Did the movie come out around 1982? If Terri saw the movie for the first time based on the fight to pull the respirator around the time she had this discussion it would explain the tense in which she was discussing it.
Even in formal writing, you can use present tense to speak of past events. Historians often write in present tense and historical novelists almost always do. It lends dramatic interest, whereas a book full of past-tense verbs can be a bore.
In this case, the Quinlans' attempts to pull the plug on their adopted daughter were the story, the headline news. It was a bitter, rancorous fight that went on for most of a year as best I recall, and went all the way to the Supreme Court.
The removal of the ventilator at the end of all this was a mere detail after the fight was over. It was anti-climax. Terri had no reason to mention it, so it is pointless to infer anything from the fact that she did not.
The made-for-TV movie, In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan came out in 1977. It may have been shown after that as a rerun.
"If Terri saw the movie for the first time based on the fight to pull the respirator around the time she had this discussion it would explain the tense in which she was discussing it."
I understand what you're trying to say. But it makes no sense if you think about it.
If you were watching a movie about the life of JFK, you wouldn't comment to someone, "I'd really be upset if Kennedy got assassinated".