Starvation: "very Peaceful"?, I personally call it murder.

from ABCNews.com

How Will Terri Schiavo Die?

Updated 8:06 AM ET March 19, 2005

Though the legal wrangling in the Terri Schiavo case has been loud and contentious, the brain-damaged woman's physical response to having her feeding tube removed is likely to be very serene.

"The process of starving to death seems very barbaric but in actuality is very peaceful," said Dr. Fred Mirarchi, assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

"The patient's experience is really pretty benign," said Dr. Joanne Lynn, a hospice physician associated with Americans for Better Care of the Dying, a group working for improved end-of-life care. "Overwhelmingly, what will happen is nothing."

Lynn, who has worked with numerous families facing end-of-life situations, said most patients who are removed from life support will die within a matter of a few days or weeks.

"Some people can last four or five days -- some people can last 20 days," she said.

Schiavo's feeding tube was removed on Friday afternoon following a contentious battle between her husband, who said his wife would not want to live in a vegetative state, and her parents, who wanted her kept on live support.


Schiavo's feeding tube was removed twice before, in 2001 and 2003. The second time, the tube was replaced after six days when Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed a hastily passed law allowing him to intervene in the case. "Terri's Law" was later ruled unconstitutional.


The Body Begins Shutting Down
The physical process of dying after life support is removed follows a pattern familiar to hospice workers. And the fact that Schiavo is in a vegetative state will likely make her death faster and less painful, Lynn said.

"It depends on whether she has the ability to swallow anything -- and if that anything is offered," she said. "If she's unable to swallow anything, the course toward dying, so far as anyone can tell, is fairly comfortable."

Most patients who cannot eat or drink will enter a physical state known as ketosis. During ketosis the body begins to use fat and muscle as a fuel source.

In advanced cases of ketosis, the nervous system response is dulled, and patients rarely feel pain, hunger or thirst. There is also some evidence that ketosis can produce a state of well-being or mild euphoria.

Family members and friends are often surprised to find that a terminal patient's eyes will open and they will appear to glance around the room. "It's very confusing on an emotional level," said Lynn.

But Lynn explained that the part of the brain-controlling eye movement is actually very primitive and can remain active even after other parts of the brain appear to have stopped functioning.

Patients are also likely to experience irregular breathing.

"Cyclical breathing is very typical," Lynn said, adding that in some cases the patient will breathe very rapidly, then take just one or two breaths per minute.

Over time, the patient will become more and more dehydrated and will eventually develop kidney failure, Mirarchi explained.

"Patients at this point are uremic -- filled with bodily toxins -- and are unaware of their surroundings," Mirarchi said. "They develop electrolyte imbalances that eventually cause an abnormal beating of the heart."

In the final moments of life, the abnormalities in the patient's heart rate known as arrhythmia are common.

"The heart will then stop and the patient will die," said Mirarchi.

The efforts of caregivers may in some cases complicate the death of the patient. Giving a patient water, for example, may prolong the process.

"Going without water makes it more gentle," Lynn said. "Allowing chemicals [in the blood] to cause arrhythmia is more merciful."




I note none of these "Doctors" were asked if they had personally experienced starvation or were willing to volunteer to do the same.

You can't have it both ways...

It is either gods will, this woman would have been dead many years ago if man had not interceeded...

...or she is kept alive by modern science ...

on one hand you argue your beliefs in your god and damn modern science, then you embrace science in keeping alive a soul that the god has called!

Make up your mind please.

Brother Shadows, you made a slight mistake in your reasoning. It is completely impossible to keep alive a soul that the God has called. There is no power of man, nor no advance of science, that can alter either the power or the timing of God. I do embrace the technology that we have discovered. God has given us great minds to create advancements on all fronts, medicine included. One day science will be able to reverse such damage, but not today.

And don't try the "it's God's will" garbage. There is absolutely no desire of God for anything bad to happen to any of us. God doesn't create tornadoes or earthquakes to kill us. He doesn't cause heart attacks to kill us. Before Adam and Eve decided to turn away from God they lived without anything bad happening to them in the Garden of Eden. It was man, with a lot of help from Satan, that both created and allowed bad things to fill the Earth, not God. Don't blame Him for anything that's happened to Terri.

God has given us great minds to create advancements on all fronts, medicine included. One day science will be able to reverse such damage, but not today.

I myself have written and notarized advance directives, and my entire family knows what they are and where they are. All I want is morphine (I don't like pain), nothing else.

"In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life," President Bush said in a statement.

At stake is whether Terri Schiavo will be allowed to die, as her husband, Michael Schiavo, said she wanted. The 41-year-old woman, who is severely brain damaged and in what doctors say is a persistent vegetative state, stopped receiving food and water through a feeding tube at her Pinellas Park hospice Friday under a state court order. But her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, continued to battle Michael Schiavo for the right to keep her alive.

The courts have agreed that his wife is in a persistent vegetative state, completely unaware of her surroundings, because most of her cerebral cortex, the thinking part of her brain, is gone.

