Posted on 03/27/2005 6:31:02 AM PST by gesully
When did Michael Schiavo first start trying to kill Terri? Mary Mostert March 23, 2005
Because I try to track down facts before I write about a subject, I have not written about Terri Schiavo and the battle over her condition. What actually happened to Terri back in 1990 that caused her to be the topic of world conversation today? Before we decide to permanently dispose of her, shouldn't we first find out how she got into this predicament?
Well, she collapsed, we are told by her husband Michael, in 1990 and was taken to the hospital . Some stories say she had a heart attack. Other stories, including a medical report by Dr. William Hammesfahr, a world-reknowned neurologist, totally refute any heart attack. Hammesfahr reported:
"Ms Schiavo was in her usual state of good health until 2/25/90, when her husband reported that he was awakened from sleep approximately 6 Am by her falling. He reports that she was unresponsive. "Paramedics were called, and aggressive resuscitation was performed with 7 defibrillations en route.
"In the Emergency Room, a possible diagnosis of heart attack was briefly entertained, but then dismissed after blood chemistries and serial EKG's did not show evidence of a heart attack."
Some reports guess that she collapsed due to an effort to lose weight — although, she was not at the time overweight. Hammesfahr's report stated:
"The patient had a difficult hospital course with the development of poorly controlled seizures and prolonged coma state requiring, for a time, ventilator support. However, the staff noted improvement, and it was recommended by several physicians that she be discharged to an intensive rehabilitation center."
In 1992, Michael Schiavo sued for malpractice and won over a $1 million. He was personally awarded $300,000 for his "loss" and $700,000 for Terri's rehabilitation and care for the rest of her natural life. However, the therapy, after the award, was not approved by Michael Schiavo and she was confined to a nursing home after the settlement.
It was after the settlement that Michael first claimed that Terri had previously stated that she didn't want to be kept alive by artificial means — a statement he never mentioned during the malpractice trial. He has never produced any written proof that Terri said that.
Beginning almost immediately after receiving the malpractice funds, Michael Schiavo, as Terri's legal guardian, began to refuse approval for ANY therapy or rehabilitation efforts and she has been confined to bed.
Since 1995, Michael Schiavo has lived openly with a girlfriend, Jodi Centonze, with whom he has two children, while remaining legally married to Terri, as well as being her legal her guardian.
In 1998, Michael Schiavo petitioned the court to have Terri's feeding tube removed. In 2003, Michael Schiavo's attorneys reported that the trust fund was down to $50,000, with more than $430,000 going to "pay for court costs associated with her husband's legal battle to remove his wife's feeding tube." Meanwhile, Medicaid helps to pay Terri's $5,000-a-month nursing costs at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida. 13
During this time period, Terri's parents have attempted to gain guardianship over their daughter. During the legal battles that have ensued, in 2003 a deposition was taken from Dr. William Campbell Walker, a radiologist, concerning a bone scan the hospital did on Terri in 1991. That bone scan revealed what Dr. Walker reported at the time as "compression fracture in the 19 vertebral body of the spine."
For seven years as Terri has been consistently denied rehabilitation treatment that, according to several doctors, would have significantly improved her chances of recovery, Michael spent her money awarded for her therapy on lawyers trying to get her starved to death. Several doctors pointed out, including Dr. Hammesfahr, that Terri not only CAN swallow on her own, but frequently DOES swallow and pictures shown clearly indicate, as Hammesfahr and other testify, that she can and does respond to voice commands and particularly to her parents.
This would indicate that she is NOT in what the State of Florida defines as a "vegetative" state. It also makes me wonder, now that the feeding tube is removed, if any effort to help her swallow water or food is being made today, or whether under the court order spoon feeding also has been outlawed? Terri's parents, if they just came and got her and took her home, I guess would be arrested for kidnapping under Florida's legal system.
At this point, the legal system of Florida has, in the words of one legal observer, created the "framework for legal euthanasia." Of course, euthanasia is technically the practice of killing someone painlessly because they prefer death to life for whatever reason. I would not classify starvation as a "painless" way to die.
Dr. Hammesfahr stated in his report:
"In the spring of 2000, three physicians, including Dr. Jay Carpenter, who is a former Chief of Medicine at Morton Plant Hospital, filed affidavits after observing Ms. Schiavo. All three physicians stated that it is visually apparent that Ms Schiavo is able to swallow and, in fact, does swallow her own saliva.
