How to contact Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, FL

How to contact Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, FL

Woodside Hospice
6774 102nd Ave
(near 66th Street N and 102nd Avenue N)
Pinellas Park, FL 33782-2909
Ph: 727-541-4149

Map l.ink for Woodside Hospice
http://tinyurl.com/6l8gx

Woodside Hospice manager is Scott Kistler Ph: 727-586-4432

General e-mail address for Woodside Hospice
info@thehospice.org

E-mail addresses for various employees at Woodside Hospice
sandylambis@thehospice.org
louisecleary@thehospice.org
kroble@thehospice.org
beckymcdonald@thehospice.org

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The Sacrificial Lamb

this is Maundy Thursday for those who remember Christ's Last Supper, how He was led away in the night by the police at the orders of the Judges of His time, He thirsted!

http://www.hospicepatients.org/images/terrischiavooncross.jpg

This is a Hospice Patients Alliance Newsletter March 24, 2005, 3rd edition, sent out periodically reporting about news affecting hospice and end-of-life care.

Hospice Patients Alliance has the greatest respect for the dedicated professionals serving in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and doctors' offices who respect patients' rights to self determination, practice ethically and do NOT impose death on their patients!

"As I looked at Terri, and she gazed directly back at me, I asked myself whether, if I were her attending physician, I could in good conscience withdraw her feeding and hydration. No, I could not. I could not withdraw life support if I were asked. I could not withhold life-sustaining nutrition and hydration from this beautiful lady whose face brightens in the presence of others." - William Cheshire, Jr., MD 3/23/2005
http://www.hospicepatients.org/william-cheshire-jr-md-03-05-affidavit-re-terri-schiavo.pdf

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Keep up calls to Governor Bush... we need your calls to bring pressure on him to act now!

Updates
Dehydration Death
Mayo Clinic Neurologist: "Terri's Not PVS"
In Love With Death
Why do we treat convicted murderers better than we are treating Terri?
One of Greer's Other Right-to-Die cases (he ignored the wife to make sure pt died)

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We need your calls, emails and faxes to go to the Governor Bush:
Governor Jeb Bush
(850) 488-4441
Fax 850-487-0801

jeb@jeb.org
jeb.bush@myflorida.com

"WE HOLD GOVERNOR BUSH RESPONSIBLE FOR NOT GOING IN TO PROTECT TERRI!

GOVERNOR, YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ACT UNDER FLA LAW! ACT!

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43467
WORLDNETDAILY March 24, 2005
Dehydration death called 'cruel, agonizing'
Expert debunks 'myth' of no food, water being painless way to die
[go online]

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Florida neurologist: Terri's no vegetable
Doctor for state's adult protective services finds Schiavo has been wrongly diagnosed
March 24, 2005 By Joseph Farah WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43470

An eminent neurologist who evaluated Terri Schiavo for the Florida state Department of Children and Families yesterday concluded she has been wrongly diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state and urges immediate removal to another facility and the restoration of food and water to the dying woman who has become the focal point of the nation's attention.

In his affidavit to the court, obtained by WorldNetDaily, Dr. William Polk Cheshire Jr. found Schiavo is aware of pain and reacts visibly to it. She also reacts to the expectation of pain based on conversations she overhears in her room.

"If Terri is consciously aware of pain, and therefore is capable of suffering, then her diagnosis of PVS may be tragically mistaken," he writes.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced yesterday that Dr. Cheshire, Jr., as part of a DCF review team, had concluded that Schiavo might not be in a persistent vegetative state but rather in "a state of minimal consciousness." Bush said. "This new information raises serious concerns and warrants immediate action."

DCF Secretary Luci Hadi said that under state law the agency is authorized to intervene and have Schiavo's sustenance restored even without a court order.

But last night, Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said the administration had no plans to defy Greer's order.

Pinellas County Judge George Greer said he expected to have a final ruling on the case by noon today after reviewing the new evidence. He blocked an effort by DCF to rescue Schiavo.

"It is my understanding that nearly three years have passed since Terri has had the benefit of neurologic consultation," Dr. Cheshire wrote in his affidavit. "How then are we to be certain about her current neurologic status? There remain, in fact, huge uncertainties in regard to Terri's true neurologic status."

Dr. Cheshire is the director of a laboratory at the Mayo Clinic branch in Jacksonville that deals with unconscious reflexes like digestion.

Cheshire cited studies indicating a high rate of false initial diagnoses of PVS.

