Access to Rehabilitative Care

The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network upholds human dignity through service to the medically vulnerable.

We express this mission through public advocacy of essential qualities of human dignity—which include the right to food and water, the presumption of the will to live, due process against denial of care, protection from euthanasia as a form of medicine, and access to rehabilitative care—as well as through 24/7 Crisis Lifeline service to at-risk patients and families.

Why do we advocate access to rehabilitative care?

There can be a thin line between hope and hopelessness in moments of medical crisis. Even those whose chances are slim, or worse, who find themselves abandoned by their physicians, hospitals, or insurance companies, deserve a fighting chance at rehabilitative care and recovery.

In the pursuit of happiness there is often struggle, and we believe no one is truly without hope. Everyone deserves access to meaningful rehabilitative care.

Awareness of the Brain Death Diagnosis

Awareness of the Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) Diagnosis

A persistent vegetative state refers to a condition in which an individual has lost cognitive neurological function and awareness of his/her surroundings but retains noncognitive functions and a sleep-wake cycle.

Published Reasearch on the High Rate of PVS Misdiagnosis:

Person's Emerging from PVS/Locked-In State/Coma:

Some Remarkable Stories of Perseverance, Hope and Unconditional Love: