I've been trying to come up with something really brilliant for my first entry into my blog, because I wanted the first entry to be, well, brilliant (first impressions and all that). And while I did come up with some good book-related topics for future blogs, none seemed quite brilliant enough to be my first.
So I've decided to not to wax literary for the first blog, but write about a social/political/moral issue that, frankly, makes me wonder if we have finally lost our minds, our hearts and even our souls.
In March, we all heard about Terry Shiavo. The case polarized the nation. When Terri finally died of starvation and dehydration, those of us who saw it as a murder by an adulterous, greedy husband, mourned. And for the last month and a half, as the news of Terri's life and death faded from the news, I tried not to think about Terri, because, for me, it was a reminder of how very little some in our society value life.
Other than the court battles I expected to see on behalf of other brain-injured patients across the nation that would come as a result of the Florida judicial system's unilateral declaration that an adulterous husband with much to gain from the death of his wife can deprive her of the only thing she needed to survive (food and water - which, btw, is what we all need to survive), I thought it was over. After all, Terri was gone, and there was nothing more we could do or say. Right? I mean, we all had our opinion, but the bottom line was, it was over.
Then in the wee hours of this morning, I came across a news headline that brought it all back: "Brain Injured Woman Speaks After Two Years".
Here's an excerpt of the piece:
ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. (May 12) - A woman who couldn't talk or feed herself after suffering head trauma in a traffic accident has spoken her first words in more than two years.
Tracy Gaskill, 30, began speaking and swallowing about three weeks ago, family members and medical personnel said. She had suffered internal injuries and head trauma when her pickup truck rolled over on a highway in September 2002.
"I have never seen this happen in my career," Dr. David Schmeidler said. "I've read about it happening, the severely brain damaged recovering suddenly, but never seen it until now."
Gaskill's family believes the care she has received and their daily visits and prayers helped her recovery.
It's important to note that Tracy received the therapy she needed and regular visits from a loving family. Terri did not, because Michael Shiavo denied her therapy and forbid her family from visiting her regularly (and let's face it, with a mistress and two illegitimate children by his mistress, he simply didn't have time to visit her much, himself).
Some might say that Tracy was only in her condition for 2 years, whereas Terri's condition had lasted 15 years. But there are others who have been severely brain damaged and who went longer than Terri without responding.
Sarah Scantlin of Kansas was struck by a drunk driver in 1984, and left bedridden and unable to communicate. UNTIL THIS YEAR - 20 years after the accident, she uttered her first word. And she continues her recovery! Will she ever be the same as before the accident? Probably not. But by God, she's got a chance.
Nearly 10 years ago, firefighter Donald Herbert was injured in the line of duty and experienced head trauma and approximately 10 minutes without oxygen (btw, this is the same amount of time Terri went without oxygen). He spent the first two months in a coma, and the next nearly 10 years basically unresponsive, did not recognize his family - in fact, he could not even see his family (blind), and had little or no memory of his past.
Over the years, his physician, Dr. Ahmed, says Herbert was in a "near persistent vegetative state" (remember, that's what they called Terri's state, minus the "near", but then again, unfortunately for Terri, she didn't have physicians like Dr. Ahmed once Michael decided it was time to move on with his life).
In April 2005, Donald Herbert made a miraculous recovery. Very suddenly, he literally seemed to snap awake. His vision came back, and he began talking. Not just talking, but laughing and joking around, asking questions. He recognized everyone - often by their voice, before he saw them.
He had no idea he'd been "gone" for almost 10 years, so he was shocked that his youngest son, 3 years old at the time of the accident, was now 13.
After such an exciting day, Herbert fell into an exhausted 30 hour sleep. And while he hasn't repeated that amazing first day of awareness, he has continued to improve, and his doctors expect him to be able to speak, walk and eat on his own.
Not only did Herbert receive physical therapy at his wife's command, but he was visited regularly by family, and his wife was willing to try anything that might help her husband, including experimental drugs that help with brain stimulation.
Note also that Terri Shiavo, between 1990 and 1992, received therapy. Her responsiveness had markedly improved, she could swallow on her own, she recognized family, she spoke (granted, simple words like "Mama" or "help me" or "no", but that's still speech and indicates awareness), and she could move her head toward noises and her arm on command.
At this time, the opinion of Terri's doctors was that she should receive - and would respond to - therapy.