"The patient continued with no physical therapy, communication or speech therapy, or routine medical screening evaluations and treatment such as dental care, mammography, gynecological exams or pap smears during this time."
Under these conditions and questions, it would appear to me that Terri SHOULD have a totally different guardian, such as her parents, until some questions are answered about the spinal and other injuries that appeared on her bone scan a decade ago. Why is it that a man who clearly wants his wife dead, cannot explain how she actually got into the state she is in, or produce ANY proof, other than his unsubstantiated words, that she would want to die, is being unquestioningly defended by the Florida courts?
Increasingly, it appears to me, that Terri would have gotten better care had her husband never won that malpractice suit and been given $1 million to spend — much of it on lawyers to legally kill off his wife.
It all makes me wonder just when Michael Schiavo made his first effort to kill Terri? Was it before or after she ended up in the hospital with an unexplained problem that put her in a coma?
Mary Mostert is a nationally-respected political writer. She was one of the first female political commentators to be published in a major metropolitan newspaper in the 1960s. After working in President Lyndon Johnson's failed War on Poverty programs in New York state, she became a Republican. She ran, unsuccessfully, for the New York State Senate and became campaign manager for a number of candidates. She once served as the secretary of "Positive Action NOW!"--a South African women's group that sought to reduce the hostility among South Africa's various racial, religious, and political groups.
In recent years, Mary has researched, written, and edited articles for national talk show host Michael Reagan's Information Interchange on the Internet, and for The REAGAN MONITOR, a monthly newsletter that provides in-depth information on key issues. Her book, COMING HOME - Families Can Stop the Unraveling of America," was published in 1996 by Gold Leaf Press. Mary maintains a political media site, Banner of Liberty. She can be contacted at mary@bannerofliberty.com . Click here for more information.
"Thanks for the added note. That was informative! And the press can't figure this out, not can the courts! WOW! What power...to decide the fate of another human being, thinking you have no consequences! The day of judgment will be a tough day for these "do-gooders" (in their mind, anyway!). "But, God...we did it all legally!"
So did the Romans
Since you have researched his life, I had a question. I'm sure it's irrelevant since these people seem to have their legal bases all covered but did he ever live with his girlfriend in a state that recognizes commonlaw marriage? I'm no expert but it seems like bigamy is grounds for annulment. As I said, I'm sure everyone has looked into every aspect of this case but I never saw this addressed.
"...or whether under the court order spoon feeding also has been outlawed?
It is my understanding that Judge Greer ordered no feeding whatsoever, even with clear evidence of Terri's ability to swallow.
Moreover, it has been substantiated that Michael Schiavo could have performed CPR on his wife, but did not. He also apparently took more than an hour to call 911.
Was it to clean up the place where things may have fallen from tossing and smacking her around perhaps?
I've read reports that Doctor's found a massive brain injury that did not show during the first day of her admittance to the hospital. Apparently, the scan showed this injury to have happened while she was in the hospital from the 2nd day to the 6th day.
The DOJ must investigate and put a halt to this heinous outrage of killing her by starvation.
And, for all of you whiners that got so upset about pink panties being placed on murdering bloodthirsty headchopping terrorists because in America we don't do torture, just what the hell do you think is being done to Terri? You blithering hypocrites. I wish that Terri had one ounce of your misplaced compassion.
I am convinced that HE was the cause of her collapse.
HE never wanted her to get better, HE wanted the money and for her never to be able to communicate what happened that morning!!
NOW, after she dies she will be cremated making an autopsy impossible giving HIM immunity from any murder or attempted murder charge.
He's washed his hands of the affair, as has his brother. Everyone has seen the polls (whether accurate or not) and the decision has been made to back off. Disgraceful.
This has all gone on in Florida which does NOT recognize common law marriage. Immoral and unethical yes, against the law, unfortunately no.
Even if you believe what he said, and I certainly don't, it was an off-hand remark at best, the same sort people make all the time: "I'd rather die than wear a dress like that"..."If I date a guy like that again, somebody please shoot me"...and so on. Should we all be held to such mindless comments as though they were solemn oaths?
There's another tragic aspect of human nature involved in this story, and it's expressed in the notion of parental "cognitive dissonance".
