Why would the parents believe they were entitled to half?
That's what Michael said on Larry King, I believe. I'll see if I can get the transcript. That's when he said the sparks began. Has anyone ever done a background check into the Schindlers?
KING: OK, the break with the family.
SCHIAVO: Her father and mother came into the room. And they closed the door. And they asked the big question, How much money am I going to get? And I told them I wasn't going to get any money.
KING: Out of the malpractice?
SCHIAVO: Out of the malpractice suit. Then he argued with me for a little while. And then he pointed at Terri in the wheelchair and says, How much am I going to get from her money?
And I said, you have to go talk to the courts about that.
KING: She got money, too?
SCHIAVO: Yes, Terri got money.
KING: OK.
FELOS: Terri got the bulk of the money.
KING: OK, which was used for her rehab and for her medical expenses?
FELOS: Medical expenses.
SCHIAVO: From there, it blew up. He wanted to go out in the hall and have a fist fight. It was crazy. It was ludicrous.
KING: Did this shock you?
SCHIAVO: No, because he's always wanted the money. He always wanted money out of this. He even testified in the first trial that he was angry that he didn't get any money.
KING: And what about her mom?
SCHIAVO: Her mom kind of just stood between us. She yelled at me not to do this, don't do this. They stormed out of the nursing home. And from then, they tried to sue me numerous times to have me removed as guardian. And from then, they really basically didn't have any care with Terri. They hardly showed up to see Terri. Their main concern to me was the father was angry because he didn't get any money.
KING: So what do you make of what they say about you? I mean, are you shocked?
SCHIAVO: No. I wouldn't expect any less from Mr. Schindler.
Greed...Money is the root of evil.
Something that I have wondered about.
The story from the fathers side is that it was about care. He wanted to return her to some California outfit that MS thought was useless and unnecessarily debilitating to Terry.
They used massage therapy or some such, and on Larry King he said it was torture to view what they were doing to her.IIRC.
This was when they both received the bad news that Terry was not going to recover. One party decided that they would not accept this fact, but the motives seem a bit thin.
I don't know how the money affected these decisions. Not really something that can be surmised or divined from behavior in this case.