After a near-drowning, 9-year-old Selah Clanton of Zephyrhills can’t walk, talk or eat; she has to have a feeding tube and trach to live. Doctors say she is in a vegetative state, akin to that of Terri Schiavo, a Clearwater woman whose fate became the center of a legal storm that raged until her death in 2005.
Unlike Schiavo, Selah’s family is united in the belief they must keep her alive, whatever it takes.
But as the Tampa Bay Times reports, the family's insurer, Florida Blue, has stopped paying for home-care nurses for the girl. Her parents say they can’t cope without the help, since they have three other special-needs children.