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Saturday, June 18, 2005

Where death is a part of life, instead of a freak show
Posted by Jill | 12:54 PM

Fascinating article in the Washington Post about the hospice in which Terri Schiavo spent her last months.

It's easy to forget that there were staff at Woodside just doing their jobs, and many other people not involved in the Schiavo circus with loved ones at the facility at the same time, and there are others who have entered since -- and their families. And it's easy to forget the toll all this cheap political posturing has had on these people:

Two hours later, Annie Santa-Maria, director of inpatient and residence services, enters her pitch-black office.

"Since the Terri thing, I've had trouble sleeping," she says. "So I just come in. I get e-mail done or read."

Like many of the staff, Santa-Maria is only now processing the Schiavo episode. Her nightmares are the what-ifs. What if one of the bomb threats was real? What if someone had broken past the barricades and given Schiavo a sip of water?

"If they had given her a cup of water, she would have choked to death," Santa-Maria says, her frustration bubbling up. "I just wanted to yell at them, 'We have people die with feeding tubes all the time.' "

Some of her devout Catholic siblings disapproved of her role in the Schiavo case. The Catholic police chief peppered her with questions of ethics and morality. Congress subpoenaed her.

Santa-Maria opens her laptop to a PowerPoint presentation. The working title is "Woodside: A Fortress of Caring." Unlike the television images beamed around the world, the photos depict The Siege from the inside. Police in camouflage patrolling the verdant back grounds, people in wheelchairs pressing against orange mesh fencing, and the signs:

"Feed Terri! For God's Sake."

"Stop the Murder."

"Auschwitz Woodside."

"I would watch volunteers feeding and bathing our patients day and night, and they're out there calling us murderers," she says, her voice piercing the 5 a.m. silence.
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