Terri's family appeals to Oprah fans

The parents and siblings of Terri Schiavo have mounted a television campaign to appeal to a national audience and counter similar efforts by her husband.

WorldNetDaily has reported the Schindlers have been locked in a 10-year battle to keep Michael Schiavo from removing the brain-damaged woman's life-sustaining feeding tube and to get her rehabilitative therapy she has been denied for a decade. 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.

The 39-year-old 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.

In an effort toward damage control amid the furor over the removal of Terri's feeding tube,

On the program, he insisted he loved his wife deeply but that death by starvation and dehydration would allow the woman he says is in a persistent vegetative state to die with dignity.

Schiavo also pulled no punches in expressing his animosity toward the Schindlers for consistently blocking his efforts and raising suspicions about his motives.

The Schindlers are due to be given a future "Larry King Live" program in order to rebut Schiavo's claims. In the meantime, representatives of the family – mother Mary, brother Bobby and sister, Suzanne Carr – shared their story with fans of daytime talk queen Oprah Winfrey. Appearing live on href="http://www.oprah.com/">"The Oprah Winfrey show" via satellite, the Schindlers described Terri as alert and responsive and not in a persistent, vegetative state, or PVS.

"She cries, she laughs and she follows me around the room. She laughs at her dad's jokes. Each day is different," Mary Schindler said.

"Terri is very purposeful in her reactions," added Carr. "When you go in and say 'hi' to Terri, Terri will in a sense do her best to say 'hi' to you. Or there's a lot of times where if you tell Terri you're going to leave, she'll cry. She doesn't want you to leave. So her reactions are very purposeful."

Bobby Schindler told Oprah "there's a real misconception" about Terri's medical condition.

"It's not just the family saying that Terri can be helped. We have over a dozen doctors – half of them being neurologists – that all have either testified or examined Terri and all believe that she could significantly improve if she was just given the chance," Bobby Schindler said. "For whatever reason, Michael [Schiavo] lost hope for Terri back in 1992. And from that point on she has been completely neglected, has gotten no rehabilitation, no therapy."

According to medical records provided to the family's attorney, Terri has not received rehabilitative therapy since 1992, when Schiavo was awarded $1.2 million in medical-malpractice lawsuits against Terri's physicians – most of which was earmarked to pay for Terri's medical treatment.

In an interview with WorldNetDaily last year, Schiavo insisted he had provided therapy in recent years but would not give details or associated dates. When asked about this by Larry King, Schiavo similarly asserted Terri had received therapy in the last 10 years and then described the therapy she received in 1991 at a facility in St. Petersburg, Fla., and in Los Angeles.

Despite the neglect indicated in the records, 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 is the same judge who ruled in 2000 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.

The Schindlers believe Terri's behavior, and her having survived two removals of her feeding tube and several life-threatening illnesses over the past 13 years during which she has been incapacitated, indicate a strong will to live. They question why Terri never made the same comments alleged by the Schiavos to them.

"Terri never said anything about these alleged wishes to any of her family workers, her co-workers, her closest friends. The only persons she evidently said these wishes to were Michael, his brother and sister-in-law," said Bobby Schindler.

"Could it be possible that they are husband and wife and there are many things that husbands and wives share with each other that they don't tell to brothers and sisters?" Oprah challenged. "Could it be something she said in passing, 'If that ever happens to me, please pull the plug.'"

"We don't believe Terri would have ever said that," answered Carr. "We knew Terri obviously a lot longer than Michael. It was very out of character for her to even think in that fashion. She was just in her mid-twenties. She was very light-hearted. She just never spoke about those type of things and we totally believe it was out of character for Terri even to mention anything like that. So to answer your question, we don't believe that she could have even said anything like that in passing."

Court filings and other information on the case are posted on the Schindlers' website

She was named Theresa Marie, after Saint Theresa of Avila, but they called her that only when they were mad, which was almost never.

She drew pictures of dogs and horses, Bambi and Thumper, and her Labrador puppy, Bucky.

