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March 25, 2005
Terri
I am so used to this crazed world that it is not very often that something truly shocks me. However, the Terri Schiavo case has done just that. I am shocked. I am shocked that here in the United States a person would be allowed, by the ruling of the courts, to be starved to death. This is the seventh day that Terri has had no food or water. I saw her father on the news explaining how her face was beginning to look shrunken and her eyes hollow – the signs that someone is slowly dying of starvation.
In case you don’t know the story of Terri Schiavo, I will give you the quick lesson. She is a woman who lives in Florida who in 1990 collapsed from cardiac arrest. This collapse deprived her brain of oxygen leaving her in a vegetative state. It was later determined that her cardiac arrest was caused by a chemical imbalance because she suffered from bulimia. (NOTE: I wonder if her husbands continual berating about her weight brought on the bulimia. You will hear more about this below.)
Her husband, Michael, is now saying that Terri would not want to live by artificial means. He has taken his case to the court system numerous times to have her feeding tube removed and has been successful in doing so three times. Her parents say that they never heard Terri say anything about this. They have been fighting to keep her feeding tube in and to ultimately, keep her alive.
THIS is a fantastic article about the case that I highly recommend reading.
I find it very interesting that her husband was with two other women within a year of her collapse. One of these women was a nursing assistant at the home where Terri was being cared for! In an article at MSNBC this nursing assistant talks about how Terri’s husband would whine all the time about how Terri’s illness had ruined his life. She claims that he would also talk about how he couldn’t wait to collect the malpractice settlement.
From an MSNBC report:
Trudy Capone, who worked as a nurse at a home where Terri was treated in the early 1990s, says Michael Schiavo is “an evil, evil, evil man” who repeatedly told her that he and his wife had never discussed what to do if she was incapacitated. She says he was always asking, “What should I do?”
“This man is a liar,” Capone says.
MSNBC also reports:
Initially, Michael Schiavo felt that his wife might benefit from therapy. He staged fund-raisers to pay for a flight to California for rehabilitation.
During a medical malpractice case in 1992, Schiavo testified that he was studying nursing at St. Petersburg College to better learn how to care for Terri.
“I want to bring my wife home,” he told the court.
When asked how he felt about being married to Terri in her current state, he said: “I feel wonderful. She’s my life, and I wouldn’t trade her for the world. ... I believe in the vows that I took with my wife. Through sickness, in health, for richer or poorer.
“I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I’m going to do that.”
But, before her collapse this is what MSNBC reports her friends saw:
Friends of Terri’s have said that Schiavo became possessive of his wife, tracking her movements and begrudging time she spent with her family. Terri had been overweight as a girl, and he reportedly rode her about her weight — and threatened to leave her if she got fat again.
Terri’s brother, Bobby, has said Terri was even contemplating leaving Schiavo.
I do not believe that this case is about malpractice money. Michael has been offered millions to leave Terri and he refuses to do it. I think this case boils down to hate. I think that he has a deep hate for Terri’s parents and their constant interference. I believe that he hates them so much that he refuses to let them win by divorcing Terri. I believe that he will not stop until Terri is dead and he has won. The reason I feel so confident about this is because I know someone who would be this exact same way if something happened to his wife. Some people have deep hates; hates that ordinary people cannot understand.
He needs to let go. He needs to let Terri’s parents reclaim their daughter and he needs to begin a new life somewhere else. I think you have to be a very sick individual to want to sit back and see someone starve to death. Is the United States going to be like Hitler? Are they going to begin putting all people in a vegetative state in one big room and let them all starve to death? Where do they draw the line?
Posted by tami at March 25, 2005 8:54 AM
Comments
When I read about the Chinese baby girls that were just placed in a room to die I felt exactly the same, Tami. Keep crusading!
Posted by: lynne at March 25, 2005 9:26 AM
This is just so awful, poor woman.
Posted by: Miss L at March 25, 2005 1:57 PM
I think he is afraid that, with therapy, she will regain her ability to talk and would tell everyone she didn't ever say the things he claimed she did. Or, worse, that he tried to kill her that night. That's the only reasoning I can see behind his refusal to just file for a dissolution of marriage and allow her parents to assume guardianship. It makes me sick.
Even if Michael Schiavo hadn't entered into the other relationships, even if he hadn't done any of this and truly seemed interested in her best interest, to starve someone is cruel. She's not on life support, she only requires what any human being requires: food and hydration.
People should be picketing out front of her husband's home as well as hospice. He should never, ever be able to live his life in peace.
Posted by: Kimberley at March 25, 2005 5:59 PM