Ruling on ex-Toledoan s feeding tube is weeks off

9/5/2008

Permanent guardianship for former Toledoan Karen Weber, who is partially paralyzed from a stroke in December and at the center of a Florida feeding-tube dispute similar to that of the late Terri Schiavo s, will not be decided for weeks.

Ms. Weber s mother, Martha Tatro of Okeechobee, Fla., a retired Toledo Municipal Court employee who wants to keep her daughter s feeding tube in place, has 10 days to give briefs to an Okeechobee County Circuit Court judge summing up points made at a hearing Wednesday, Ms. Tatro s attorney, Joseph Rodowicz, said.

Then the attorney for Raymond Weber, Ms. Weber s husband, who also is a former Toledoan, will have 10 days to respond, summing up his side s arguments so the judge can make a guardianship decision, Mr. Rodowicz said.

Mr. Weber has sought to have his wife s feeding tube removed and have her transferred to a hospice.

The case is reminiscent of that of Ms. Schiavo, whose feeding tube was removed against her parents wishes before she died in 2005. Ms. Schiavo, however, was in a persistent vegetative state after her heart stopped in 1990. Ms. Weber who currently is battling meningitis and other ailments has been able to laugh and communicate with head motions.