Categotry Archives: Misc.

Theresa Marie Schiavo, the woman at the center of a protracted legal battle in Florida, died on March 31, nearly two weeks after doctors removed her feeding tube. She was 41.
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Schiavo moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., in the early 1980s and worked in an administrative capacity for an insurance company. Described by friends as happy, compassionate and quick to smile, Terri was 26 years old in 1990 when she suddenly collapsed. The cause of the collapse is still in debate, but her doctors credit a cardiac arrest induced by a potassium imbalance. For the past 15 years, the severely brain-damaged woman has lived in hospital or hospice care, unable to speak or feed herself.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, was named her legal guardian. On Terri’s behalf, he filed a malpractice lawsuit and won $300,000 for his loss of consortium. Terri was awarded $700,000, which was placed in a medical trust fund to be used for her care, at her husband’s discretion.
Since 1998, Michael Schiavo has dated another woman and fathered two children. He became estranged from Terri’s family for repeatedly petitioning the courts to have Terri’s feeding tube removed. Michael Schiavo claims Terri once told him that she would want to be taken off life support if she was unable to communicate her own decisions on life sustaining or life support procedures. Terri left no living will, stating her end-of-life preferences.
Her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, have continuously fought Michael Schiavo in court, and demanded her feeding tube be reinserted. Medical experts hired by the Schindlers dispute that Terri is in a “persistent vegetative state,” and thus deserves nourishment and physical therapy.
In 2002, Judge George W. Greer of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court in Florida ruled that Terri had no hope of recovery, and ordered her feeding tube removed. The Schindlers appealed and managed to hold off the procedure until Oct. 14, 2003. That day, a Florida appeals court refused to block the removal of Terri’s feeding tube and her doctors completed the procedure. A week later, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that allowed Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene on her behalf. “Terri’s Law” dismissed the court’s ruling and ordered the feeding tube be reinserted. Her doctors complied with the state’s request.
Last September, Florida’s Supreme Court declared “Terri’s Law” to be an unconstitutional encroachment on the judiciary. The case was then sent back to Judge Greer, who again ruled in Michael Schiavo’s favor and ordered the removal of Terri’s feeding tube. The procedure was delayed pending appeal.
In recent months, the Schiavo case transformed from a private family matter to a national controversy. Protesters, carrying crosses and candles, camped out in front of the hospice where Terri stayed. Many brought their children to the demonstrations as well. Politicians and pundits made appearances on TV news shows to discuss right-to-life issues, the nature of “family” and the spiritual ramifications of starvation. An Illinois man was even arrested for allegedly robbing a gun store in Seminole, Fla., as part of a plan to “rescue Terri Schiavo.”
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to consider arguments in the case, and Terri’s feeding tube was removed on March 18. Amidst protests and continuing media coverage, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives responded on March 21 by passing the “Compromise Bill,” which ordered the case to be reviewed by a federal court. That same night, President George W. Bush interrupted his vacation in Crawford, Texas, to return to the White House and sign the bill into law.
After reviewing the case, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore ruled that Terri’s “life and liberty interests” had been protected by Florida courts and denied the Schindlers’ request to reinsert her feeding tube. In a 2-1 vote, the 11th Circuit Court agreed with Judge Whittemore’s decision.
On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Schindlers’ application for a stay of enforcement of the Florida judgment. In response, Gov. Bush threatened to send state agents to the hospice and force the reinsertion of Terri’s feeding tube. Judge Greer then issued an emergency order barring the state from “taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo.” Subsequent requests to the federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court failed to overrule the lower courts’ decisions.
After 13 days without food or water, Terri Schiavo died.
• Timeline of the Schiavo Case

