Terri Schiavo’s Family Granted One Unsupervised Visit, Judge Rules
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 27, 2004
Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) — Circuit Court Judge George Greer, on Wednesday, granted the family of Terri Schiavo one unsupervised visit with Terri this weekend. Judge Greer said other future visits may be allowed and will decide next week whether they should be monitored.
Greer has allowed the Schindler family a 90 minute unmonitored visit with Terri on Saturday.
"The family is grateful to be seeing Terri again this Saturday. For Bobby and Suzanne, it’s been over two months since they’ve been permitted to visit with their sister," Pat Anderson, Terri’s parents’ attorney, told LifeNews.com.
"The fact that we get back to see her makes us happy," Bob Schindler said after the hearing, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
After 55 days of preventing Bob and Mary Schindler from visiting their daughter, Terri Schiavo’s estranged husband finally allowed them the opportunity to spend precious time with her last weekend.
However, Michael Schiavo sent Gloria Centonze, an unidentified relative of his live-in girlfriend Jodi Centonze, with whom he has two children, to stand watch while the Schindlers spent time with Terri.
Bobby and Suzanne, Terri’s siblings, were prevented from seeing her during the visit.
George Felos, the assisted suicide advocate who is Michael’s attorney, told Judge Greer that the Schindlers should not be allowed to visit Terri without supervision.
Felos pointed to an incident weeks ago when hospice staff found Terri with so-called puncture marks on her arms. A police investigation cleared the Schindlers of any wrongdoing and said the marks were likely caused by moving Terri to a sitting position to be able to feed her through a gastric tube.
"For some reason, Schiavo’s attorneys insist the Clearwater Police Department’s investigation did not exonerate anyone — even though the CPD’s own press release mentioned their detectives had found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing," Anderson told LifeNews.com.
Anderson said Michael was forced to admit that the Schindlers have never caused problems while visiting Terri.
"Schiavo’s own witnesses testified the Schindler family had never caused any ruckus while visiting — as Schiavo said in his court papers — and also testified they did not believe Terri’s parents wanted to harm her," Anderson added.
Felos also told Judge Greer that Bob Schindler had violated a court order by making a videotape of his daughter. He said supervision is required to ensure that doesn’t happen again.
Terri’s parents enjoyed their visit with Terri last weekend and said she reacted positively to their presence.
Terri was very responsive. Her mom greeted her first and she began laughing and trying to talk," Terri’s father, Bob Schindler, Sr., told LifeNews.com in exclusive comments. "Terri looked good with no visible negative signs, however she is being administered antibiotics."
However, neither hospice staff nor Michael or his representatives would disclose why.
"[Michael] Schiavo will not allow us to be told any medical information regarding Terri," he said.
Schindler told LifeNews.com that he followed up on his concerns that Terri has had several teeth pulled as a result of a lack of dental care. Although Terri receives food and water through a feeding tube, her family is concerned that staff are not treating her teeth properly.
"We verified that Terri had 3 teeth extracted from the upper left and 2 from the lower left side," Bob Schindler explained.
"The top gums looked pink, the bottom looked dark, but I had a difficult time seeing. This is a result of 10 years of dental neglect," he added.
Related web sites:
Terri Schiavo’s parents – https://www.terrisfight.org
