Who is terri schiavo

It reminded them, Brian said, of the St. Michael's Fair back home in Pennsylvania. Her breathing had grown rapid and erratic. Her eyes were open, but like always, Brian said, she seemed to look right through them. Outside the hospice, Bobby Schindler was pleading with the Pinellas Park police officer for another visit. An officer knocked on the door of Terri's room and told Michael that Bobby wanted to see her.

Michael and Brian, groggy, got themselves together and said okay, then went to another hospice room down the hall where they'd been living for days. Just after a. They stayed in the room for about an hour and a half. According to Pavone, Terri could not focus her eyes and was breathing with difficulty. The hospice workers, he said, told him and the Schindler siblings that Terri wouldn't make it through another day.

They prayed over Terri, held her hand, stroked her hair. They recited the rosary and delivered the chaplet of divine mercy, a series of prayers asking God's mercy. While Bobby and Suzanne said their goodbyes, Michael and Brian Schiavo waited in the room down the hall. What happened next is unclear. According to Brian Schiavo and Felos, a hospice worker told them that Bobby Schindler had argued with an officer outside Terri's room. Apparently, a nurse had asked everyone to leave the room so Terri's condition could be assessed.

Bobby, Felos said, didn't want to leave and suggested he and Suzanne be allowed to stay until Terri died, even if Michael Schiavo was inside the room. If necessary, he said, an officer could supervise. Paul O'Donnell, a Franciscan friar who was a spiritual adviser to the Schindlers, acknowledged later that the police had asked Bobby and Suzanne to leave.

But O'Donnell denied that there'd been a problem. Michael Schiavo went to his wife and cradled her. Terri lay on her left side, wearing a pale nightgown. The covers were pulled up. She had stuffed animals under her arms. Four hospice workers in the room were crying.

Michael held his wife and talked to her. Brian stood next to Michael, massaging his back. The lawyers and nurses left Michael and Brian alone with her after a while. Terri's hands were still wrapped around pads to protect her palms; Michael removed the pads and tossed them into the trash. Her hands, curled tighter and tighter into fists over the years, had relaxed a little.

Michael took a red rose from a vase by her bed and put it in her hands. By now, Terri's parents had arrived at the hospice. Knowing they were on their way, Michael and Brian Schiavo went back to the room down the hall.

Both of them were crying. I feel this happiness inside me that she is no longer locked in that existence. Terri's siblings, waiting in a shop across the street, learned of her death from the family's attorney, David Gibbs III.

They waited for Terri's parents at the hospice entrance. People associated with the aid-in-dying movement today say that the Terri Schiavo case was a turning point for Americans thinking about their own end-of-life decisions. The news also sparked a discussion about the benefits of prolonging life at all costs.

And that was the first time people realized how intrusive government could actually be. Maynard died Nov. In the last several months, more than half of all U. Contact us at letters time. By Josh Sanburn. Related Stories. She was ultimately diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy, a brain injury resulting from oxygen starvation. Her husband Michael Schiavo asked for her feeding tube to be removed once doctors declared her in a persistent vegetative state, touching off a decade-long legal battle with her parents that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

She died about two weeks after the tube was removed on March 31, The line then is the line now, Caplan said. When someone is diagnosed as permanently unconscious, life- saving measures may cease. But all the legal and ethical battles have not made the personal decisions any easier, Caplan said.

Jahi McMath. Caplan referenced year-old Jahi McMath, who was declared brain dead by doctors after going into cardiac arrest during tonsil surgery at Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland in California.

The family sued to keep the child on life support. She was eventually moved to New Jersey where state law allows religious objection to brain death. Jahi's mother, Nailah Winkfield, spoke to ABC News exclusively last year, saying her daughter continues to respond to verbal commands.