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Deciding the Fate of Terri
By ANITA KUMAR
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 25, 2000

Last updated Oct. 24, 2003
Excerpt:

Michael Schiavo thought he had done everything he could to save his wife. In 1990, after she lapsed into a persistent vegetative state from a loss of potassium, he took her to California for experimental treatment. He hired an aide to take her to salons for a beauty make-over. He took her to the mall to buy new clothes, the museum to look at art. He even made tapes of her family and friends, hoping to find a stimulus that would lift her from the her current state.

Tragic Fall

The Schiavos had been married five years when Terri started having abdominal pains and missing her menstrual periods, family members say.
^^CLASSIC IN BULIMIA NERVOSA

Her doctors never tested her blood or told her what was wrong, Mrs. Schindler said.

On Feb. 25, 1990, Michael Schiavo woke up about 5 a.m. to use the bathroom. That's when he saw his wife fall on the floor. Her heart stopped beating and she was deprived of oxygen for five minutes before she was taken to the hospital.

Terri Schiavo has not awakened since and currently lives in Palm Gardens nursing home in Largo.

Family members say doctors never discovered why Mrs. Schiavo suffered the loss of potassium that caused the heart attack. Despite several theories, including one that she had an eating disorder, no one has given the family
a clear answer.

^^^(SCHINDLER’S ATTENDED THE MAJORITY OF THE MALPRACTICE TRIAL WHICH WAS ALL ABOUT THE DOCTOR’S MISSING TERRI’S SEVERE BULIMIA NERVOSA-gi)

THE COURT AWARDED OVER $1 MILLION NET TO MICHAEL DUE TO THE DOCTORS NOT PROPERLY DIAGNOSING TERRI'S SEVERE BULIMIA NERVOSA. IF THE SCHINDLER'S ARE GOING TO SAY THAT TERRI NEVER HAD BULIMIA NERVOSA, THE RIGHT THING UNDER GOD IS ALL THE AWARD SETTLEMENT MONEY SHOULD BE GIVEN BACK TO THE PHYSICIAN THAT GOT FLEECED. WHAT DO YOU THINK??

Terri, meanwhile, has remained in a what is termed a "persistent vegetative state" through about 100 doctors visits and countless hospital and nursing homes stays. She breathes and sleeps, blinks and smiles. But she cannot talk and has to be propped up in a chair during the day.