Trafford Publishing: Our Fight4Terri

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Our Fight4Terri

by Dr. J.E. Craddock and Cheryl Ford RN

405 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-1041; ISBN 1-4120-6140-7; US$34.99, C$43.74, EUR28.43, £19.70

Our Fight4Terri is "a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the details of this American tragedy." - Patricia Fields Anderson, P.A., Attorney-at-Law

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About the Book About the Author Excerpts Catalogue Information

About the Book

Finally, a single sourcebook of the evidence that seeks to refute the travesty of justice and lies that kept Terri hostage all these years. See the documents that allowed Felos, Bushnell, and Schiavo to march their charade of hearsay and falsities through Greer's court and the 2nd DCA with impunity. The response to the information in this book must be heard by those in power with the ability to stop the judicial madness hell-bent on legalizing euthanasia, at least long enough to investigate the underlying motivations of the powers driving this case to the inevitable death of Terri. Read the actual documents and decide for yourself!
Our Fight4Terri has revealed new interpretations of all the events surrounding Terri's "collapse." This book has introduced the truth behind her injuries, the most likely cause of such massive acute trauma, and the failure of our society to protect Terri and to treat her injuries. This book also sheds new light on the character of Michael Schiavo and the relationship he shared with Terri...a relationship that, in the opinion of the authors and that of many experts, teetered on the brink of divorce and domestic violence. This relationship has been attested to by numerous eye witnesses and documented testimony.

This book exposes what the authors feel to be the lack of character and professional integrity that would lead Felos and Bushnell to lower themselves to the "FABAL" incident and the appearance of the Bar Association's "complicity by design" in its efforts to protect its members from the consequences of misconduct. Our Fight4Terri reveals a tremendous amount of evidence that proves, once and for all, that Terri was not in a PVS or any other bogus and antiquated "condition" invented solely for the purpose of measuring an appropriate timing for euthanasia. Read about numerous new advances in medicine and research that patients like Terri are benefiting from. See how the "powers that be" respond to exposure of the state's laws and regulations. Read exposed examples of the very Medicare fraud and violations that were specifically cited in the Medicare Bulletin issued by their Office of the Inspector General. At almost exactly the same time Terri was illegally admitted to the hospice unit, a Medicare Fraud Bulletin was issued to investigators to look out for patients being prematurely admitted to hospice facilities in order to access those benefits. They also cited a large increase in fraudulent certifications of patients as terminally ill who were not, and therefore did not qualify for hospice care. Read the revelation of what is, at best, a miserable failure in the operations of AHCA, the Agency for Health Care Administration, a state agency under direct oversight of Jeb Bush. And finally, but certainly not at its end, read about the consequences and danger to millions of disabled and elderly Americans in the wake of Terri's death.

About the Author

Cheryl Ford, RN, CEO, is a licensed Registered Nurse in the state of Washington. She is the founder and CEO of her own company which assists in financial, social and clinical assessment and placement of patients requiring a wide range of skilled medical treatment to over 450 licensed Adult Family Homes. The licensed Adult Family Homes are owned and operated by doctors and nurses. Cheryl was recipient of a Golden Acorn Award in 1990 for voluntarily taking leave of her several careers to singlehandedly nurse a neighbor's six year old daughter through the last five months of her terminal cancer. This act of selflessness enabled this child to spend those months at home with her family rather than in a hospital. While also maintaining another residence and an additional business in the state of Florida, her involvement as an activist in the Terri Shiavo case has arisen as a concerned citizen, as well as from the knowledge and experience gained from over 25 years as a Clinical Case Manager, licensed Registered Nurse, and former firefighter/paramedic.
Dr. Craddock is a licensed practicing dentist in both Florida and in Washington state. He has been in private practice for over 25 years, and practices family, cosmetic and implant dentistry. He has also been CEO and founder of his own consulting company which is primarily involved in the design, construction, and implementation of institutional dental and healthcare facilities. The company has also conducted staffing and operational analysis for bidding processes in these types of facilities. Dr. Craddock has also consulted on a number of malpractice cases for law firms in Florida. His particular interests are centered around the forensic analysis of medical records. Dr. Craddock's involvement in the Terri Shiavo case evolved through participation in the review of Terri's medical records and organization of more than twenty thousand pages of research generated by Ms. Ford's active participation as a patient advocate, consultant to the Schindler family, and expert witness.

