Fighting for Dear Life by David Gibbs Read Free Book Online Page B

Morton Plant Hospital, Dr. Jay Carpenter. We called the Carpenters’ home, and although Dr. Carpenter was not there, his children gladly gave us his cell phone number.
    A call to his cell was answered immediately. We gave Dr. Carpenter a quick rundown of what was happening at the hospital. Shocked, he said that he happened to be less than ten minutes from the hospital and would immediately go there to meet Rex. We gave him Rex’s cell phone number. Dr. Carpenter called Rex and arranged to meet him at the front door of the hospital—which, we later learned, had been placed under police guard by the FDLE personnel after Terri had been moved there.
    Rex arrived at the hospital and rushed to the front door. One of the guards blocked his path. Just as Rex began to explain that he was one of the attorneys from Gibbs Law Firm assisting Terri Schiavo’s parents, a man emerged from behind the opening automatic doors. He told the guard, ‘‘I am Dr. Carpenter, and this man is with me.’’ The two men had never met before and might not otherwise have been able to find each other so quickly.
    The guard stepped aside, allowing them to enter. As Dr. Carpenter and Rex hustled through the lobby, Rex briefed the doctor with the information we had provided him from the office. Meanwhile, Dr. Carpenter steered Rex through the maze of hallways, stopping at the appropriate reception area of the hospital. After a few minutes a member of the hospital’s administration team came into the room, introduced herself with a somewhat tentative handshake, and then escorted them into her office.
    Rex advised her that our office had learned through various sources that Terri had been brought there under police escort to have her feeding tube reinserted. He asked whether she was aware that the governor had signed an order earlier that evening mandating that Terri’s hydration and nutrition be reintroduced. Rex handed her a copy of the governor’s order. When she finished perusing every word on the page, Rex told her that he had been dispatched by our office to ensure that the hospital would follow the governor’s order to reinsert the feeding tube. She responded with a certain cool detachment, Rex thought, as if unmoved by the urgency of Terri’s situation. She claimed in no uncertain terms that the hospital did not make those decisions—the attending physician in the ER was the one who would have to make the call. Rex told her she had a duty to make certain the ER doctor was aware that the hospital had just received a copy of the governor’s order; the doctor would now be under actual notice of his legal duty to reinsert the feeding tube.
    His words appeared to fall on deaf ears.
    The administrator folded her arms. She had been told by the doctor that Michael Schiavo’s legal team had already instructed them not to reinsert the tube or they would be sued. Rex pressed the issue. He held an order from the governor to reinsert the tube. He reminded her that it was the governor’s position—not Mr. Schiavo’s wishes—that currently had the effect of law and that the hospital was now on official notice of that law. He didn’t believe that anyone at the hospital would want to permit Terri to die on their watch—especially in violation of the governor’s order.
    Law or not, she apparently wasn’t inclined to help Terri.
    Running out of options, Rex called me at the office. While standing just a few feet away, within earshot of the woman, he loudly informed me that the hospital was not being cooperative and was refusing to follow the governor’s order. In a firm tone and loud enough for her to hear, Rex began to discuss with me the whole issue of wrongful death liability and the lawsuit that was sure to be filed against the hospital and personally against any hospital personnel who allowed Terri to die in flagrant violation of the governor’s order.
    Now the