She grew up in a four-bedroom colonial on a half acre in the suburbs of northeast Philadelphia.

Overweight most of her life, she would cry when she had to buy school clothes.

She loved to peel skin after a sunburn.

She could keep a secret.

Her eyes are brown.

She attended Our Lady of Good Counsel school, where short, stout Sister Idalea knew the best way to pull a kid's hair to make it hurt.

She loved a boy named V.J. Mandez, but he did not love her back.

She learned to drive in a Ford Country Squire station wagon.

She got cold easily. She kept a blanket on the bed even in summer.

She once ran into the house crying because she had run over a rabbit. No one could console her. Her father went outside, came back, and said she was mistaken, there was no dead rabbit in the road. When she finally calmed down and left the room, her dad said, "Man, she nailed it."

She drank nearly a gallon of iced tea a day.

She read Danielle Steele novels. In their defense, she would say, "They are not Harlequins."

She liked to drive her T-top Trans Am past construction sites. She liked blonds.

She slept with her back to the window, so if she was murdered in the night she would not see it coming.

She weighed 200 pounds when she graduated from Archbishop Wood High School.

On her first real date, with a guy named Michael Schiavo, her brother and his friend stood on the front lawn and cheered.

She met Michael her second semester at Bucks County Community College. He was a year older, a foot taller and blond. He was the first guy who ever noticed her.

She has her mother's bushy eyebrows.

At Christmas, she would sneak around the house trying to find where the presents were hidden. Her father set up a train around the tree.

They said grace before dinner and had roast beef on Sundays.

She wrote a letter to John Denver asking him to sing at her wedding. He never wrote back.

A thousand words about the Terri Schiavo you never knew

First revised draft:

Terri Schindler Schiavo is being denied necessary rehabilitation (in particular but not limited to range of motion therapy which has been denied her for approximately 10 years) because Michael Schiavo has knowingly acted to refuse same.

"The right to receive necessary services and rehabilitation is a retained right. Section 744.3215(1)(i), Florida Statutes (2003).

What are they doing or are going to do about this? Michael Schiavo is breaking the law.

Terri is being denied the right to be restored to capacity at the earliest possible time in contravention to:

Section 744.3215(1)(c), Florida Statutes (2003).

and has been for approximately 10 years because Michael Schiavo has knowingly acted to prevent same.

What are they doing or are going to do about this? Michael Schiavo is breaking the law.

Terri is currently being neglected and has been for the past 10 years. Michael Schiavo as guardian of Terri has been the cause of this neglect. Michael Schiavo is breaking the law and is guilty of committing felonies under:

Section 825.102 (3)(a) under the meanings of said Section 825.102 (3)(a) Items 2b and/or 2c. and therefore is a felony crime and punishable pursuant to statutes 775.082, 775.083, 775.084.

Again, ask them what they are doing or are going to do about this.

Call the following people and tell them that you want some answers:

Executive Office of Governor, Legal Team to Jeb (ask
to speak to the following individuals):

Robert H. Fernandez (Deputy General Counsel to
Governor) -> fernanr@eog.state.fl.us

Raquel A. Rodriguez (General Counsel to Governor)
-> raquel.rodriguez@myflorida.com

Christa Calamas (Assistant General Counsel to
Governor) -> calamac@eog.state.fl.us

850 / 488-3494 (voice)
850 / 488-9810 (fax)

Jeb Bush, Governor
-> jeb@myflorida.com,jeb.bush@myflorida.com

850 / 488-4441 (voice)
850 / 488-7146 (voice)
850 / 487-0801 (fax)

Executive Office of the Governor
400 S. Monroe Street
The Capitol
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0001

Ask to speak to Lauren O'Conner

State Attorney Bernie McCabe
berniemccabe@fdle.state.fl.us
727 / 464-6221 (voice)
727 / 464-6534 (fax)

Attorney General Charlie Crist
ag@oag.state.fl.us
850 / 414-3990 (voice)
850 / 487-2564 (fax)

Florida Department of Law Enforcement
2331 Phillips Road
Tallahassee, FL 32308
850 / 410-7000 (voice)

Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Complaints
Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Room 4322
Washington, D.C. 20530
inspector.general@usdoj.gov
hotline: 800 / 869-4499
hotline fax: 202 / 616-9898.