Excerpts

page 22 "..........We will never know why Michael was the only person the officer questioned about their relationship and whether there had been any arguments lately. Would his perception have changed if he had asked these questions of Bobby? Would his perception have changed if he had posed these questions to Terri's father, and learned of Michael's ongoing treatment by a psychiatrist for the depression that led to his choking attack of Bobby during a fit of rage? What would the police officer have thought if he knew of the warnings his psychiatrist had given Mr. Schindler about calling the police at the first sign of Michael's dangerously volatile temper? Could the rather spontaneous appearance of Michael's attorney have influenced his inquiries? The officer closed his report with a statement that his own physical inspection "...revealed no signs of trauma to her head or face." Did he peer in at this poor, unconscious young woman on a ventilator, with no plausible explanation for her condition, whose medical evaluation by experts at a later date would reveal symptoms and clinical signs consistent with a cervical spine injury caused by asphyxiation, as well as numerous healed bone fractures, and simply decide "that was good enough"? Is this the most anyone can expect from a competent police officer? Unfortunately, the involvement of the St. Petersburg Police Department would only become more lame as time went on and the motivations of the principals became more monetary and political than medical or ethical.".....
page 101 ".......By the fall of 2004, the organization had grown to some 1400 individuals across the country and internationally that could delegate to their group of volunteers any given specific task that Cheryl suggested. Some groups were only twenty or thirty people, while others might be two hundred people. As new volunteers would write and ask to help, Cheryl could now direct them to Sheila Fogarty in Nebraska, who graciously accepted responsibility as her new Director of Volunteer Communications. Sheila would determine each new person's interests and volunteer commitment, and then provide contact information to a particular Action Group and its leader. Sheila also took on the responsibility of communicating with all volunteers who came from the foundation's site, TerrisFight.org., and were referred to her by Cheryl. Many groups insisted on creating a certain level of notoriety for their group, such as the Boycott Florida Coalition Group, and the Lynch A Bishop Group, whose task was to expose and disseminate information about Bishop Lynch. He was a local Catholic bishop who refused to recognize the Vatican's position concerning Terri, and failed to come to her aid in any way as he was ordered by the Pope and Cardinals in Rome.".....
page 154 ".......Everyone must take note that Felos' claim to fame as the "right-to-die" guru comes from his single laudable representation in a case which encompassed the very doctrines of self-determination that are sought by Terri's supporters. Ms. Browning was a patient who had an advanced directive in the form of a living will. That document clearly stated her wishes concerning feeding tubes and life support. The "landmark" nature of this case was simply that it set a precedent for the right of each of us to self-determination....to specify exactly what our wishes are, and to have them respected by the courts and healthcare providers. It is his very "claim-to-fame" that is in direct opposition to Terri's case and his representation of Michael Schiavo. What has clearly solidified hundreds of thousands of supporters for Terri from all walks of life and every imaginable philosophy is that very fact. Every person deserves the right to decide for themselves what they want. Likewise, the spirit of the many laws pertaining to estates, wills, inheritance, property, and the like, have always reflected common sense. Legislatures have traditionally chosen to protect the individual citizen from the charlatan who would attempt to take advantage of the dead or disabled by undocumented hearsay. Terri left NO living will, NO advanced directive, no personal document, no testimonial of any kind stating that she would or would not want to live with a feeding tube. Therefore, the laws, regulations, and standards of medical care dictate that she must be provided whatever care is necessary to sustain her and to ensure the opportunity for any possible rehabilitation or recovery she may be capable of. What Felos and his client have been able to accomplish is tantamount to Ms. Browning being denied her wishes and being kept alive in the nursing home because the director claimed he could "intuitively sense" that she wanted to be kept alive...so he could "run up the bill". How Judge Greer and George Felos can declare one right for Ms. Browning and exactly the opposite for Terri is incomprehensible.".....