Dr. W. Campbell Walker, M.D. did a bone scan of Terri on September 5, 1991, and found "compression fractures" throughout her body, and he stated, "The patient has a history of trauma." (suspect: physical abuse by Michael, as these injuries were not from her childhood).
In 1992, Michael Shiavo went to court on his behalf and Terri's behalf. Terri was awarded $1,650,000.00 that was to be used for her therapy, treatment and medical bills, and Michael Shiavo was awarded $600,000.00 for loss of companionship in the medical malpractice suit. (It was also in 1992 that Michael admitted in court that he'd had Terri's wedding rings melted down and made into a ring for himself).
In court, Michael testified that Terri had painful menstrual cramps and could convey that she needed Midol (this is important because it shows, by his own testimony, that Terri was aware and responsive prior to Michael's command that all therapy should cease).
In 1993, immediately after receiving the monetary awards for himself and Terri, Michael Shiavo denied the continuation of any further therapy for Terri - not even range of motion exercises or a simple towel to clutch within her hands to prevent her hands from stiffening into a tight fist. When she got an infection, he instructed nursing home staff that it was not to be treated (the nursing home stepped in on Terri's behalf, Michael relented to treatment, and promptly moved Terri to a different nursing home where the staff was more obedient).
In 1993, Michael also decided to put Terri's 2 cats to sleep - even though Terri's mother had offered to take them (but by this time, the fact that Terri's parents had objected the discontinuation of her therapy was enough justification for Michael to kill the cats rather than let someone else care for them - sort of like he would feel about his wife 5 years later).
Once Michael had ceased all therapy for Terri (even though she had been improving), he got himself a mistress - though it's unclear if this was the first or the second (he admitted to at least 2 adulterous affairs in 1998)
Now, at this point, she was NOT in a persistent vegetative state. That came later, after years of having therapy denied her, when all the progress she'd achieved had been lost, and she continued to decline because of lack of exercise and stimulation.
Everyone knows that a baby will fail to thrive without love and attention and excercise and physical and mental stimulation. And that's what happened to Terri - all at Michael's express order.
Michael Shiavo had $600k for his own use, thanks to Terri's accident. And he spent it, not only on himself, but on his mistress. And then on the children these two would have together. While his WIFE lay in a bed, withering away, stripped of everything by Michael Shiavo, from therapy that might have enabled her to make a recovery right down to her wedding ring.
Many of Terri's nurses testified that Terri was responsive, that Michael had said in frustration "When is this bitch going to die!", that Terri would cry and ask for help.
Terri's parents loved their daughter. They begged Michael to reinstate therapy. He refused.
Terri's condition gradually worsened. Her parents tried to have the therapy started again. Michael banned Terri's parents from seeing her.
Finally, Terri's parents pleaded with Michael to divorce Terri - he could be free and they could care for their daughter until she died of natural causes. He still refused.
It could be that Florida is a community property state and as such, Terri's parents could still have taken - on her behalf - half of all they'd acquired during their marriage (and Michael had acquired quite a bit since getting his share of the malpractice award).
It could also be that Michael feared that, once in her parents' care, Terri would be given intensive therapy, and if she somehow managed to regain all she'd lost since his denial of therapy, and continue to improve, perhaps she might be able to say something he did not want anyone else to know - like her condition was brought on by his violence, not bulemia (note that there were medical questions as to certain injuries Terri had at the time she was initially brought to the hospital, and whether she had been physically abused by Michael).
Terri's friends had spoken of Terri not being happy in the marriage and that she'd been contemplating leaving Michael prior to the accident.
Terri clung to life, and when she hadn't died on her own by 1998, Michael suddenly remembered that Terri had specifically said - many times according to him - that she wouldn't want to live in such a state (though in court in 1992, he'd attempted to get $20 million to care for Terri for the rest of her life, because, supposedly, she would have wanted to live and make every attempt to recover, and though he was given a much lower award than $20 million, it was based on the amount needed to care for Terri for the rest of her life - NOTE: her life expectancy at that point was considered to be another 20 years, give or take, even if she did not fully recover).
