Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What It Means for All of Us by David C.III Gibbs, Bob DeMoss
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Book Reviews of Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What It Means for All of Us
Book Review: Excellent Read for those with an open mind; good resource information
Summary: 5 Stars
Marie tried.
Several times...
But she just couldn't... couldn't leave him.
Mike was so charming, warm, giving when they met.
He swooped her plumb off her feet!
At 20 he asked her to marry, and she was thrilled.
After several years however - it wasn't going so well.
He constantly berated her, checked the odometer for how many miles she drove, relentlessly questioned her.
(Later, it was found he stalked a previous girlfriend...)
Surely things would get better if she was more loving, giving, did exactly what he asked.
When he kept losing jobs, she automatically would take up the slack - cut back on items for the house, not buy clothes for herself so he could look great.
She loved him but what could she do?
She felt she was trapped. How could she disappoint her family...
How could she possibly endure his rage if she tried to leave? Perhaps he would seek retribution on her cats or worse, her family...
Co-workers noticed the bruising and "pinch marks", though she tried to hide them. Jackie, her best friend, confronted her about it - as best friends should do - and Marie struggled to explain.
Later, Jackie told the family that Marie confided that she and Mike had a huge fight and Jackie suggested that Marie come and stay.
But Marie didn't want to cause trouble.
That decision of Marie's ultimately cost her life, though she would suffer in almost complete silence for a number of years before she finally died.
How familiar does this sound?
We constantly hear tales of battered women's plight in our society, women that suffer in silence. Women from good homes, with often little outer sign of trouble... "A smile to hide the tears" as the song goes.
So why don't we, as a society, as friends, as family members, help women like Marie? Do we just not know? Can we turn a blind eye and say it doesn't affect me?
Later it would be discovered through medical records sealed for years and finally opened, that Marie had fractured both hip joints, cracked or broken multiple ribs on both sides, both knees, the upper part of her right leg, her right and possibly her left ankle and several vertebrae - yet she clung to life, desperate to tell her story, perhaps hoping to save someone else from this injustice.
After she was found unconscious in the hallway of their home and taken to the emergency room, Mike's lawyer arrived even before Marie's family did. Interestingly, Mike never performed CPR on her, though he had just completed the training. After several court cases, therapies were begun, only to be stopped repeatedly. Written records of her progress by her therapists (such as eating Jello and purposeful interaction) were expunged from her files before the next business day.
But Marie hung on. If she could just hang on long enough to tell her side of the story. But Mike still controlled. He wasn't about to let that happen...
This true story is ripe for a "John Grisham" to develop into a full-blown detective tale for the wide-screen. And like a good story or movie, you might think you know where the author is taking you or how things will turn out. The fun of a good story well told is that the writer continues to surprise you - to keep you turning the pages long after the light should be turned off.
In this case however there is no fun involved, for you already know who I'm talking about, though probably not by that name.
This is Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo's story - Terri Schiavo.
Surprised?
Peruse the pages of this book - all telling a much different story than the one most of us heard.
So - one wonders... How much of this is going on in our country right now? As I write it is January, 2006. News earlier this week told of 19 workers in a hospice arrested for misuse of funds, neglect and abuse of patients.
Read to find out how to help the disabled amongst us who are at the mercy of unscrupulous characters. The frightening thing is -any of us might fit that description at one time or another - unless we as a country do something about it.
Book Review: Phenomenal!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this book after reading Mark Fuhrman's Silent Witness. The passion which David writes with is profound. I found this book an amazing account of the injustice served on Terri. While I enjoyed reading it I had to take breaks occasionally because it was so intense and disturbing. How could something like this actually happen in the U.S.? I knew our justice system was flawed but I had no idea how much power one person could have and that someone could be killed through judicial homicide. This book will certainly have you thinking. Book Review: A great and important read
Summary: 5 Stars
Every single one of us has a terminal body. Some of just have healthier terminal bodies. And some of us--like my newborn son--need substantial assistance to do something as simple as eating.
I don't expect my home state to order the withholding of nutrition to my son. But that is what the state of Florida--or, rather, one unchecked judge in Florida--ordered for someone else who could not feed herself: Terri Schiavo.
David Gibbs represented Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, in the later stages of that tragic event in our nation's history. His account of that event, Fighting for Dear Life, brings to heart and mind again the maddening outcome, which has already seemingly faded so quickly from our nation's conscience. As Gibbs tells it, it is his story of:
"Why I fought for Terri.
Why I'd do it again.
And why I'd fight for you too."
Gibbs can't tell us why Terri Schiavo had to die. No human can. But Gibbs does tell us that Ms. Schiavo had minimal cognition; that her parents loved her and wanted nothing more than to care for her; that her husband had broken his marriage vows; that he refused to allow her to see the outside world or to allow the outside world see her; that he did not spend a dime of the medical malpractice judgment on her rehabilitation, despite telling the jury he would do so; that the only evidence of her supposed wish to die was her husband's and his family's hearsay statements, that the judicial system failed her, and that she died a painful, unnecessary death.
Few real life stories have such distinct Good Guys (Gibbs, the Schindlers, Ms. Schiavo herself, Governor Jeb Bush, President Bush, the Florida legislature, and the U.S. Congress) and Bad Guys (Michael Schiavo, George Felos, Judges George Greer and James Whittemore) as this one. If you care about life issues, and on the pro-life side, you will clinch your fists all over again.
Especially appreciated is the final five chapters, which are essentially a written sermon explaining the global importance of what we allowed to happen to Terri Schiavo. One can hope that Ms. Schiavo's story as told in Fighting for Dear Life will revive all of us again to a culture of life.
Book Review: Demands a choice - doesn't allow for fence-riding
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read comments and reviews elsewhere that say "Fighting for Dear Life" unfairly demonizes Michael Schiavo. I have to wonder if these people actually read this book, as the book shows no more demonization of him than what he clearly brought upon himself.
The justification for Michael's "right to die" case was that Terri wasn't really "there" anymore. Recall, however, that it was Michael who barred press coverage from Terri's room. It was Michael who kept visitors to an absolute minimum, right up to the end. It was Michael who exercised the strictest control over what the American public would see - and not see - of Terri. Why? If Terri was so self-evidently "not there anymore," why would he demand such restrictive coverage of her? Privacy? Dignity? I don't think so...if she was no longer "there," there was neither dignity nor sense of privacy left to violate.
If the accounts in this book are true, the reason for Michael's actions are obvious: Terri actually WAS "there" right up to the end, and Michael fully knew it. If the lawyer's accounts of Terri's capacities are true, letting the press in for unrestricted coverage would have blown Michael's entire case out of the water, and for all I know may have opened him up to all kinds of trouble. Best case scenario, he would have come out as the villain many people have long suspected he is.
So if you've read this book you have a choice to make: disregard this book as a pack of lies written by an ambulance chaser carrying on a vendetta for a bitter, grieving, vengeful family...or decide that Terri Schiavo really was "there" but was forced to die anyway.
Had the accounts contained in this book been made public two years ago, I believe this case would have ended differently.
Book Review: Wow...excellent book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was fantasically written and a true eye opener of the real facts! I was very saddened of the outcome, but it really makes you wonder...are all of your affairs are in order???