"Furthermore, the diagnosis of minimally conscious state had not yet become standard parlance in the field of neurology at the time of Terri's initial diagnosis," he wrote. "The minimally conscious state has emerged as a distinct diagnostic entity within the last few years."

Cheshire also pointed out that Schiavo has not undergone functional imaging studies, such as positron emission tomography, or PET, or functional magnetic resonance imagining, or fMRI.

"New facts have come to light in the last few years that should be weighed in the neurologic assessment of Terri Schiavo," he said. "Significant strides have been made in the scientific understanding of PVS and minimally conscious states since Terri last underwent neurologic evaluation. As usually happens with science, the newest evidence is prompting the medical community to think about this field in new ways. With new evidence comes fresh appreciation for what is actually happening in the brains of persons with profound cognitive impairment."

Cheshire said news studies show that when patients in a minimally conscious state listen to narratives read by a familiar person "large areas of the cerebral cortex normally involved in language recognition and processing lit up." He said the presence of metabolic activity in those brain cells was far more than expected.

He cited seven reasons to doubt the prior diagnosis of PVS in Terri Schiavo:

He found her facial expression brightens and she smiles in response to the voice of familiar people such as her parents or her nurse. Her agitation subsides and her facial demeanor softens when quiet music is played. "When jubilant piano music is played, her face brightens, she lifts her eyebrows, smiles, and even laughs." Cheshire said several times he witnessed Schiavo laugh when someone in the room made a humorous comment.

She fixates her gaze on colorful objects and human faces for up to 15 seconds at a time and occasionally follows with her eyes as objects move from side to side. "When I first walked into the room, she immediately turned her head toward me and looked directly at my face. There was a look of curiosity or expectation in her expression, and she maintained eye contact for about half a minute." Cheshire said she also appeared to attempt to speak to him.

Although he did not hear her utter distinct words, the doctor said "she demonstrates emotional expressivity by her use of single syllable vocalizations and cooing sounds. In reviewing previous affidavits, he noted that as late as 2003, the patient was heard to tell nurses to "stop" during certain procedures.

He noted that in a previous examination by a neurologist, the patient appeared to try to follow certain commands – such as closing her eyes. She also raised her right leg four times when asked to do so in 2002 under examination.

In that same 2002 examination by a neurologist, captured on videotape, Schiavo was turned on her side and probed with a sharp piece of wood. She reacted with sounds of discomfort. After that procedure, the neurologist commented to her parents that they would have to roll her over on her other side. Schiavo vocalized a crying sound in response. "It is important to note that, at that moment, no one is touching Terri or causing actual pain," he writes. Rather, he says, she appears to comprehending what was said and anticipating pain.

According to the definition of PVS, he writes, patients do not have the capacity to experience pain and suffering. Yet, he concludes, after reviewing her medical records, pain issues frequently arise. "The nurses at Woodside Hospice told us that she often has pain with menstrual cramps." The pain and agitation subside when she is given ibuprofen. "If Terri is consciously aware of pain, and therefore is capable of suffering, then her diagnosis of PVS may be tragically mistaken," he concludes.

"To enter the room of Terri Schiavo is nothing like entering the room of a patient who is comatose or brain-dead or in some neurological sense no longer there," he writes. "Although Terri did not demonstrate during our 90-minute visit compelling evidence of verbalization, conscious awareness, or volitional behavior, yet the visitor has the distinct sense of the presence of a living human being who seems at some level to be aware of some things around her."
"As I looked at Terri, and she gazed directly back at me, I asked myself whether, if I were her attending physician, I could in good conscience withdraw her feeding and hydration," he wrote. "No, I could not. I could not withdraw life support if I were asked. I could not withhold life-sustaining nutrition and hydration from this beautiful lady whose face brightens in the presence of others."

Cheshire indicated he could see no reason to withdraw the sustenance.

"This situation differs fundamentally from end-of-life scenarios where it is appropriate to withdraw life-sustaining medical interventions that no longer benefit or are burdensome to patients in the terminal stages of illness," he wrote. "Terri's feeding tube is not a burden to her. It is not painful, is not infected, is not eroding her stomach lining or causing any medical complications. But for the decision to withdraw her feeding tube, Terri cannot be considered medically terminal. But for the withdrawal of food and water, she would not die."

On the basis of all of those findings, Dr. Cheshire concluded "it would be wrong to bring about her death by withdrawing food and water."

