OCR Text |
Show Sunday, Udi 27. 2X5 HERALD DAILY AS In Scliiavo case, what do the videotapes really show? Allen G. Breed .and Matt Crenson PINELLAS PARK, Fla. They say film doesnt lie. But does that mean it tells the . , truth? The public sees fleeting videotaped images of Terri Schiavo, appearing to many to turn toward her mother's voice and smile. Thev. hear what sound like moans and laughter. They watch her head move up and down, seemingly following the progress of a brightly colored Mickey Mouse balloon. And often they ask: How could anyone conclude but that she is aware of her surroundings? The answer lies not so much within Schiavo's brain as in the mjnds of those who observe her. As social beings, humans to examine are another's face for clues to what the person behind it is thinking, They natunally associate vocal tones with specific moods. They detect meaningful words in nonsense utterances. "I can understand that, because I have examined scores if not hundreds of people with this condition," says Dr. Leon. Prockop, a professor of neurology at the University of South Florida, who has reviewed the d woman's CAT hard-wire- d brain-damage- Schiavo Continued from A 1 said she would not want to be kept alive artificially. The 4 Schindlers believe their daughter could improve and say she laughs, cries, responds to them and tries to talk. Weller said Terri cried when her mother hugged her Saturday night. "She knows what's going on. She was trying to vocalize something with Mary." "The governor should know that Terri still knows who her mother is, and she's extremely distressed," Weller said. "She's not a vegetable who doesn't know what is happening." Paul O'Donnei, a Roman Catholic Franciscan monk, said the family unsuccessfully urged Michael Schiavo to allow his wife the sacrament of communion during the holiest feast of the Catholic year. She Continued from acknowledged that seeing the videotapes of Schiavo's mother kissing and speaking with her gave him pause at first. "Yes, that was a source of the concern on my part: How "J does one interpret a situation like that," he said. He even acknowledged that she did track a Mickey Mouse balloon with her eyes in one clip. Dr. James BarnhilL a neurologist hired by Michael Schiavo, the husband who has fought through the courts to honor what he says would have been his wife's wishes, reviewed the videotapes and came to a simiTOM FOXAssocialed Press lar conclusion. Barnhill has said Terri SchiMonsignor Thaddeus Malanowski, center, blesses the eucharist in front of protesters attending an afternoon Mass outside avo engaged in "pathological Woodside Hospice House, where Terri Schiavo's parents feept laughter, pathological crying watch over their dying daughter, in Pinellas Park, Fla, Saturday. ... consistent with the vocalizations that are seen in people with persistent vegetative scans. din ing the past seven years of states. I see nothing on that At first, he says, his "natural litigation over whether to keep tape that indicates an aware- emotional desire to be optiness there or consciousness." the woman on a mistic and hopeful" made him William Hammesf ahr, a feeding tube. Even doctors who have interpret movements and facial neurologist hired by Terri Schiavo's parents, looks at the expressions as purposeful. But agreed that she is in a persisafter long experience, Prockop tent vegetative state have adsame tape and sees a woman mitted to being swayed,-i- f only who is clearly reacting to her says, "I came to realize that mother, turning toward her my emotional reaction was briefly, by the now familiar understandable as a human bevoice, smiling and appearing to images that have been played and replayed on national teleing, but Yas not an intellectual sing when she hears familiar assessment." vision." piano music. The public has seen only a "She is absolutely, respondDuring testimony in a 2002 d tiny portion of the more than hearing, ing to her mother," he testified. four hours of videotape shot "There's no doubt." neurologist Peter Bambakidis smiling boy, came this sentence: "He spent his time juggling life between his family and his son." A father at 15. Dead three months later. Shot with eight others by an alienated, despondent upperclassman who, at walk the end of his through Red Lake High School turned one of his guns on him Native-America- will." self. The deaths, conspicuous in their senselessness, highlight ' the problems that American Indian teenagers have been quietly suffering in greater numbers than most adolescents: suicide, violence, depression and pregnancy. By thamselves, the numbers for the Jjed Lake Indian Reservation are staggering. A state survey conducted last year of s 56 showed that 81 percent of the girls, and 43 percent of the boys, had considered ninth-grader- suicide. court-appointe- consistent with someone in a vegetative state. Greer agreed. Scott Schiavo, the brother of Schiavo's husband said the family was pleased to see the Schindlers' efforts nearing an A1 chubby-cheeke- Jt2 received last rites the day the feeding tube was pulled. "This is in violation of her religious rights and freedoms and allows the governor to detector. Tribal elders have said tattle, as have residents. Some students hav e been more open, describing Weise as a depressed, friendless boy who talked of shooting people. On Web site postings, Weise described himself as "nothing n but your average stoner" and described his life on the reservation as "every man's nightmare. This place never changes and it never .Shootings inside the hospice Saturday afternoon. "She has put up a tremendous battle to live. She's not throwing in the towel." ' Michael Schiavo's attorney, ... intervene,-- ' O'Donnell said, George Felos, denied reports end. repeating the family's request by