ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (ABP) -- The legal saga of a severely brain-damaged Florida woman remains in limbo after competing court rulings.

On Feb. 22, Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube remain in place until at least 5 p.m. on Feb. 23. The ruling temporarily halted implementation of an order from a state appeals court handed down the same day. That opinion, by the state's 2nd District Court of Appeals, would have allowed Schiavo's husband, Michael, to direct her doctors to remove the feeding tube that keeps her alive.

Greer scheduled a hearing on Terri Schiavo's fate for Feb. 23.

Michael Schiavo claims his wife is irreversibly brain-damaged and has asked permission to remove her feeding tube. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, argue their daughter shows signs of responsiveness to stimuli and may one day be rehabilitated.

If her feeding tube is removed, it would likely take several days for Terri Schiavo to die of starvation. She has been in what doctors have described as a "persistent vegetative state" since collapsing 15 years ago.

---