Pinellas Park, Fla. ? The feeding tube keeping a severely brain-damaged woman alive was removed Wednesday, all but ending an epic, 10-year legal battle between her husband and her parents.

Terri Schiavo, 39, had the tube removed at the Tampa Bay-area hospice where she has lived for several years, said her father, Bob Schindler. Attorneys representing her husband, Michael Schiavo, said it would take between a week and 10 days for her to die.

The parents want Terri Schiavo to live, and her husband says she would rather die. She has been in a vegetative state since 1990, when her heart stopped because of what doctors said may have been a chemical imbalance.

Bob Schindler said he and his wife, Mary, went in to see their daughter shortly after the tube was removed and gave her a kiss and hugged her. He said his daughter was not as responsive as they claim she normally has been.

“She’s OK for the next couple of days,” said Suzanne Carr, Terri Schiavo’s sister. “We are just going to try to work some magic.”

“I have to believe that somebody is doing something, somewhere to stop this judicial homicide,” she said.

Michael Schiavo was not immediately available for comment after the removal of the tube.

Mary Schindler, left, attempts to talk to her daughter, Terri Schiavo, in this Aug. 11, 2001, video released by the Schindler family. An appeals court on Tuesday refused to block the removal of Schaivo's feeding tube, which was removed Wednesday.

Several right-to-die cases across the nation have been fought in the courts in recent years, but few, if any, have been this drawn-out and bitter. The tangled case has already been handled by 19 separate judges, and at one point two years ago a judge ordered the tube removed. Feeding was later resumed based on new evidence.

About 100 protesters Wednesday stood outside the hospice in what has become a 24-hour vigil staged by advocates for the disabled and anti-abortion activists. The case has drawn international attention for the fierceness of the family fight.

The tube removal came just hours after Gov. Jeb Bush told the Schindlers that he was instructing his legal staff to find some means to block a court order allowing Michael Schiavo to end his wife’s life. Even the family’s lawyer has said their legal remedies have been exhausted.

“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.”

Family members are hoping the governor will find a legal way to intervene in the decision.