Schiavo receiving fluids after Florida legislators, governor act

Published: 2003-10-22

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) -- In a move her sister called "an absolute miracle" and a Catholic leader termed "a victory for all Americans who believe in a culture of life," Terri Schindler Schiavo was receiving fluids at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater Oct. 22 after an executive order by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush rescinded the removal of her feeding tube. Bush's action came after the Florida Legislature passed a law allowing the governor's intervention in cases like Schiavo's -- when the patient left no living will, is in a persistent vegetative state and has had nutrition and hydration tubes removed and where a family member has challenged the removal. Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been fighting efforts by Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, to remove her feeding tube for more than three years. The feeding tube was removed Oct. 15 and Terri Schiavo had been expected to die within two weeks. But she was taken by ambulance Oct. 21 from a Pinellas Park hospice to the hospital, where she was to be fed intravenously until the feeding tube was reinserted.

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