Time Runs Out For Coma Woman

The feeding tube keeping a severely brain-damaged woman alive was removed Wednesday, ending an epic, six-year legal battle between her husband and her parents.

Terri Schiavo, 39, underwent the procedure at the Tampa Bay area hospice where she has been living for several years, said her father, Bob Schindler. Attorneys representing her husband, Michael Schiavo, said it will take between a week and 10 days for her to die.

The tube removal came just hours after Gov. Jeb Bush told Bob Schindler and his wife, Mary, that he was instructing his legal staff to find some means to block the court order allowing Michael Schiavo to end his wife's life.

"I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer. But I know that if a person can be able to sustain life without life support, that should be tried," the governor said, adding the "ultimate decision of this is in the courts."

The father of the woman said the family was heartened by the governor's last-minute effort.

"The family has not given up hope on Terri," Bob Schindler Jr. said following the meeting with Bush. "We have spoken to the governor, and he hasn't given up hope either."

Michael Schiavo said he is carrying out his wife's wishes that she not be kept alive artificially. The parents say their daughter has shown signs of trying to communicate and could be rehabilitated.

"Our daughter is not in a consistent vegetative state," her father told CBS' Early Show, prior to the removal of the feeding tube. "There are three times as many doctors on record with the court stating she does not have the brain damage as was presented to the court.

Doctors have testified that the noises and facial expressions Terri Schiavo makes are reflexes and do not indicate that she has enough mental capabilities to communicate with others.

The parents contend that the reason Michael Schiavo has fought so hard for the removal of his wife's feeding tube is because he wants to move on with his life with his current fiancée.

"This whole case against her was fabricated," said Bob Schindler. "It's built on untruths. In our eyes … it's out and out judicial homicide."

But Michael Schiavo's attorney George Felos disputes the accusation.

"We've had 20 judges separate the fact from the fiction in this case and all of them have determined that Terri is in a vegetative condition," he told the Early Show. "She has no consciousness. There is no hope that she could recover, that she can't be fed naturally.

"I know the Schindler's don't believe this. They're still in denial. They're in desperation, but the fact is this case is about Terri and her right to make her own choices and her right to have those choices carried out."