From - CBS News Sunday Morning - Sunday 11-09-03
Martha Teischner reports over a series of pre-recorded video clips in this news magazine's lead story...
Teichner: If it weren't for THIS video, the one Terri Schiavo's parents made, and insist PROVES that their brain-damaged daughter is aware, and is trying to communicate...
(Terri's mom asking if Terri is tired today, and Terri smiling and responding)
(A doctor having asked Terri to open her eyes as far as possible, Terri complies by raising her head, opening her eyes fully, and lifting her eyebrows WAY UP! The doctor shouts: GOOD! Good JOB! Good Job young lady!)
Teichner: The fight over removal of her feeding tube, might have remained a tragic ugly family struggle. But the troubling image of Terri's eyes, her open mouth, the fact that she's been this way 13 years, has made her the symbol of a nation's struggle over the right to die.
Teichner: The hospice, in Pinellas Park Florida, where Terri Schiavo is a patient, has become a battlefront in America's political and idealogical culture wars.
(Terri's father is asked "Do you still think there's hope?" He responds calmly "Oh yea". A priest prays at the vigil: "Help us believe that you are aware of our anxieties, and will do what is best for Terri and for us")
Teichner: Camped out front: Right to life advocates, disability activists, and supporters of conservative causes. They stood by with Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, when a state court ordered Terri's feeding tube removed on October 15th.
(Terri's father: "I'm pleading to Governor Bush, [sobbing] as one dad to another... to save Terri)
Teichner: They were jubilent, six days later, when Governor Jeb Bush, backed by state lawmakers, in an unprecidented and possibly unconstitutional move, DID get involved, ordering the feeding tube re-connected.
(Gov Bush: In my prayers, I would hope that our legal system would recognize that the right to life, is as important as the right to terminate life support.)
Teichner: Without Bush's intervention, Terri Schiavo would have died within days. But the story isn't over. It will be up to the Florida Supreme Court to sort out whether the legislature's passage of what's being called "Terri's Law" was legal.
(Senator King: I keep on thinking, what if Terri didn't want this to happen at all? May God have mercy on all of us)
Teichner: The case is about trying to see inside Terri Schiavo's head. About trying to figure out, since SHE had no living will, what SHE would want under the circumstances, to LIVE? or to DIE? And, who has the right to determine that? Her husband? Her parents? the courts? or Governor Jeb Bush and the legislature?
(Larry King: What happend Michael, on February 25th, 1990?
Michael: "I'd say, about 4:30 in the morning, I was, for some reason, getting out of bed, and I heard a 'thud' in the hall. I raced out there, and Terri was laying in the hall.")
[body language note: Michael frequently looked down and to his left throughout those recollections.]
Teichner: Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband and her guardian, on Larry King Live...
(Michael: "I rolled her over, and she was lifeless.")
Teichner: Paramedics rushed her to THIS hospital [Northside Hospital & Heart Institute] They resuscitated her, saved her life, but her brain had been deprived of oxygen for five to ten minutes. Leaving her according to MOST, but not ALL of the doctors brought in to examined her, in a persistent vegetative state, with no HOPE of recovery.
(Attorney Felos: As a result of the lack of oxygen, from the cardiac arrest, Terri's cerebral cortex, or cerebrum, the center of consciousness and thought, began to decay, well it died, and then began to decay and atrophy.)
Teichner: George Felos, is Michael Schiavo's lawyer, and an author. Felos argued the landmark case that established the right of an individual to refuse unwanted medical treatment in Florida.
(Felos: Where her cerebral cortex used to be, is literally a giant black hole that is filled with spinal fluid)
(Doctor#1: Looking at this scan, without the actual patient, this is consistent with someone who could be in a persistent vegetative state, yes. You would expect this person to be exceedingly low-functioning. Not necessarily in a coma or unconscious, but certainly very low-functioning.)
Teichner: Dr Keith Siller is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at New York University Medical School.
(Doctor#1: This is a horrible scan.)
Teichner: We showed him Terri's brain scan because he has no vested interest in the Schiavo case.
(Doctor#1: Now this is what a normal scan should look like. In Terri Schiavo's scan over here, the person has lost the exterior brain, which is the cortex, and that's where all the functions originate from. So if you've lost cortex through atrophy, brain doesn't grow back. It's not going to recover. The problem is you have a gray zone here. That's a person who is not technically brain-DEAD, but in a functional sense, that person is not really brain-ALIVE, either. )
(Doctor#2 [who actually TESTED Terri for 4 hours]: "She is NOT in coma presently. She ABSOLUTELY CAN be rehabilitated. There is NO question about that")
Teichner: Neurologist William Hammesfahr, shown here with Terri's father on FoxNews, is one of the doctors who has given the Schindler family hope.
Teichner: Terri's CONDITION tops the list of things the two sides disagree on, as they LITERALLY fight over her life. Slinging accusations at each other, on national television.
Teichner: The other central issue is whether Terri really DID say she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially...
(Michael: "We were watching some programs, and she says, I don't want a... I don't want anything artificial like that. I don't want any tubes. Don't let me live like that")
[body language note: Michael started out looking down and to his left. Halfway thru those sentences he finally looked up at LKL.]
Bobby: [with solid eye-contact] "We've said all along, that these wishes were just a complete fabrication"
Teichner: Bobby Schindler is Terri's brother...