US Department of Homeland Security/FDLE/FLA
Michael P.S. Dwyer
813-872-7213
727-541-5335
mpsdwyer@aol.com

FBI Tampa
Room 610, FOB
500 Zack Street
Tampa, Florida 33602-3917
tampa.fbi.gov
813 / 273-4566 (voice)
https://tips.fbi.gov/

REF:

Florida Statutes (2003)

744.3215 Rights of persons determined incapacitated.--
(1) A person who has been determined to be incapacitated retains the right:
(a) To have an annual review of the guardianship report and plan.
(b) To have continuing review of the need for restriction of his or her rights.
(c) To be restored to capacity at the earliest possible time.
(d) To be treated humanely, with dignity and respect, and to be protected against abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
(e) To have a qualified guardian.
(f) To remain as independent as possible, including having his or her preference as to place and standard of living honored, either as he or she expressed or demonstrated his or her preference prior to the determination of his or her incapacity or as he or she currently expresses his or her preference, insofar as such request is reasonable.
(g) To be properly educated.
(h) To receive prudent financial management for his or her property and to be informed how his or her property is being managed, if he or she has lost the right to manage property.
(i) To receive necessary services and rehabilitation.
(j) To be free from discrimination because of his or her incapacity.
(k) To have access to the courts.
(l) To counsel.
(m) To receive visitors and communicate with others.
(n) To notice of all proceedings related to determination of capacity and guardianship, unless the court finds the incapacitated person lacks the ability to comprehend the notice.
(o) To privacy.
…

History.--s. 34, ch. 89-96; s. 19, ch. 90-271; s. 36, ch. 93-39; s. 13, ch. 94-183; s. 44, ch. 96-169; s. 6, ch. 96-354; s. 1782, ch. 97-102.

+++

825.102 Abuse, aggravated abuse, and neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult; penalties.--
(1) "Abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult" means:
(a) Intentional infliction of physical or psychological injury upon an elderly person or disabled adult;
(b) An intentional act that could reasonably be expected to result in physical or psychological injury to an elderly person or disabled adult; or
(c) Active encouragement of any person to commit an act that results or could reasonably be expected to result in physical or psychological injury to an elderly person or disabled adult.

A person who knowingly or willfully abuses an elderly person or disabled adult without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the elderly person or disabled adult commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(2) "Aggravated abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult" occurs when a person:
(a) Commits aggravated battery on an elderly person or disabled adult;
(b) Willfully tortures, maliciously punishes, or willfully and unlawfully cages, an elderly person or disabled adult; or
(c) Knowingly or willfully abuses an elderly person or disabled adult and in so doing causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the elderly person or disabled adult.

A person who commits aggravated abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(3)(a) "Neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult" means:
1. A caregiver's failure or omission to provide an elderly person or disabled adult with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the elderly person's or disabled adult's physical and mental health, including, but not limited to, food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine, and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential for the well-being of the elderly person or disabled adult; or
2. A caregiver's failure to make a reasonable effort to protect an elderly person or disabled adult from abuse, neglect, or exploitation by another person.

Neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult may be based on repeated conduct or on a single incident or omission that results in, or could reasonably be expected to result in, serious physical or psychological injury, or a substantial risk of death, to an elderly person or disabled adult.
(b) A person who willfully or by culpable negligence neglects an elderly person or disabled adult and in so doing causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the elderly person or disabled adult commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(c) A person who willfully or by culpable negligence neglects an elderly person or disabled adult without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the elderly person or disabled adult commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
History.--s. 3, ch. 95-158; s. 2, ch. 96-322.

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