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They didn't take him off the ventilator, according to reports, they just refused kidney dialysis. He died 27 days after his accident. They made that decision based on predictions that he would be in a persistent vegatative state. People do come off of ventilators sometimes. I worked in a group home for closed head injured patients. The longest any of them had been in a coma was 1 year. Some of them were on ventilators for months, but came off of them. Terri has been brain dead for 15 years with no change in her condition. Fifteen years. FIFTEEN years!
Terri's husband didn't exactly go out the next day and start having babies with someone else. He waited until 1998. Look at this time line, the therapies they tried, the treatment they attempted and she showed NO improvement at all:
February 1990… Terri suffers cardiac arrest and a severe loss of oxygen to her brain
May 1990… Terri leaves hospital and is brought to a rehabiliation center for aggressive therapy
July 1990… Terri is brought to the home where her husband and parents live; after a few weeks, she is brought back to the rehabilitation center
November 1990… Terri is taken to California for experimental therapies
January 1991… Terri is returned to Florida and placed at a rehabilitation center in Brandon
July 1991… Terri is transfered to a skilled nursing facility where she receives aggressive physical therapy and speech therapy
May 1992… Michael and the Schindlers stop living together
January 1993… Michael recovers $1 million settlement for medical malpractice claim involving Terri's care; jury had ruled in Michael's favor on allegations Terri's doctors failed to diagnose her bulimia, which led to her heart failure; case settled while on appeal
March 1994… Terri is transferred to a Largo nursing home
May 1998… Michael files petition for court to determine whether Terri's feeding tube should be removed; Michael takes position that Terri would choose to remove the tube; Terri's parents take position that Terri would choose not to remove the tube
Terri will be in a much better place soon. I hope that if I am ever put in that situation with one of my children, I can let them move on to their everlasting life instead of keeping them here in this world. I pray that nobody ever makes me exist in that state, but lets me move on as well.
I filled out that 5 wishes paper and have sent the link to my mom too. I know her wishes, as does my brother, and her brother and sister, but I prefer to have it in writing.
Dee
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