PINELLAS PARK, Florida - Terri Schiavo's husband barred his wife's brother from staying with her during her dying moments Thursday after her sibling had an argument with a law enforcement official in her hospice, the husband's attorney said.
Michael Schiavo was cradling his wife as she succumbed at around 9:00 am (1400 GMT) to "a calm, peaceful and gentle death," said attorney George Felos.
But minutes earlier, Michael Schiavo's long dispute over his wife's life with her parents and siblings spilled into her dying moments as her brother, Bobby Schindler, argued with a police officer, Felos said.
Michael Schiavo had left his wife's room at 7:00 am to allow her siblings, along with a priest, to see Terri Schiavo, he said.
They had seen her for an hour and 45 minutes when hospice officials asked them to leave the room so nurses could assess the patient in her dying moments, Felos said.
"At that time, the hospice administrator said that Bobby Schindler was resistant to leaving the room and got into an argument or dispute with the law enforcement official and suggested that he wanted to remain in the room with Mr. Schiavo and a police officer," Felos said.
"Mr. Schiavo made the decision that that was not appropriate under the circumstance," he said.
"Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern was (that) Mrs. Schiavo has a right and had a right to die with dignity. And die in peace. She had a right to have her last and final moments on this earth be experienced by a spirit of love and not of acrimony," he added.
Schiavo's husband "was not going to permit a potentially explosive situation, knowing that there was just a dispute with law enforcement."
Michael Schiavo and his wife's family had fought a bitter legal fight for years over whether to remove Schiavo's feeding tube, which was taken out March 18, but the family lost last-ditch petitions in US courts Wednesday.
Michael Schiavo said his wife had said she would not want to be kept alive in such a condition. The parents said she could have improved with proper treatment.
Michael Schiavo had lived in a separate room at the hospice since his wife's feeding tube was removed and spent as much time as he could with her, Felos said.
After she died, he left the room to let her family see her body, he said.
About 30 or 40 hospice workers, many of whom have treated her for years, circled her body in an emotional moment, he added.
Felos called the hospice workers "angels of mercy."
"It was just unbelievable to see the incredible amount of compassion, warmth and love and caring and skill which they used throughout this entire process to help Mrs. Schiavo have a death with dignity," he said.
03/31/2005 21:04 GMT