"At the time of this writing, Terri Schiavo, as the result of decisions based on what I have argued to be a faulty diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, has been without food or water for five days," he wrote. "She is at risk of death or serious injury unless the provision of food and water can be restored. Terri Schiavo lacks the capacity to consent to emergency protective services and must trust others to act on her behalf. If she were to be transferred to another facility, it would be medically necessary to initiate hydration and ensure that her serum electrolytes are within normal values."

Cheshire concluded: "How medicine and society choose to think about Terri Schiavo will influence what kind of people we will be as we evaluate and respond to the needs of the most vulnerable people among us. When serious doubts exist as to whether a cognitively impaired person is or is not consciously aware, even if these doubts cannot be conclusively resolved, it is better to err on the side of protecting vulnerable life."

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http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110006460

In Love With Death
The bizarre passion of the pull-the-tube people.
March 24, 2005

God made the world or he didn't.

God made you or he didn't.

If he did, your little human life is, and has been, touched by the divine. If this is true, it would be true of all humans, not only some. And so--again, if it is true--each human life is precious, of infinite value, worthy of great respect.

Most--not all, but probably most--of those who support Terri Schiavo's right to live believe the above. This explains their passion and emotionalism. They believe they are fighting for an invaluable and irreplaceable human life. They are like the mother who is famously said to have lifted the back of a small car off the ground to save a child caught under a tire. You're desperate to save a life, you're shot through with adrenaline, your strength is for half a second superhuman, you do the impossible.

That is what they are trying to do.

They do not want an innocent human life ended for what appear to be primarily practical and worldly reasons--e.g., Mrs. Schiavo's quality of life is low, her life is pointless. They say: Who is to say it is pointless? And what does pointless even mean? Maybe life itself is the point.

I do not understand the emotionalism of the pull-the-tube people. What is driving their engagement? Is it because they are compassionate, and their hearts bleed at the thought that Mrs. Schiavo suffers? But throughout this case no one has testified that she is in persistent pain, as those with terminal cancer are.

If they care so much about her pain, why are they unconcerned at the suffering caused her by the denial of food and water? And why do those who argue for Mrs. Schiavo's death employ language and imagery that is so violent and aggressive? The chairman of the Democratic National Committee calls Republicans "brain dead." Michael Schiavo, the husband, calls House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "a slithering snake."

Everyone who has written in defense of Mrs. Schiavo's right to live has received e-mail blasts full of attacks that appear to have been dictated by the unstable and typed by the unhinged. On Democratic Underground they crowed about having "kicked the sh-- out of the fascists." On Tuesday James Carville's face was swept with a sneer so convulsive you could see his gums as he damned the Republicans trying to help Mrs. Schiavo. It would have seemed demonic if he weren't a buffoon.

Why are they so committed to this woman's death?

They seem to have fallen half in love with death.

What does Terri Schiavo's life symbolize to them? What does the idea that she might continue to live suggest to them?

Why does this prospect so unnerve them? Again, if you think Terri Schiavo is a precious human gift of God, your passion is explicable. The passion of the pull-the-tube people is not.

I do not understand their certainty. I don't "know" that any degree of progress or healing is possible for Terri Schiavo; I only hope they are. We can't know, but we can "err on the side of life." How do the pro-death forces "know" there is no possibility of progress, healing, miracles? They seem to think they know. They seem to love the phrases they bandy about: "vegetative state," "brain dead," "liquefied cortex."

I do not understand why people who want to save the whales (so do I) find campaigns to save humans so much less arresting. I do not understand their lack of passion. But the save-the-whales people are somehow rarely the stop-abortion-please people.

The PETA people, who say they are committed to ending cruelty to animals, seem disinterested in the fact of late-term abortion, which is a cruel procedure performed on a human.

I do not understand why the don't-drill-in-Alaska-and-destroy-its-prime-beauty people do not join forces with the don't-end-a-life-that-holds-within-it-beauty people.

I do not understand why those who want a freeze on all death penalty cases in order to review each of them in light of DNA testing--an act of justice and compassion toward those who have been found guilty of crimes in a court of law--are uninterested in giving every last chance and every last test to a woman whom no one has ever accused of anything.

There are passionate groups of women in America who decry spousal abuse, give beaten wives shelter, insist that a woman is not a husband's chattel. This is good work. Why are they not taking part in the fight for Terri Schiavo? Again, what explains their lac