the parents' attorneys that "He knows in his heart he is that the governor take Schiavo her tongue and eyes were ' into protective custody. "We doing the right thing, he is dobleeding. "She is calm. She'is peaceful. '.. ing what Terri wanted," Scott beg you to have courage and Schiavo said. "He's having a take action." She is resting comfortably," Felos told reporters Saturday The family had asked for hard time understanding why as four sheriff's deputies stood Schiavo, who cannot swal: people are fighting him on this, low, to have a minuscule piece why they are calling him a murby to protect him. of bread and a drop of wine . derer. It's. very tough on him." Terri Schiavo's brother, Doctors have said she would Bobby Schindler, called that placed in her mouth. "absurd" and challenged Felos Earlier, Pinellas Circuit probably die within a week or two of her feeding tube being to allow videos and photos to Judge George Greer rejected the family's latest motion. The be released, so the public can pulled, which was done March 18 after Greer sided with her see Terri's condition. "They're family claimed Schiavo tried husband. Her body wracked by mischaracterizing the condition to say "I want to live" hours before her tube was removed, dehydration, attorneys for her today, just as they have been ... It's sick. It's heinous," he said. parents said she may not last saying "AHHHHH" and Felos said earliehthat allow"WAAAAAAA" when asked through the weekend. to repeat the phrase. "She's doing remarkably ing videos to be recorded inside well under the circumstances," Terri Schiavo's room during Doctors have said her previous utterances weren't speech, said Schiavo's father, Bob her death process would violate but were involuntary moans her privacy rights. Schindler, after visiting her . . Nearly half the girls said they'd actually tried to kill themselves. Twenty percent of boys said the same numbers about triple the rate statewide. "I don't have an explanation for that," said Brenda Child, who teaches American Indian history at the University of Minnesota and grew, up on the ' reservation. Her cousin, 14- was old year Ryan Auginash, shot in the chest during Jeff Weise's march through the campus. She doesn't want to view the shootings through the prism of American Indian troubles. "I see it as a problem of a young man who was deeply depressed," she said. "Sadly, that can happen anywhere." Here, where the Red Lake band of Chippewa has lived in isolation on more than 830,000 acres in northern Minnesota since 1889, such things are not openly discussed. It simply is not their way. For much of the week, they slammed the door of their reservation to the prying eyes of television cameras and reporters who wanted to know why Weise shot his grandfather, a tribal policeman everyone knew as "Dash," and the man's girlfriend, then drove to the high school entrance behind the wheel of his grandfather's police car. Weise, wearing his grandfather's gunbelt and toting a shotgun, opened fire at the front door, by the lone metal Weise4iad not always lived on the reservation. He arhvedJ after his father committed suicide four years ago. His mother, a heavy drinker, was severely injured in an alcohol-relate- d auto accident. The boy had nowhere else to go. Some on the reservation say Weise had been seeing a professional and taking medication for his depression, which is evident on Internet postings such as this one, where under a section titled "A Little About Me," he typed " 16 years of accumulated rage suppressed by nothing more than brief glimpses of hope, which have all but faded to black." On Thursday, outside the Bemidji, a small town 32 miles south of the reservation, Andrew Auginash was there to visit his wounded brother, Ryan. "I don't want anything bad said about our reservation," he said. "It's like any other nos-pital- in ' place." The Minnesota survey of Red Lake students said they assaulted other classmates and used more alcohol and drugs than other students across the state. Nationwide figures show that American Indian teenagers commit suicide at three times the national rate; are involved in alcohol-relate- d arrests at twice the national average, and die in alcohol-relate- d incidents at 17 times the national average. in teen They are pregnancies, behind Hispanics and blacks. "My mother moved us off the reservation when I was very young. And I am very glad she did that," says Bill Lawrence, publisher of the Native Amerie can News, a 5,000-- . circulation weekly newspaper third-highe- st . Press-Ojibw- in Bemidji. "The kids there come from drugs, alcohol, broken families, abuse," he says sadly. "To grow up under these circumstances is a tremendous ordeal. And to consider suicide means you think there is no other way out," The Next Stage 153 Don't let your taxes get in the way of the things you realjy want to do. Ask about high-yiel- d IRAs. Fargo is here to help with our Traditional and Rdth IRAs. Your Wells Fargo Wells banker can show you how the right IRA can help you save on taxes and save for the you can the tax benefits an IRA future at the same time. Best of r Mum -- all, take advantage of all has to offer for 2004, right up until April 1 5th. So open an IRA and get on with what you 1 want to be doing. Call click on wellsfargo.com or stop by and visit a Wells Fargo banker today. th th Fixed Fixed FT & rfTT... hnf 7r Af V - mCJUllV W""i J ivit-ww-.y f ' X ST V7 . o.,- fc" . ft' TOSS 3.25: V 3.75 f. - ftf 3S ' H, tmf kcoun ft )) nd obtstft ttv APT H S' 00(1 ma V fTonl rm rould wlwcv Hmng on thu ftcrount tar roly wtNtral ConwH yom Tn kKikk k d (N ( 4rtnr6 tlttut of MA Orpovn and mtpmVamrd C W05 WHH ffqa Ban. NAM Hightt MvwrJ M?mbr t OK Equal Opportunity iirtwftnl in f iii irt mfl irt.iWrfti-r- if V APY A 0m.tty may bf xnptnfd |