Isabelle Goldenson, a co-founder of United Cerebral Palsy, died on Feb. 21 of natural causes. She was 84.
Born Isabelle Charlotte Weinstein, Goldenson attended Barnard College, Columbia University and the Union Theological Seminary. A native New Yorker, she and her husband, ABC chairman Leonard H. Goldenson, had three children. When their eldest daughter Genise was born with cerebral palsy in 1943, the Goldensons joined forces with another couple, Jack and Ethel Hausman, to create a support system for families affected by the developmental disorder. The Goldensons and the Hausmans purchased an ad in The New York Herald Tribune to locate other parents of children suffering from the disease. Hundreds of people responded.
United Cerebral Palsy launched in 1949. More than 50 years later, it is one of the largest health charities in the United States. The organization serves 30,000 people daily and advocates for the 54 million Americans with disabilities.
Isabelle Goldenson also established the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Education Foundation. She recruited Dr. Sidney Farber and 14 medical scientists to study and devise methods of preventing cerebral palsy in children. The team eventually discovered a vaccine for German measles and developed fetal heart monitors and light treatments for babies born with jaundice.
In 1971, Goldenson met with officials from NASA, the National Institute of Health and the Veterans Administration. She encouraged them to come up with practical applications of space technology to assist people with disabilities. In response, NASA engineers developed a lightweight wheelchair, medical monitoring equipment, remote control limbs, multi-directional conveyances to help the disabled climb stairs and sensory devices for the blind.
In recent years, the Goldensons lobbied government officials for wheelchair access to sidewalks and restrooms, and donated $60 million to Harvard Medical School to underwrite research on neurological diseases. Genise Goldenson died at the age of 29 in 1973. Leonard Goldenson died in 1999. Isabelle Goldenson is survived by her two daughters, Loreen Arbus and Maxine Goldenson, and her grandson.

Bubba, a 22-pound lobster who survived the 660-mile trip from the coast of Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, died on March 2 at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. His exact age was unknown, but marine biologists estimate he was between 30 and 50 years old.
After avoiding fisherman his entire life, Bubba was finally caught in the waters off Nantucket, Mass. The huge crustacean spent a week on display at Wholey’s Market in Pittsburgh, where he became a star attraction and media celebrity. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to the store’s owner, and offered to release the lobster back into the Atlantic Ocean. In contrast, a group known as People Eating Tasty Animals requested the opportunity to purchase and eat him.
Bubba was transferred to the zoo earlier this week and placed in quarantine. Once a health exam was completed, the three-foot-long lobster was scheduled to become a permanent exhibit at the Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Although cause of death has not yet been determined, a zoo spokesperson said the stress of moving was a likely factor.
The largest lobster on record was caught off Nova Scotia in 1977 and weighed 44 pounds 6 ounces.
• Watch a CBS News Story on Bubba

Arnold Sheldon Denker, a U.S. chess champion, author and philanthropist, died on Jan. 2 of brain cancer. He was 90.
The native New Yorker began playing chess in high school. He was only 15 when he won his first citywide championship and his first of six championships at the Manhattan Chess Club. After graduating from New York University, Denker gave exhibitions on military bases and aboard aircraft carriers during World War II. He won the 1944 U.S. Championship with a score of 15

Civilian stunt pilot Sean deRosier died on Oct. 15 after his airplane crashed at the start of the Miramar Air Show. He was 31.
DeRosier was one of the first pilots to perform during the air show at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego. While doing twirls in his blue and yellow, single-engine Cabo Wabo “SkyRocker,” he failed to pull out of a steep dive and crashed between two runways. DeRosier suffered severe internal injuries in the accident, and died 25 minutes later at the hospital.
The Fairfield, Calif., resident loved flying. He earned his pilot’s license at 17, then took up stunt flying. DeRosier became one of the youngest performers on the air show circuit, and performed his gravity-defying stunts in shows up and down the west coast.
DeRosier and his father built the aerobatic airplane from a $300 set of plans. Capable of speeds of up to 184 mph, the aircraft’s wing tips were modified with a pair of mini-jet engines that spewed smoke. In 1999, the plane won an Outstanding Workmanship Award at the Experimental Aircraft Association annual convention in Oshkosh, Wis.