In 1998, he petitioned the court to take Terri off "life support" (food and water). Apparently, Terri not only told Michael, but his brother AND his sister that she would rather die than live like that. Funny she never told her parents or HER brother or HER sister, all of whom she was very close to. But don't we all casually discuss our wish to die in a case like this with our inlaws, rather than our immediate family? (ahem)
Richard L. Pearse, court appointed guardian ad litem, stated that Michael Shiavo had a conflict of interests, that he stood to gain over $700,000.00 immediately following Terri's death, that the fact that his ceasing of all therapy immediately upon receiving the monetary settlements made his motivations suspect, and that the court should NOT grant Michael Shiavo his request to have Terri's feeding tube removed.
Michael Shiavo, undeterred, kept fighting for the right to end his wife's life.
In 2003, with a new motion for the removal, Terri's feeding tube was removed by court order. Governor Jeb Bush (FL) stepped in and the feeding tube was reinserted.
Michael Shiavo continued his battle to end Terri's life. By now, no doubt, his babies' mama (the mistress) was getting a bit impatient, and apparently, so was he. This time around, the courts struck down "Terri's Law", giving Michael what he wanted - the right to deny his wife food and water (the only "extreme measures" used to maintain her life, btw - no heart, lung or other assistance). She needed no more "life support" than you or I.
Michael refused to allow certain tests to be done that would have proven conclusively that Terri was either in a vegetative state or not. His "right to die" attorney and his "right to die" doctors (all who obviously believe they know better than the rest of us when our lives are no longer worth living), managed to convince the courts that Terri was in a PVS, even without the tests necessary to prove this conclusively. But of course, Michael (and his brother and sister) were the only witnesses to Terri's supposed claim that she'd rather die, and that was enough for the court - well, that and the fact that he was still married to her, so he held all POA.
Terri was a devout Catholic, yet Michael wouldn't allow the priest to give her a last communion (because it would constitute sustinence - you know, that mouthful of the fruit of the vine might extend her life longer than necessary).
Morphine was given to Terri because she cried and moaned during the 13 days she starved to death (though Micheal swears she was too brain damaged to feel anything).
At the end, Michael was still so mad at Terri's family for trying to save their daughter's life that he refused to allow them to be with her and hold her hand at the moment of her death.
And when it came time to bury her - as a Catholic would wish to be - he decided to have her cremated instead ('cause, you know, it's about 1/5 of the price of a pauper's burial without cremation). Not only did he disrespect Terri's religious convictions, but the prick bastard refused to even allow Terri's family to take part in a memorial service or tell them where she was buried after the fact.
When all was said and done, Michael Shiavo had more to gain from Terri's death than her life. More to gain from remaining married to her until her death, rather than just giving her back to her parents and going on with his own life (with all her money, which he could have had). He was nothing short of a spiteful, hateful, control freak S.O.B., greedy and vengeful to the bitter end.
Now why have I rehashed the Terri Shiavo case?
Right after she died, I consoled myself by telling myself that perhaps she was better off - perhaps she really didn't have a chance to get better, and if nothing else, at least she was in a better place now. But after reading about Donald Herbert, Tracy Gaskill and Sarah Scantlin - all people whose medical conditions were either similar or worse than Terri's initial condition (before Michael Shiavo won the settlements and then cut off all therapy that might improve her condition) - I realize I was wrong.
I guess I was warring with myself over believing that our judges and society would allow a woman to be starved to death for the sake of an adulterous husband's convenience alone. But when you consider that Terri was NOT brain dead, and that Herbert, Gaskill and Scantlin - people who were very much like Terri - made remarkable recoveries against the medical odds, who are we to say that Terri couldn't?
When all is said and done, none of us know for sure. Even medial experts don't know all there is to know about the brain and its ability to heal.
It's one thing to remove the life support from someone with no brain activity. In this case, almost everyone would agree that keeping someone with no brain activity on life support is futile, and there's no chance of any sort of recovery.
But to allow a woman to be starved to death when there is brain activity, when she did respond well to therapy and her condition improved, and when none of the tests were done that could prove conclusively that she was in a PVS, sends human civilization back a thousand years, to a time when the weak and defenseless were considered a blight and were abandoned in the wild, to starve and die alone.
Is this really what we've become?
As I was searching for various information on Terri Shiavo, I came across some very insightful and thoughtful blog entries by author Holly Lisle:
The Value of a Bed (rated R for profanity) ,
Killing Grandma for Fun and Profit.
You can also read the
opinion of Terri's guardian ad litem, Richard L. Pearse, Jr, appointed by the court in 1998.