page 222 ".......It is obvious to anyone who has researched this topic of PVS, that it is the very foundation of its conceptualization that is at question by so many experts. The mere notion of PVS was originally concocted by a number of the applicable medical societies in 1994, when they found a need to define that which they could not explain. By their own admission, the bio-ethicists who support the Consensus Statement (like the pro-death advocate Dr. Ronald Cranford, who dubiously claimed that Terri's inability to maintain normal visual pursuit was the hallmark of her vegetative state, while failing to point out that she is nearly blind!) claim the following...."By definition, patients in a vegetative state are unaware of themselves or their environment. They are noncognitive, nonsentient, and incapable of conscious experience. There is, however, a biological limitation to the certainty of this definition, since we can only infer the presence or absence of consciousness in another person....an error might occur if a patient in a locked-in state...was wrongly judged to be unaware. Thus, it is theoretically possible that a patient who appears to be in a persistent vegetative state retains awareness but shows no evidence of it." 1 Borthwick goes on to explain, "If the absence of a response [visual pursuit] cannot in cases of severe locked-in syndrome be taken as proof of the absence of consciousness, and if severe locked-in syndrome is virtually indistinguishable from PVS, then the absence of a response cannot in any individual case of PVS be taken as proof of the absence of consciousness." And finally, "In the face of this possibility, how can one conceivably prove, in any single case, or in any number of cases, that the subject(s) is/are sentient? If one cannot prove it, what is the justification for assuming it?" Even in light of Dr. James Barnhill's grossly biased notions that Terri's head is full of spinal fluid, the very same foundation for diagnosis, the Consensus Statement of the Multi-Society Task Force, states, "....there are no established correlations between the results of neuroimaging studies and...the potential for recovery.....".....
page 368 ".......We uncovered a tremendous amount of evidence within the records that clearly proves, once and for all, that Terri is not in a PVS or any other bogus and antiquated "condition" invented solely for the purpose of measuring an appropriate timing for euthanasia. We have revealed numerous new advances in medicine and research that Terri could benefit from. Terri even has a good chance to recover from her injuries if allowed to pursue the treatment that has been offered to her free of charge. There is new technology in swallow therapy that would eliminate her need for the feeding tube. This training and rehabilitation has been offered by experts for free. Dr. Hammesfahr's new therapy has been declared the new standard of treatment for patients like Terri, and therefore demands that she be allowed to receive this therapy that has been offered to her for free. We exposed examples of the very Medicare fraud and violations that were specifically cited in the Medicare Bulletin issued by their accounting and fraud division. At almost exactly the same time Terri was illegally admitted to the hospice unit, a Medicare Fraud Bulletin was issued to investigators to look out for patients being prematurely admitted to hospice facilities in order to access those benefits. They also cited a large increase in fraudulent certifications of patients as terminally ill who were not, and therefore did not qualify for hospice care. We also revealed what is, at best, a miserable failure in the operations of AHCA. We disclosed what appears to be either dishonesty and cover-up or complete ineptitude that reaches right to the top of this agency whose responsibility is to protect our most vulnerable citizens. And these failures have occurred on Governor Bush's watch and under his appointees. We have cited numerous violations that represent blatant malpractice and fraud by a number of medical personnel and facilities."......
page 379 ".......On Wednesday, June 15, 2005, the Medical Examiner of Pinellas-Pasco County released his report on the autopsy of Theresa Schindler-Schiavo. Dr. McClane wrote to me on 6-18-05, and confirmed my own observations as well...."...But in terms of Terri's case, I--like you--find that the autopsy results are not conclusive in any way that counters my own thoughts of how Terri was initially assaulted. Even more so, I found many elements frankly thrilling, e.g., NO evidence of "heart attack" or the categorical "proof" about the hypokalemia causing her collapse. I always felt that those were ridiculous, specious statements and now we have all been validated."..."...In many respects, the autopsy results just released gives you an enormous edge over any other publications in that this is the perfect opportunity to show how they actually are more supportive of our theories than the public has been led to believe." As we fully expected, the autopsy discounted the notion of any eating disorder such as bulimia, and likewise discounted for a number of reasons the low potassium as the cause of her collapse. As seen in our own analysis of her lab reports, even the few lab values that may have indicated any support for the diuretic overhydration or the hypokalemia were completely discounted by the autopsy. On the other hand, the alternative diagnoses for the lab profiles Terri exhibited were obviously indicative of the horribly traumatic injuries she suffered, and little or no evidence exists to provide an alternative scenario to the one we have formulated here.".......

Catalogue Information