Greer's Decisions (from Cheryl Ford, RN)

Dear Terri Supporters:
In summary, the following is a synopsis of what has taken place this week and what is remaining on the table for discussion.
Cheryl

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Clearwater Court
Monday, March 7: 1:30 p.m.:
Hearing on 10 Motions, including permitting Terri to be fed by mouth should her feeding tube be removed.

Result: Greer Denied 3/8/2005
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Clearwater Court
Tuesday, March 8: 3 p.m.:
Hearing on medical motions and Karen Ann Quinlan testimony with regard to error made on behalf of Greer and dates of Ms. Quinlan's death.

Result:Greer Rejected 3/9/2005
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Clearwater Court
Tuesday, March 8: 3 PM
The following neurologists, physicians and other experts in the medical field filed affidavits which said Terri should be retested based on new evaluation and therapeutic technologies that can significantly impact brain damaged and disabled persons.
Dr. Ralph Ankenman, MDDr. Pamela Hyikn, SLPDr. Beatrice Engstrand, MDDr. Jill Joyce, PhDDr. Alyse Eytan, MDDr. Philip Kennedy, MD, PhDDr. Harry Sawyer Goldsmith, MDDr. Kyle Lakas, MS, CCC, SLPDr. Jacob Green, MDDr. Richard Neubauer, MD, PADr. Carolyn Heron, MDDr. Ricardo Senno, MD, MS, FAAPMRDr. David Hopper, PhDDr. Stanley Terman, MD, PhDDr. Lawrence Huntoon, MDDr. J. Michael Uszler, MDDr. Richard Weidman, MD

Result: Greer Rejected hearing all 33 affidavits on 3/9/2005
(Note: only 17 names of the 33 are listed above)
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Clearwater Court
Wednesday, March 9: 1:30 p.m.
Hearing on DCF intervention and stay

Arguments took place today in George Greer's court.

The DCF has stated by law because they are a state agency which are mandated to investigate abuse and exploitation issues it is their statutory duty have 60 days to conduct an investigation.
In response, Michael Schiavo's attorney argued, as he has many times before, that the matter before the court was little more than a delay tactic.
"This petition, your honor, is odious. It is transparent. It is nothing more than an attempt to modify, without authority, this court's order," George Felos said, reminding Judge George Greer that two higher courts have ruled in favor of removing Terri's feeding tube. "This court simply does not have jurisdiction to interfere with, hinder, delay, the mandate of the 2nd District Court of Appeal."
Note: Felos's argument is not legally based in truth, the 2nd DCA mandate did not give a specific time frame for anything.

Result: No ruling yet. Greer may issue his ruling tomorrow, 3/10 regarding DCF allowed a 60 day window to investigate.
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Tallahasee
Capital Builiding
Wednesday March 9, 2005 8:30 AM

House Bill 701

TALLAHASSEE - The bill known as "Florida Starvation and Dehydration of Persons with Disabilities Prevention Act (HB 701) sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley was heard this morning in the Health Care Regulation Committee. FRTL lobbyist Robin Hoffman remarked, "We are thrilled the committee voted in favor of this critical bill. This legislation is necessary to protect all Floridians from what Terri Schindler-Schiavo has gone through." It is expected to be heard next week in the Judiciary committee.
HB 701 passed out of committee on a voice vote of 7-4.

Of course, there are typical pro death guardian lawyers who like Deborah Bushnell see this law has hindering their ability to profit by making money over killing those needing a feeding tube. Comments today in Tallahasee were also heard such as:
"I am an attorney who spends all of her practice dealing with end-of-life incapacity guardianship issues. And this bill is a bad, bad, bad bill," Twyla Sketchley said, softly but firmly.

The bill still has to pass through two more House committees, then the House itself, before going to the Senate -- all before the March 18 deadline when Terri's feeding tube is schedules to be removed from her abdomen at 1:00 PM.
At this time, we believe the judiciary committee will not reconvene until next week.


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