Opinion

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I too have been following the Terry Schiavo case. My mother was

on a feeding tube for 4 years before she died. My sisters and I

always said we would never put a tube in again if we had it to do

over. But I could never say take out the tube and let her starve. No

one truly knows for certain what she can and cannot feel. How can

they say 100% that she will feel nothing or know nothing about it.

Last night on MSNBC there was a report about the case and a story

about a woman who was in a coma for a number of years and for some

reason they took out the feeding tube and then replaced it. She said

by the third day she was screaming from inside for someone to give

her something to drink, of all things she wanted green Gatorade. By

the fifth day she was in terrible pain from hunger and she was

inside aware of all this and nobody could tell she was still aware.

She told this story herself and is now perfectly normal.

It is no wonder we cannot find all the answers about mito from our

doctors when for every neuro that says her brain is non-functioning

from the cat scans another says there is function and a chance she

could get better with therapy. How can they all see something

different looking at the same scans.

AS for her husband I see another . There is an

definite reason why he is so determined after all this time and it

sure has nothing to do with love. He is hiding something and

probably after Terri is gone the truth will come out. Why is he so

determined that no one see her. Why not say to her parents OK I will

give you six months of intensive therapy to see if there can be

inprovement. If not then do something, but not starvation. Like

everyone else here has said, we do better by our pets because we

don't want them to suffer, we love them and they deserve better than

to die from starving.

The decision for or against a feeding tube is difficult. For my

mother she had Huntington's and she was choking on her food and

aspirating it into her lungs resulting in repeated pneumonia attacks.

They told us she would either die of pneumonia or choke to death.

The thought of her choking to death seemed so terrible we agreed to

the tube. I think now we were selfish because we didn't want her to

leave us. She was aware till the last two months and I wonder how

she really felt. She couldn't talk except to say our names so I

don't know. We were there with her everyday. My dad went to the home

from 12 to 4 and then 6 to 8 everyday for four years until he died.

My mother died two months later, I think of a broken heart. My

oldest sister always said she would never want a tube but now she

has Huntington's and she has stated she would now want one.

I don't know what the answer is, I just hope Terri doesn't suffer.

Debbie