DCF: Terri Schiavo Not Abused, Exploited

ABC/AP ^ | 4.16.05

[ambrose]

DCF: Terri Schiavo Not Abused, Exploited

State Agency: Terri Schiavo Was Not Abused or Exploited by Either Side of Her Family

By VICKIE CHACHERE

The Associated Press

Apr. 16, 2005 - State investigators found no evidence that Terri Schiavo had been abused or exploited by either side of her family, according to documents released by Florida's Department of Children and Families.

The agency investigated 89 complaints dating back to 2001, when Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for the first time and the legal battle surrounding her right-to-die case intensified.

The calls alleged that the brain-damaged woman was being mistreated by her husband and her parents for financial gain. One complaint alleged that Schiavo's parents were selling videos of her through a Web site; another said Schiavo's husband wasn't spending money intended for her rehabilitation.

But investigators said they found no evidence that either her husband or parents were exploiting her, and often noted in their records that they found Schiavo well cared for on their visits to her Pinellas Park hospice.

The agency released the records Friday under court order.

Schiavo, 41, died last month after her feeding tube was removed for the third time, ending a bitter court battle between her husband, Michael Schiavo, and parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, over whether she would have wanted to live in a vegetative state.

The repeated allegations of abuse were based partly on bone scans showing Terri Schiavo suffered fractures and statements she made to family and friends that she was unhappy in her marriage.

Schiavo's husband has denied harming his wife. His lawyer said the fractures resulted from osteoporosis caused by the woman's years of immobility and complications of her medication.

Robert Schindler declined to comment there on the release of the DCF documents. An attorney for Michael Schiavo did not immediately return calls.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

[Howlin]

Exactly. We're all on a thread where DCF is saying that no evidence of abuse was found -- and here we have denial.

I suspect that a videotape of Terri herself stipulation what she wanted would be decried as a forgery.

[huck von finn]

Thank you. After that fiasco, I heard nothing and was a little concerned, to say the least.

I'm glad somebody looked into it.

[Howlin]

Take a hint; it's none of your DAMN business what goes on in my family or anybody else's family.

Feeding tubes are removed every single day in this country by people who make the choices for others; stopped trying to lay a guilt trip on them.

[Howlin]

He really is creepy, isn't he? Do you think he's Charles Nelson Reilly come back to life?

[MHGinTN]

"#2. Congress has no right to involve itself in this matter. None." Do you actually know what Congress and the President did in this matter? Do you understand the fifth and fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution? Do you understand what a de novo trial is? What hoot ... you and Howlin are becoming the evening entertainment.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Absolutely no sympathy for the radical element within the conservative movement.

That's key. There is such a struggle to educate the common voter, so many issues, so little time... and the candidates have to speak louder to be heard. Their tone is key as they try to sell their version of fixing America. Those that tout America's greatness will do MUCH better than those who want to preach doom and gloom and shove self-righteousness down our throats. The citizens want ANSWERS. They don't want finger pointing and blame.

[MHGinTN]

That's an insult to Charles, m'Lady!

[EternalVigilance]

It is my business. The slippery slope you all are pushing us towards brings the whole country down into the darkness.

[Howlin]

Well, at least admit he left him his hair.

[68 grunt]

That's the biggest part of the myth, EVie, that she had something going on upstairs. There was nothing. She didn't see, she didn't hear, she didn't smell, she didn't feel, she didn't know. The 89 bogus charges and the whackjob claims of 'whatever' did more than to discredit the real investigation, it began the myth. You won't accept the brain scan when it comes out, will you?

[BigSkyFreeper]

Heck no! CNR was wildly entertaining, Randull is wildly repulsive!

[Howlin]

No, it is NOT your business what any of us and our families decide to do WITHIN the law; period. Much as you'd like to force your views on our personal lives, it's not going to happen. Thank God.

[cyncooper]

My mother took the VERY unusual for her step of writing me and my siblings (and our spouses) to remind us that she and my father have a living will and we are to respect that. For good measure she noted their burial plans so we are all clear.

She also suggested we all have living wills and noted we all have wonderful in-laws BUT how if things aren't in writing look at what can happen.

Believe me, for her to have broached this was a very big deal and is a sign of how this has impacted society and those who want to determine their own fate without interference from the government.

[MHGinTN]

Bwahahahaha ... now you've got me with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. Poor Charles wore the most dreadful toupes, didn't he? Only Rip Torn has done more with such lids.

[Peach]

The saddest thing, imo, is what this has done to the pro life movement which has made such great strides in recent years.

Women my age were having grandchildren and looking at the new technology re ultrasounds, etc. They were realizing it's not a blob.

But the pro lifers in Florida were so ugly, with the face of Randall Terry and shouting into bullhorns all night disturbing the people who DID have cognitive ability and were kept awake all night, that the moderates are thinking, this isn't a party I want to associate with.

[BigSkyFreeper]

You, Gladys Kravitz, and the Government would be wise to stay the hell out of everyone elses personal affairs.

[joesbucks]

First, you have no idea what Terri's comments or wishes may have been, stated or written. Obviously, there has been no found written document if indeed one existed. But anything beyond that, you have no idea of her hopes, fears, wishes, desires or life choices. So don't even go there.

Second, you have no proof other than 2nd hand statements on her concern of Karen Ann Quinlan. And even after all that, most of Quinlan's events occurred prior to Terri becoming of age. So most but not all thoughts would have been coming from a very impressionable adolescent. Also, people who die when a respirator is removed suffocate. Is that any less or more worse than having a feeding tube removed, yet it happens all the time. Suffocation is worse than Terri's fate.

I think there are many con folks in this matter. Michael is included. He's pulled no wool over my eyes.

In addition, had Terri written her wishes on paper, how would you then want to have it done. Remove the tube as per her wishes and let her die of suffocation and starvation?

[68 grunt]

This country is in worse shape than I thought, when people who think like you do are making the calls.

You have a valid concern. I do not share that concern as I know people like you will never be making the calls.

[Howlin]

[EternalVigilance]

Your argument about 'what is going on upstairs' demonstrates clearly that you have no concept of what 'inalienable' rights are.

The 'quality of life' argument is exactly what George Felos and his death cult want us to be having.

But it is utterly irrelevent.

No man has the right to judge another person's quality of life, their 'value', or to kill them short of a conviction on capital charges.

This really is not a hard concept to grasp.