- PINELLAS PARK, Florida (CNN)
-- The father who has fought for more than five years to keep his brain-damaged
daughter alive said when he visited her Thursday, she turned down his kisses,
saying, "Uh-uh."
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- "I was in front of her and I'm kissing her on the
cheek, and she doesn't like that," said a smiling Bob Schindler after
visiting his 39-year-old daughter Terri Schiavo.
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- He said he then asked, "'Do you want me to kiss
you again?' She goes, 'Uh-uh. Uh-uh.' That's what I got from her."
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- Terri Schiavo's brain was damaged in 1990 when she collapsed
from heart failure, the result of doctors' misdiagnosis. She recovered
from the heart attack, but oxygen was cut off to her brain, leaving her
in what doctors call a "persistent vegetative state."
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- Eight years later, her husband and legal guardian, Michael
Schiavo, filed a court petition to remove his wife's feeding tube as he
claims his wife wanted, according to the St. Petersburg Times. The woman
did not have a will.
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- Terri Schiavo's family fought the move, maintaining that
their daughter responds to them and should be kept alive with a feeding
tube.
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- Schindler said Wednesday his daughter is "alert,
active, a live human being" and said videotapes that showed her condition
moved Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to act on her behalf.
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- Michael Schiavo claims Terri did not want to be kept
alive artificially. Doctors said last week she would have died within two
weeks without the feeding tube.
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- A court seemingly ended the five-year legal battle when
it ordered the tube removed last week. But the state legislature quickly
passed a law giving the governor the right to intervene, which he did Tuesday.
The feeding tube was reinserted Wednesday.
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- Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said the law
allowing Bush to order her feeding tube reinserted is unconstitutional.
His attorneys asked a circuit court judge in Pinellas County Tuesday to
grant an emergency injunction preventing the re-feeding of his wife.
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- The judge rejected the request, but gave attorneys five
days to file paperwork for a permanent injunction.
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- "Each of us -- and the Florida Supreme Court has
said this -- has a right to control our own body," Felos said. "We
have a fundamental right to make our own medical treatment choices, and
the state doesn't have a right to override our wishes."
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- Michael Schiavo has not allowed the family to see Terri
Schiavo's medical reports, but Wednesday he allowed them to visit her.
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- Schindler said when he saw his daughter Wednesday night
she looked withdrawn, but "today it's just the opposite."
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- He said his daughter looked a little weak from not having
food for a week, but "other than that, she really looks good, I mean,
too good.
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- "She looks like she did before this incident with
the tube," he said, adding that the family is trying to get access
to medical reports on her current condition.
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- Asked if the husband may finally give in to the family's
demands and just walk away from the entire case, Schindler said he was
unaware of any such possibility, but would definitely welcome it.
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- "Michael Schiavo is not our primary concern,"
the father said. "It's to see her back to the condition she should
be in."
- Independent guardian to be appointed
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- A Pinellas County Circuit Court judge this week ordered
lawyers for both sides to agree within five days on an independent guardian
for Terri, as required under the law signed by the governor.
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- The new guardian would become Terri Schiavo's advocate
in legal proceedings, but Michael Schiavo would remain the decision-maker.
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- If an agreement cannot be reached, the judge said he
will appoint Dr. Jay Wolfson, a professor of health and law at Stetson
University, as the guardian. Wolfson also works for the College of Public
Health at Florida State University and the College of Medicine at the University
of South Florida.
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-
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- Terri Schiavo's parents have accused their son-in-law
of selfish motivations. Michael Schiavo -- who has a girlfriend with whom
he has a child -- won $1.2 million in a malpractice case against his wife's
gynecologist and another $250,000 in a settlement with her general practitioner.
Most of that money was to go toward her treatment.
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- In addition, he received $300,000 for pain and suffering
and loss of consortium.
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- Michael Schiavo has declined to comment on whether there
is an outstanding life insurance policy on his wife.
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- CNN correspondent John Zarrella contributed to this report.
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