When Did Michael Shiavo First Start Trying to Kill Terri?

Because I try to track down facts before I write about a subject, I have not written about Terri Shiavo 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 Shiavo 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 Shiavo 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 Shiavo, 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 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.

“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?

Dr. Hammesfahr was interviewed on KFI radio last week. Even though he must have been asked about this several times before and should have had an answer ready, he sounded dumbfounded when asked about the fact that his Nobel Prize nomination was nominated by a local congressman (which is enough for the Nobel Peace Prize but NOT for the prize for the sciences). He very quickly terminated the interview. They played the interview several times that afternoon. If he'd had a good answer, they gave him more than adequate time to provide it. I was very disappointed since so many people had invested their hopes in him.

I tend to agree with you. My point was "killing" is often sanctioned (troops in combat), while murder is knowingly not. The poor girl, I tend to agree, is being murdered, but there are many that view the act as sanctioned killing. I think it's time for the Church's to take a position on the whole general policy.

Another question is, by what right does a person have, to have feeding/water tubes removed prior to death? Isn't that a form of suicide/ self murder? The morality of the whole issue should be reviewed.

You been sniffing methane or something? What's with the shouting? What's with the hyperbole? Better stay out of the barn for awhile.

Just check my personal page and they you will realize socialism is one of my enemies and you will have to try another attack.

LOL...I usually ignore post with all caps, but never again.
I HAD NO GOOD ANSWER AS YOUNG LIBERAL STUDENT. TODAY AS A OLDER MATURE CONSERVATIVE ADULT UNDERSTAND. WHEN WE ARE NO LONGER A BLESSING AND ADDING VALUE TO OUR SOCIETY IT IS TIME TO MOVE ON

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You see I can no longer see small print and my doctors told to solve the problem write bigger.

Just visit my personal page and you will have to try another approach, because I belive you do not have the wheelbase.

YOUR ARE MAKING ALLEGATIONS YOU CAN NOT BACK UP. THIS IS THE WORST KIND OF SLANDER
I'm sure that Hubby is anxious for a autopsy to be held on Teri.

An autopsy (along with the release of all of her medical and police records) will go a long way in determining the root cause of Teri's condition and the care she received

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Perhaps perhaps not. My issue with this and you is you are making allogations you can not back up. You mouth is just hot air, and you don't know. None of use know. Trust me an autopsy will be completed.

You mouth is just hot air, and you don't know.

You seem to have a problem with sarcasm.

You wanna bet that MS will fight any autopsy and record release on grounds of privacy and despoiling Teri's body (which he wants to cremate)?

My criteria has always been brain death and/or massive organ failure that a person has no hope of recovering from. Usually such folks are in a coma or simply nonresponsive with no motor neuro signs, corneal blink responses, cough and gag reflexes...the only thing that keeps going is the ventilator keeping lungs supplied with o2 so that the heart can supply the body with blood...often with medicines that support BP, rate and rhythm. Normally, 50-100 years ago(before all the machines were invented) nature "just took its course".

A conscious but severely brain damaged woman is not "in a persistant vegetative state" in light of the definition I just provided above. Some folks how-ever are trying to change those definitions to mean any body in need of being fed thru a tube who can't get up and be useful to society!

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