Replies

Here is one of the reports that I had read. On the third page, there are some notations about Terri's improvement. That was in 1991.

I looked over the documents you linked, and also did some other searching.

First, a mea culpa - it looks like it was an error for me to say that she never had an MRI – it appears she did, before the thalamic stimulator was placed.

Now on to the material you reference, which are "snapshots" of a few periods of time:

June of 1990, 5 months after her cardiac arrest. The exam from Bayfront indicates eye contact and threat response (likely a blink to something in front of her face). They describe reports from the family of “verbal output” and note that the examiner did not observe any verbalization. They do not mention as to whether the family reported random noises or coherent speech.

The third page is from March of 1991. The Monthly summary indicates slight increase in responses, but questions whether the variation is merely due to time of day of testing.

The second page is dated a year later than the first page, June 1991. Under “cognitive/communication” it states “no significant change” but does note vocalizing, and says “occ will say ‘stop’ to nursing during procedures.”

According to the GAL report: July 19, 1991 - “Ms. Schiavo is transferred to Sable Palms skilled care facility where she receives continuing neurological testing, and regular and aggressive speech/occupational therapy through 1994.”

From the partial notes presented, it appears she was given therapy through 1994, with any improvement noted only in the early stages - 1991. I have to say I'd want the complete set of notes to form a good conclusion; sometimes they give a different picture. Observers do vary, and the most accurate picture would be from reading all the notes. Also, if these notes are “cherry picked” (and I couldn’t say one way or the other) they could be very deceptive.

The GAL, who presumably had access to ALL of her medical reports, says: "During the previous four years [1990-1994], he [MS] had insistently held to the premise that Theresa could recover and the evidence is incontrovertible that he gave his heart and soul to her treatment and care. This was in the face of consistent medical reports indicating that there was little or no likelihood for her improvement."

In the face of no improvement for 3 years, (and maybe even deterioration) I'm not surprised that the experts felt further improvement was very unlikely. More therapy was extremely unlikely to have changed anything.