It goes like this: Terri's parents, as anyone would under the circumstances, HAD TO suspect foul play on the part of Michael. The facts, one could say, REQUIRE that we acknowledge that. He was the only person there, he was angry at Terri, there had been other 'hints' of something like this, i.e., bruises.
But parental cognitive dissonance intrudes.
A typical example is the mother of a proven mass-murderer saying, "He was always a good boy. He never could do anything like this" in the face of 100% proof that he had. It's the power of the deep urge as a parent to protect, turned against all logic and perception.
In Terri's case, here were the facts: their daughter was alive, and they evidently suppressed, through cognitive dissonance, their true impulses to suspect Michael. Instead they threw their hope to the fact that Michael, through what they would also suspect (but repress) as a bogus malpractice suit, would recover the means ($$) to let them -- the parents -- give lifelong care to Terri.
Michael, the sociopath, played along with the game, which kept Terri's parents in a state of non-accusative cognitive dissonance.
Once the game was "won", meaning the lawsuit had borne fruit, THEN Michael -- in his sociopathic victory over the cognitively dissonant parents -- turned the tables, and upped the ante.
Michael raised his bet on himself -- not only could he beat the attempted investigation by bringing Terri's parents close to him, but now he could KEEP the money, get rid of Terri, and cut the parents (and their dream of caring for Terri) loose.
Only a sociopath would take that chance. And only a sociopath could win that bet.
And Michael has now won the bet, by finding a lawyer knowledgeable enough of the system to guide him to victory, while Terri's parents had hopelessly jaundiced their case by NOT bringing an investigation upon Michael when it would have mattered, i.e., at the time of the .
And so -- now we see the tragedy of parental cognitive dissonance played out on a truly grand tragic scale, and we're all pulled in, like a Greek chorus, into the action.
This whole mess could have been avoided If Schiavo had let her die when she was first diagnosed as being in a PVS condition, as was her wish. He violated her wishes when he tried to rehabilitate her.
Disgraceful ...... disgusting and demoralizing.
Well looks like he will get the book and movie profits also.
Well looks like he will get the book and movie profits also.
Per Michael's lawyer - after his 'beautiful comment', he said that Terri is to be cremated as per 'her' wishes to .... you got it, Michael!
My first thought was, well yeah sure he wants her cremated because its pretty hard to do an autopsy on ASHES. Any evidence of prior abuse, her 'heart attack', or poisoning (insulin) will be destroyed. And an autopsy would also confirm IF her brain and cortex had 'turned to mush'.
And secondly, what's also odd (to me) is that usually Catholics do NOT get cremated. And IIRC cremation was against the tenets of the RCC. Granted that might have changed (Vatican II?), but I find the cremation thing 100% suspicious.
(Time for another court fight - and call Gill Grissom asap. Her Hospice room is a crime scene!)
And thats when the parents should have intervened and took away legal guardianship.
While he was fulfilling promises he made to Terri why didn't he bother fulfilling the one he gave when he married her to love, honor and cherish until death do us part? He sure didn't have any problem breaking that promise did he?
What's your beef? Why not investigate ALL of it? Even without the questionable Nobel nominee's reports, there is plenty of fodder her for investigation. Or do you prefer to only show one side, like MSM? For me--and I'm sure most of us here--all of the truth is best.
Medicaid FRAUD and abuse! State of Florida needs to be looked into about this fraud.
You are right. In the real world judges routinely refuse to admit anything of a Constitution nature. The Constitution gets in the way of their legal decisioning. Only facts are admitted which confirm the judges bias are admitted, it is much like MSM now days. Parading the brother of Schiavo as if the things he states are real. As a side note, you can shop a judge if you have the money. This "rule of law" nonsense does not match what is happening in courts these days.
I am not so sure, more sordid facts are coming out on this every day. I truly believe that enough evidence will emerge that Michael Schiavo will end up being a pariah. The internet bloggers, FR etc are not going to let this thing die with Terri
The other day, Felos thanked the ACLU for helping Michael's cause. Felos said Michael's cause was only able to succeed because of their help and the help of some others.
For years, the ACLU has been very busily fighting for the right to Physician Assisted Suicide. They know their way around the courts, all right.
Back in 1999, the ACLU gave an award and a dinner (!!the irony!!) to Former Chief Justice of the Florida State Supreme Court, Gerald Kogan, who supports Physician Assisted Death. Praying and posting for Terri Schindler.
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