Bobby: "They only occurred after there was a substancial amount of money in Terri's trust fund"
Teichner: A Florida court believed Michael Schiavo, that it was Terri's WISH to die. But look what else the court concluded. That MONEY overshadowed the entire case, on both sides.
Teichner: In 1992, Michael Schiavo sued Terri's doctors for malpractice, and won. 300 thousand dollars for himself... 700 thousand dollars for Terri, to be held in a trust fund. THATS when the trouble began.
Bobby: The fact of the matter is, there HASN'T been any rehabilitation for Terri, and thats what my dad was confronting Michael ahh, about
Felos: The Schindler's, after the malpractice money came in umm, demanded money for themselves
Teichner: The money's practically gone now, but the emnity remains...
(lawyer#2: Unfortunately, Terri, poor Terri, did NOT express herself in legal documents that would have avoided all of this)
[lawyer#2 and Teichner then plugged Living Wills for one minute]
Bobby: "To have to watch a loved one slowly STARVE to death, its BEYOND comprehension."
Teichner: Bobby Schindler doesn't consider disconnecting Terri's feeding tube 'letting her die'. He calls it 'Starving her to death - killing her'. In order to visit his sister at the hospice, he has to pass police guards posted outside.
Bobby: I know that she's listening. I know that she's hearing me. I know she's aware. So I try to keep HER spirits up. Terri is my SISTER, and she is our FAMILY, and she is JUST as beautiful to me now as she was before this happened. And I'm willing, and my family is willing to take care of her as long as we have to. You know, Michael has started a new family, he has a fiance...
Teichner: So you just want him to walk away?
Bobby: Yea, just walk away.
Felos: The overriding, and sole motivation of Michael Schiavo, is to carry out his wife's wishes. I can see no other reason why he has subjected himself to this abuse, threat, destruction, of his life... Why would he do it if he didn't truely love her?
Teichner: Its been 13 years since Terri Schiavo collapsed. Perhaps the lesson to be learned from this sad story, is that without putting our wishes down on paper, it could be any ONE of us lying there, being fought over.
[Transcripted for education and discussion purposes only, not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. portions transcribed by TheSarce ]
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Recent interviews/excerpts:
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"Hannity and Colmes" - Tuesday 10-14-03 --> (Terri's father) Bob Schindler: "MONEY and FOUL PLAY"
"On the Record with Greta" - Friday 10-24-03 --> Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden: "Potassium imbalance UNLIKELY - HEALTHY heart - NECK TRAUMA"
"At Large with Geraldo Rivera" Sunday 10-26-03 --> author Christopher Darden and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz: "You have eternity to be dead; You only have a limited amount of time to live"
"Hannity and Colmes" - Monday 10-27-03 --> (father) Bob Schindler and (neurologist) Dr. William Hammesfahr: "She absolutely CAN be rehabilitated -clearly NEVER had heart attack -Emergency room: damaged neck"
"On the Record with Greta" - Monday 10-27-03 --> (attorney) Pat Anderson: "BIG FIGHT -attempted STRANGULATION"
"On the Record with Greta" - Tuesday 10-28-03 --> (attorney) Pat Anderson and (brother) Bobby Schindler: "failing marriage -DIVORCE imminent -Potassium explained":
"Hardball with with Chris Matthews" - Wednesday 10-29-03 --> (pro-Terri attorney for ACLJ) Jay Sekulow and (anti-Terri attorney) Joe Tacopina: "Matthews: I think the human issue here is... her eyes flickering... I think she's ALIVE":
"Larry King Live" - Monday 10-27-03 --> (husband) Michael Schiavo[barf alert]: THEY get money from the right wing ACTIVISTS - "Removing somebody's feeding is very painless. It is a very easy way to die" - [later] King: Would you take one[lie detector test]? - No
"The Abrams Report" - Monday 11-03-03 --> (Commentary) almost entirely pro-husband
"O'Reilly Factor" - Wednesday 11-05-03 --> (former "Vegetative State" patient) Kate Adamson: Being starved to death is EXTREMELY painful "It was SHEER torture!" - took her THREE MONTHS of ACUTE REHAB to snap out
Her website says: We stand behind Terri Schindler!
"The Abrams Report" - Thursday 11-06-03 --> (pro-Terri attorney) Pat Anderson and (pro-death attorney) George Felos: "Felos: Michael is a MODEL husband" - Anderson:"Terri got NO REHAB after $award$":
"On the Record with Greta" - Thursday 11-06-03 --> (Gov.Bush's lead attorney) Ken Connor, and followed by a panel discussion:
"Connor: INDEPENDENTLY investigate the circumstances and allegations...
Alred: Perhaps the PARENTS SHOULD care for her
"Radio Interview" --> (Michael Schiavo's so-called 1st girlfriend after Terri's so-called 'collapse')
MS: "[Terri] upsets my WHOLE LIFE with this, and this is ALL her fault."
GIRLFRIEND: "he can be the most INCREDIBLY MEAN person!"
"CBS News Sunday Morning" - Sunday 11-09-03 -->
( Lead-off feature story for this Sunday morning news magazine )
(in wonderment) You just don't stop, do you, lol?! Thanks, will save for LATER a.m. reading.
Thank you for all your hard work too, FE! Many I knew I had read --- somewhere. Many I missed entirely.
-Michael Schiavo (teaching Terri she can NEVER DIVORCE him) minutes before her 'collapse'