Malpractice suit brings $2-million to woman left in vegetative state
Series: Metro REPORT:[CITY Edition]
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/index.html?ts=1067558394 LAURA GRIFFIN. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Nov 12, 1992. pg. 3.B
Tuesday night, a jury awarded Mrs. Schiavo and her husband, Michael [Schiavo], more than $2-million in a lawsuit they brought against the gynecologist who never asked about her medical or nutritional history while treating her.
During the trial, attorneys for the Schiavos showed a film of a day in Mrs. Schiavo's life at Sabal Palms Nursing Home in Largo. Although she's in a vegetative state, said St. Petersburg lawyer Glenn Woodworth, "you can tell she has some sense of her predicament."
Woodworth and Miami lawyer Gary Fox maintained that [Stephen] Igel saw Mrs. Schiavo four times over a year and never asked about her nutrition and never noticed the loose skin and stretch marks resulting from her substantial weight loss.
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Although she's only 28, Theresa Schiavo lies day in and day out in a nursing home, left virtually helpless from a heart attack brought on by an eating disorder.
Tuesday night, a jury awarded Mrs. Schiavo and her husband, Michael, more than $2-million in a lawsuit they brought against the gynecologist who never asked about her medical or nutritional history while treating her.
During the trial, attorneys for the Schiavos showed a film of a day in Mrs. Schiavo's life at Sabal Palms Nursing Home in Largo. Although she's in a vegetative state, said St. Petersburg lawyer Glenn Woodworth, "you can tell she has some sense of her predicament."
"It's a tragic case," Woodworth said. "She was on the threshold of her life. They were ready to start a family . . . (On the film) she knows her husband and looks into his eyes."
As a child, Mrs. Schiavo was heavy. As a teenager, she weighed about 200 pounds. But she weighed only 120 pounds at age 25. She kept her weight off through a dangerous eating disorder, bulimia, which involves vomiting after eating.
The couple had been married about six years when Mrs. Schiavo began thinking she was pregnant because she kept missing her menstrual periods.
Her family doctor referred her to Dr. Stephen Igel, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Clearwater. But she wasn't pregnant, Woodworth said. She was missing her periods because of poor nutrition.
Woodworth and Miami lawyer Gary Fox maintained that Igel saw Mrs. Schiavo four times over a year and never asked about her nutrition and never noticed the loose skin and stretch marks resulting from her substantial weight loss.
"There were no questions about weight loss, eating habits or anything," Fox said. "She had significant stretch marks on her thighs. This was something a prudent gynecologist would not miss."
Igel treated only the symptoms, he said, not the cause.
On Feb. 24, 1990, after a year of treatment, Michael Schiavo heard a thud in the bathroom. When he went to see what happened, he found his wife crumpled on the floor. She had suffered a heart attack, Fox said.
"I think there are a lot of gynecologists out there who are treating women with Teri's symptoms in an ordinary way," Fox said. "But it's not an ordinary problem."
Igel's attorney, Kenneth Deacon, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Fox said Igel's attorney contended that Mrs. Schiavo should have disclosed her problem and that even if he had suspected and asked, she probably would have kept it from him because bulimics are often secretive.
The jury agreed partly with the defense. They originally awarded the Schiavos more than $6-million but found that she was 70 percent at fault. So they subtracted her liability from the award, bringing it down to $2-million, her attorneys said.
The verdict could have been higher, Woodworth said, if the jury hadn't found that because of the bulimia, Mrs. Schiavo had a life expectancy of only 17 more years.
Woodworth said he and Fox questioned the jury's decision to decrease the award and will discuss with Circuit Judge Phillip Federico whether it is legal.
The couple also sued Mrs. Schiavo's family doctor, Joel Prawer, but Prawer settled earlier this year for an undisclosed amount, Woodworth said.
Michael Schiavo has stayed with his wife and takes care of her, Fox said. He is in nursing school so that he can care for her on his own, Fox said.
"This is the kind of guy whose wedding vows are just that - vows," Fox said. "Ironically, Tuesday (the day of the verdict) was their eighth wedding anniversary."
To Fox, the case represents a larger problem: a dangerous societal pressure placed on women to be thin.
"I think it's important that women who have these eating disorders know the downside. I don't think they know how dangerous it is," he said. - LAURA GRIFFIN
Copyright Times Publishing Co. Nov 12, 1992
"Woodworth and Miami lawyer Gary Fox maintained that Igel saw Mrs. Schiavo four times over a year and never asked about her nutrition and never noticed the loose skin and stretch marks resulting from her substantial weight loss. "
Guess what, folks? With bulimia, there is not substantial weight loss. It is being confused with anorexia nervosa here. Bulimics usually sustain normal weight.
"Unlike the person with anorexia, the patient caught up in the syndrome of bulimia usually maintains a normal or near-normal body weight, and the primary symptom is gorging rather than starvation." - from Medical-Surgical Nursing (Lewis, Heitkemper, Dirksen)
Sometimes she's in the bathroom, sometimes in the hall, sometimes across the threshhold of the bedroom door. She sure got around for someone incapacitated by trauma. < /sarcasm >