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Fla. Doctors Remove Woman's Feeding Tube

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

Doctors removed the feeding tube Wednesday that has been keeping alive a severely brain-damaged woman at the center of an epic, six-year legal battle between her husband and parents.

Terri Schiavo, 39, underwent the procedure at the Tampa Bay area hospice where she has been living for several years, said her father, Bob Schindler. Attorneys representing her husband, Michael Schiavo, said it will take between a week and 10 days for her to die.

The tube removal came just hours after Gov. Jeb Bush told Bob Schindler and his wife, Mary, that he was instructing his legal staff to find some means to block the court order allowing Michael Schiavo to end his wife's life.

"I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer. But I know that if a person can be able to sustain life without life support, that should be tried," the governor said, adding the "ultimate decision of this is in the courts."

The father of the woman said the family was heartened by the governor's last-minute effort.

"The family has not given up hope on Terri," he said following the meeting with Bush. "We have spoken to the governor, and he hasn't given up hope either."

Schiavo has been in a vegetative state since 1990, when her heart stopped because of doctors said may have been a chemical imbalance. Her parents believe she is capable of learning how to eat and drink on her own.

A state appeals court in Lakeland rejected motions by an attorney for the Schindlers and their legal remedies have been exhausted, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Michael Schiavo says his wife would not have wanted to be kept alive artificially in this way, but his in-laws contend that she wants to live. She left no living will or other written instructions.

"In our eyes, it's murder," Bob Schindler said Wednesday on CBS' "Early Show."

George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, said that the Schindlers were "still in denial" over Terri Schiavo's wishes not to be kept alive.

Doctors have testified that the noises and facial expressions Terri Schiavo makes are reflexes and do not indicate that she has enough mental capabilities to communicate.

Her feeding tube was removed once before in April 2001 after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reverse a lower court's ruling ordering the tube be taken out. But a judge hearing a lawsuit from the Schindlers ordered the tube be reinserted two days later.

The Schindlers also contend that Michael Schiavo should not be his wife's guardian because he has long dated another woman. Michael Schiavo has refused to divorce his wife, saying that he fears her parents would ignore her desire to die if they became her guardians.

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