Terri's dad: 'She's literally been a prisoner'
Brain-damaged woman's parents appear on Fox's 'Hannity & Colmes'
Posted: November 18, 2003
12:00 a.m. Eastern
By Diana Lynne
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Terri Schiavo is a "cerebral palsy-type victim" who deserves rehabilitation, and not a person in a persistent vegetative state who would want her feeding tube removed, her parents argued on national television.
Terri's father, Robert Schindler, stressed on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" show that doctors told him it was "acquired cerebral palsy." Schindler blamed Terri's condition on her husband, Michael Schiavo, who has denied her rehabilitative therapy since late 1992, according to medical records provided to the Schindlers' attorney.
"Initially, Terri was talking. She was reacting and there were doctors way back when that said she could recover. And he stopped everything," Schindler said. "She has literally been in prison for four years. She's not permitted to go outside. She has no stimulation. She has a wheelchair that's broken that the husband will not fix."
As he has earlier suggested to WorldNetDaily, Schindler said he felt Schiavo had something to do with Terri's mysterious collapse in 1990 at the age of 26 that left her severely brain damaged and reliant on a feeding tube for nourishment.
"We have strong suspicions and we have evidence. And I really can't get into that as I'd like to at this point," said Schindler.
When pressed, Schindler repeated: "We have evidence."
"It's a matter of getting access to additional evidence that has been under lock and key all these years," he added, in reference to Terri's medical records from the early days of her injury 13 years ago.
Schindler referenced an investigation under way by The Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities. The non-profit organization is investigating abuse and neglect claims on the part of Michael Schiavo, some of which are outlined in a motion filed by the Schindlers which seeks to have Michael Schiavo removed as Terri's guardian.
 Mary Schindler, Bobby Schindler and Suzanne Schindler Carr join Oprah via satellite, Nov. 14, 2003. (Photo: The Oprah Winfrey Show) |
Robert and Mary Schindler's live interview on the "Hannity & Colmes" follows a similar appearance by Mary Schindler and Terri's brother and sister on "The Oprah Winfrey show" Friday. WorldNetDaily reported the family has launched an effort to appeal to a national audience to swing the public-relations battle over their 39-year-old daughter.
The television duel started when CNN's talk-show legend Larry King devoted his hour-long program to Michael Schiavo's side of the story on Oct. 28.
 Michael Schiavo on CNN's "Larry King Live," Oct. 28, 2003. (Photo: St. Petersburg Times) |
WorldNetDaily has reported the Schindlers have been locked in a 10-year battle to keep Michael Schiavo from removing Terri's life-sustaining feeding tube. Michael Schiavo insists Terri does not want to be kept alive "through artificial means" and succeeded in getting a Florida court to order the tube removed last month.
Terri survived six days without hydration and fluids before Florida lawmakers and Gov. Jeb Bush intervened and ordered the tube reinserted. Schiavo has appealed the intervention on the grounds that it unconstitutionally violates the separation-of-powers principle of government, as well as Terri's right to privacy.
On "Larry King Live", Schiavo pulled no punches in expressing his animosity toward the Schindlers for consistently blocking his efforts to allow his wife to "die with dignity" and raising suspicions about his motives.
"They don't like me because they want the money," Schiavo told King, in reference to $1.2 million dollars awarded him and Terri in 1992 as a result of medical-malpractice suits over her brain injury. Schiavo claims the money has been used to fund therapy for Terri and only about $50,000 remains in her fund. WorldNetDaily has reported, Felos has been paid some $358,000 from the fund and Schiavo's other attorney reportedly received $80,000.
Fox anchor Sean Hannity asked the couple about Schiavo's assertion they were just after money.
"[Terri's adversaries] try to take the focus off of Terri – sort of accuse the accuser type of thing," said Robert Schindler. "We're defending our daughter. She has no attorney defending her, no guardian ad litem – which there should be – so it was left in our hands to defend her. And our family has been vilified for doing that."
Robert Schindler also asserted Michael Schiavo and his right-to-die advocate-attorney George Felos have shifted the focus of their public statements about the case away from the debate over Terri's current condition and placed the emphasis on her wishes. He suggested they did so because more than 150,000 people who viewed video clips of Terri, which the family posted on their website, e-mailed Florida lawmakers and Gov. Bush telling them they didn't believe the court ruling that Terri is in a persistent vegetative state, or PVS.
WorldNetDaily has reported that Terri breathes and maintains a heartbeat and blood pressure on her own. Although her vision is impaired, she can see and the video shown in court shows her tracking a balloon across the room. It also apparently demonstrates she can move her limbs on command, vocalize and respond to her mother.
Circuit Court Judge George Greer ruled Terri is PVS, based on the testimony of three neurologists who testified in an evidentiary hearing in November 2002. The neurologists, one appointed by Greer and two solicited by Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, testified Terri's apparent responses to her family members are random reflexes consistent with people in persistent vegetative states.
Greer also ruled that testimony by Schiavo, his brother and sister-in-law that she had casually told them a year before her injury she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means, was "clear and convincing evidence" of her wishes. Terri has no written mandate on the matter.
An appeals court upheld both of Greer's rulings.
"The strategy of [Terri's] adversaries – her husband and his attorney – changed after the videos came out. Now Felos is focusing on her wishes," Robert Schindler said. "In time, we'll prove that to be wrong too, if we're given the chance."
The Schindlers, including Terri's sister, Suzanne, and her brother, Bobby, do not believe Terri, who was a devout Catholic, wants to be starved to death, which would be the consequences if Michael Schiavo wins the fight to have her feeding tube removed.
"I'm going to follow Terri's wish if it's the last thing I do," Schiavo told Larry King.