They also have agreed that Michael Schiavo presented clear and convincing evidence that she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means.

Though Terri Schiavo, who has been on a feeding tube for 15 years, never wrote down her wishes, her husband said she made them clear in casual conversations. Her parents dispute that, saying she could get better and that their daughter has laughed, cried, smiled and responded to their voices.

Terri collapsed in 1990 after suffering from a severe brain injury. Her husband Michael, took out a medical malpractice case seeking damages so that he would be able to care for his wife. At the malpractice hearing, Michael said: "I believe in the vows I took with my wife, through sickness, in health, for richer or poor. 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."

The jury awarded approximately $1.3 million in damages. Approximately $750,000 was set aside to pay for her rehabilitation and care.

Florida Law dictates that an "end of life directive" is a requirement in order to legally remove a person's nutrition and hydration, but there is no such directive in Terri's case. So is this a case, once again, of the Florida courts expanding their powers to make laws and not just interpret laws?

So who is this Michael Schiavo character?
- Carla Sauer Iyer, R.N. in an affidavit in September 2003: "I was employed at Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center in Largo, Florida from April of 1995 to July 1996, while Terri Schiavo was a patient there ... When Michael visited Terri, he always came alone and always had the door closed and locked while he was with Terri. He would typically be there about twenty minutes or so. When he left Terri would would be trembling, crying hysterically, and would be very pale and have cold sweats. It looked to me like Terri was having a hypoglycemic reaction, so I?d check her blood sugar. The glucometer reading would be so low it was below the range where it would register an actual number reading. I would put dextrose in Terri?s mouth to counteract it. This happened about five times on my shift as I recall. Normally Terri?s blood sugar levels were very stable due to the uniformity of her diet through tube feeding. It is my belief that Michael injected Terri with Regular insulin, which is very fast acting ..."
- A bone scan taken 53 weeks after Terri's collapse revealed that Terri had fractured ribs, damage to her pelvic area, L1 vertebrae, spine, both knees and both ankles. It also revealed that Terri had suffered a broken femur and a broken back. Three doctors concluded that Terri had endured trauma of some sort. How in the world could anyone, especially someone that cannot move, have this many injuries? Were they there before Terri had her heart attack? Did any of then cause her heart attack? Did Michael cause any of these?

In Feb 1991 - Terri Collapses in her home
In Feb 1993 - Michael Schiavo denies recommended rehabilitation treatment. Schiavo also posts Do not Resuscitate order in Terri's medical chart.
In Aug 1993 - Schiavo orders medical staff not to treat Terri for potentially fatal infection.
In Apr 1994 - Terri moved to Palm Gardens Nursing Home.
In Sep 1995 - Schiavo orders Palm Gardens not to treat Terri for potentially fatal infection.
On Apr 25 2001 - Schiavo bans Terri brother and sister from visiting Terri. Schiavo's ex girlfriend (Cyndi) reveals Schiavo lied about Terri?s death wishes.

http://www.glennbeck.com/tshirtoffer.htm

Dr. William Maxfield, a radiologist, examined Schiavo in May 2002. He said he stood to one side in the room while a family member brought in a balloon and bounced it around. "She was actually following the balloon with her eyes, with turning her head to the side," Maxfield said. Her ability to follow the movements exceeded what someone could do by reflex, he said.

Dr. Ron Cranford, a Minneapolis neurologist, examined Schiavo after an appellate court in 2001 ordered additional medical review. He said she was not able to follow movement with her eyes. "Terri doesn't do any of that. She has no sustained visual pursuit. And that's the hallmark of the vegetative state," he said by telephone on Monday. In fact, Cranford said, Schiavo's inability to follow objects or people with her eyes was one of the main reasons he concluded that she is in a persistent vegetative state.

Should defective infants should be killed before, for example, their 28th day? They aren't yet cognizant of their own existence, and their early exit would mean that a family's other children and parents would have happier lives. Society, meanwhile, would be spared the expense of caring for these un-persons. When is it OK to throw the defects into the garbage can?

Maybe even a a brave new world in which the organs of social inferiors are harvested so that those more worthy can have longer, productive lives?

I made no mistake! Those are the words of those who fight the removal of the feeding tube.

You argue my case better then I did... the flesh is not the person, it resides in the spirit ( soul )... to keep alive flesh that has no spirit... well you answered that!

Well, the thing is A.) Terri Schiavo virtually has no brain left. It has atrophied to spinal fluid. What is keeping her heart beating and her lungs breathing is her brain stem and that's going to go sooner or later, so she's not going to feel anything, and B.) Starvation is a lot more humane than blood poisoning or suffocation (resisting dialysis and removal of breathing tube, respectively).

Whatever miracle recovery people are expecting is never going to happen. It's impossible. She is a shell of a former human being. She has no quality of life and she hasn't had one for 15 years. And the fact that people are trying to force-feed a bulimic is a a sad irony.