear?" She scanned the room with her eyes, even turning her head
in his direction, until she found Attorney Gibbs and the location of the
new voice and her eyes rested momentarily in his direction. She then returned
to interacting with her mother.
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- When her mother was close to her, Terri's whole face
lit up. She smiled. She looked directly at her mother and she made all
sorts of happy sounds. When her mother talked to her, Terri was quiet and
obviously listening. When she stopped, Terri started vocalizing. The vocalizations
seemed to be a pattern, not merely random or reflexive at all. There is
definitely a pattern of Terri having a conversation with her mother as
best she can manage. Initially, she used the vocalization of "uh'uh"
but without seeming to mean it as a way of saying "no", just
as a repeated speech pattern. She then began to make purposeful grunts
in response to her mother's conversation. She made the same sorts of sound
with her father and sister, but not to the same extent or as delightedly
as with her mother. She made no verbal response to her niece or to Attorney
Gibbs and myself, but she did appear to pay attention to our words to her.
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- The whole experience was rather moving. Terri definitely
has a personality. Her whole demeanor definitely changes when her mother
speaks with her. She lights up and appears to be delighted at the interaction.
She has an entirely different reaction to her father who jokes with her
and has several standing jokes that he uses when he enters and exits her
presence. She appears to merely "tolerate" her father, as a child
does when she says "stop" but really means, "this is fun."
When her father greets her, he always does the same thing. He says, "here
comes the hug" and hugs her. He then says, "you know what's coming
next---the kiss."
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- Her father has a scratchy mustache and both times when
he went through this little joke routine with her, she laughed in a way
she did not do with anyone else. When her father is ready to plant the
kiss on her cheek, she immediately makes a face her family calls the "lemon
face." She puckers her lips, screws up her whole face, and turns away
from him, as if making ready for the scratchy assault on her cheek that
she knows is coming. She did the exact same thing both times that her father
initiated this little routine joke between the two of them.
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- The interactions with her family and our appearance in
her room appeared to require some effort and exertion from Terri. From
time to time, she would close her eyes as if to rest. This happened primarily
when no one was paying particular attention to her, but we were talking
among ourselves. After a few minutes or when one of the visitors approached
her and started to talk directly to her again, Terri would open her eyes
and begin her grunting sounds again in response to their conversations.
Although I approached her, leaned close and stroked her arms and spoke
to her, she did not verbally respond to me.
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- Terri's hands are curled up around little soft cylinders
that help her not to injure herself. I understand that these contractures
are likely very painful, although there was a time when Terri was receiving
simple motion therapy when her hands and arms relaxed and were no longer
as constricted. When the therapy was discontinued by order of her guardian
and the court, the contractures returned.
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- These contractures would apparently be avoidable if Terri
were given the simple range of motion therapy she previously received.
It is very sad to observe firsthand these conditions that make her life
more difficult, but that would be correctable with little effort.
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- When we were preparing to leave, the interactions with
Terri changed. First, she went through the joke routine with her father
and the "lemon face." When her niece said goodbye to her, Terri
did not react. Nor did she react to me or to Attorney Gibbs when we said
our goodbyes to her. When her sister went to her to say goodbye, Terri's
verbalizations changed dramatically. Instead of the happy grunting and
"uh uh" sounds she had been making throughout the visit, her
verbalizations at these goodbyes changed to a very low and different sound
that appeared to come from deep in her throat and was almost like a growl.
She first made the sound when her sister said goodbye and then, amazingly
to me, she made exactly the same sound when her mother said goodbye to
her.
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- It seemed Terri was visibly upset that they were leaving.
She almost appeared to be trying to cling to them, although this impression
came only from her changed facial expression and sounds, since her hands
cannot move. It appeared like she did not want to be alone and knew they
were leaving. It was definitely apparent in the short time I was there
that her emotions changed-it was apparent when she was happy and enjoying
herself, when she was amused, when she was resting from her exertion to
communicate, and when she was sad at her guests leaving. It was readily
apparent and surprising that her mood changed so often in a short 45-minute
visit.
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- I was pleasantly surprised to observe Terri's purposeful
and varied behaviors with the various members of her family and with Attorney
Gibbs and myself. I never imagined Terri would be so active, curious, and
purposeful. She watched people intently, obviously was attempting to communicate
with each one in various ways and with various facial expressions and sounds.
She was definitely not in a coma, not even close. This visit certainly
shed more light for me on why the Schindlers are fighting so hard to protect
her, to get her medical care and rehabilitative assistance, and to spend
all they have to protect her life.
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- I realize that Terri has good days and bad days. There
are obviously days when she does not interact with her family, as they
had previously told us. There are also apparently days when Terri is even
more interactive and responsive to them than she was on the day I visited.
Since this visit I am more convinced than ever that the Schindlers are
not just parents who refuse to let go of their daughter. There really is
a lot going on with their daughter and potentially, it seemed obvious to
me, Terri could improve even more with appropriate care and 24 hour a day
love that can only come from a dedicated family. As I watched her, my foremost
thought was that on the next day, Christmas, Terri should not have been
confined to her small room in a hospice center, nice as that room was,
but that she should have been gathered around the Christmas dinner table
enjoying the holiday with her family.
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- http://www.reclaimamerica.org/Pages/News/newspage.asp?story=2327
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