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Guardianship Battle Begins In Schiavo-Like Case

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George Lavers says he and his wife Heather agreed that “Only God can stop your heart."

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 28, 2008

GIBSONTON - Robert Lavers remembers waking precisely at 7 the morning of Sept. 9.

He and his daughter had fallen asleep in the living room. His wife, Heather, was still in bed, which was unusual.

"I went to nudge her and she didn't wake," Robert recalled.

She still hasn't.

His 38-year-old wife had suffered a cardiac arrest. Doctors say she has been in a persistent vegetative state ever since and likely will never come out of it.

That medical prognosis has begun a chain of events that, like the infamous Terri Schiavo case, will pit a husband against his wife's family and potentially reignite the national debate over who decides whether a seemingly hopeless patient lives or dies.

A Toledo judge is expected to appoint a legal guardian Wednesday to speak on Heather Lavers' behalf.

Her sister in Ohio is asking the court to grant her decision-making power over all medical care for Heather. Robert says his sister-in-law considers his wife brain-dead and would eventually "pull the plug."

He wouldn't, he says, because he and his wife discussed the issue and agreed on one thing: "Only God can stop your heart.''

Unfortunately, the couple never put their wishes in writing.

Heather's sister declined to comment, but her mother said Monday no one wants Heather to die.

"Nobody is doing anything but keeping her alive," Patricia Kaczala said during a telephone interview from Toledo. "I want nothing more than to protect my daughter."

Patricia Kaczala said her son-in-law isn't capable of caring for Heather – not the kind of long-term care Heather will need. She fears Robert, who is disabled and unemployed, is using her daughter's condition for his own monetary gain.

Robert denied the allegation and said that with the help of a local law firm he has set up a trust fund in his wife's name for financial support received toward her long-term care.

"I have nothing to gain and everything to lose if my wife doesn't make it," he said.

Struggling To Get By

Two months before her heart stopped, Heather was fired from her job and had slipped into a deep depression, her husband said.

Life had never been easy for the couple, married 17 years. Robert's spina bifida had gotten so bad he stopped working eight years ago as a landscaper and instead spent his days homeschooling the couple's three children while Heather worked.

Lavers receives a monthly disability check. His children are covered by Medicaid, he said, and the family uses food stamps to get by.

Heather had lost jobs before, but this time it was harder to find another. Their cars were repossessed, then they fell behind on the house payment.

"We were at the end of our rope financially," Robert said.

The turmoil left Heather restless. The night she stopped breathing she had taken Benadryl to help her sleep, Robert said. When he went to wake her, she appeared to be having a seizure, he said.

No one really knows what caused her heart to stop, he said.

Heather was at Tampa General Hospital for about a week before her sister, Heidi Kaczala, persuaded Robert to move his wife to The Toledo Hospital in Ohio.

She would get better care at the Level 1 trauma facility, Robert recalled his sister-in-law, a nurse there, saying. He was desperate, he said, and agreed Kaczala could serve as her sister's temporary health surrogate.

That meant Kaczala could make all medical decisions for Heather's care in his absence – except to decide whether to stop medical care and let her die. That decision had to be unanimous among Robert and Heather's parents.

Soon after, Robert learned Kaczala planned to seek full guardianship of her sister, which would include the right to decide whether to continue medical treatment. He contacted a lawyer and was told that even though he was Heather's spouse and had natural guardianship, to be safe he needed to make a similar request in Florida.

He also needed to be present at a separate hearing in Lucas County, Ohio, where his sister-in-law had filed her request.

If Kaczala won, "this is the door to the scary situation," Robert said.

Parallels To Schiavo Case

A similar fight was waged here in the Tampa Bay area three years ago, when 41-year-old Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed by a St. Petersburg judge's order. Schiavo had been in a permanent vegetative state for 15 years following heart failure.

Her husband and her parents were locked in a legal war for seven years as Michael Schiavo argued his wife would not have wanted to be kept alive artificially.

Her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, testified in court that with therapy and time, their daughter might eventually recover. Their pleas caught the attention of right-wing activists and politicians from the local level to Congress, which pushed at the last hour for legislation to block the judge's order.

Terri Schiavo eventually died 10 days after she was removed from the feeding tube. It was a bitter moment in history that got loved ones and legal professionals across the country talking about living wills and the necessity of putting your wishes in writing.

It certainly got Heather and Robert Lavers talking, he said.

"Heather and I made a sort of pact," Robert said. "We would be advocates for each other."

But like many couples, the pair never got around to drawing up documents to make their wish legal and binding.

"Here I am with my wife sort of sitting in Terri's shoes," Robert said.

Researcher Buddy Jaudon contributed to this report. Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144.

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