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 LAKELAND, FLA---Florida's Board of Nursing will revisit their decision made earlier this year to revoke the nursing license of Carla Sauer-Iyer, a registered nurse and former caretaker of the late Terri Schindler Schiavo during 1995 and 1996.
 The North Country Gazette has also learned that the state Department of Health has opened a new investigation into Michael Schiavo in light of new information provided to DOH about his alleged falsification of academic credentials and Schiavo's disclosure of confidential medical information concerning his wife.
Schiavo claimed he was the principal caregiver of the woman who was his wife in name only and that he controlled her medical care. He has long maintained that he was protecting his wife's privacy rights.
In May, the state panel, a division of Florida's Department of Health, determined that Iyer broke confidentiality rules for discussing the Schiavo case and the medical condition of the neurologically impaired woman on national television.
 The Board of Nursing will review its decision Thursday, Aug. 17 at the request of legal counsel for Gov. Jeb Bush and after the Department of Health asked the nursing panel to dismiss its finding of probable cause against Iyer and planned revocation of her nursing license.
Bush has announced his support for Iyer and a spokesman for Bush said that the Governor doesn't believe DOH's actions against Iyer are justified in that she didn't disclose any information that wasn't already publicly known.
Iyer will be represented at Thursday's hearing, which will be conducted by teleconference, by attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) of Washington, DC, which specializes in constitutional law. She is also being assisted by the Right to Life Nurses Association.
The North Country Gazette exclusively reported the revocation decision on June 25.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/062506SchiavoNurse.html
 Attorney Allen R. Grossman of Gray Robinson of Tallahassee filed a response to the finding of probable cause on June 6, arguing that information contained in Iyer's interview was not confidential and that she had a First Amendment right to discuss her public testimony previously rendered in various legal proceedings.
When legal counsel for Gov. Bush asked Carla Iyer in December 2003 to give an affidavit to aid in the Governor's defense of Schiavo's lawsuit against him challenging the constitutionality of Terri's Law, she didn't expect retaliation by a state agency that would result in the revocation of her nursing license and single her out for speaking out against Michael Schiavo. Iyer's affidavit was filed by the Governor's legal defense team in the appeal of Terri's Law which Bush had signed into law in October 2003, resulting in the reinsertion of the disabled woman's feeding tube after Pinellas County Court Judge George Greer had ordered it removed.
Ultimately, Terri's Law was ruled unconstitutional.
Iyer had been employed as  the charge nurse at Palm Garden from April of 1995 to Aug. 11, 1996 while Terri Schiavo was a patient. In August, 2003, she gave a sworn affidavit to the attorney representing Terri's parents, Mary and Robert Schindler Sr., in their challenge to the guardianship of Michael Schiavo and his petition to remove his wife's feeding tube in order to cause her death.
 Iyer had stated in her August 2003 affidavit that "it was clear to me at Palm Garden that all decisions regarding Terri Schiavo were made by Michael Schiavo with no allowances made for any discussion, debate or normal professional judgment. My initial training there consists solely of the instruction, "Do what Michael Schiavo tells you or you will be terminated".
Iyer said in her affidavit that Schiavo was fixated on when his wife was going to die, allegedly asking "When is that bitch gonna die?", "Has she died yet?" and "When is she going to die?"
http://www.terrisfight.org/userfiles/File/Affidavit%20C%20Iyer%20082903.pdf
She stated in her 2003 affidavits filed with the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Pinellas County, which became a matter of public record and in the public domain, that on five different occasions she had tested Terri's blood sugar levels after Michael had visited Terri and found that her levels were so low it wouldn't even register on the glucometer. She said she had found needle marks on Terri which she had reported to her superiors and the nursing home administrator and ultimately to the police but instead of acting on her complaint, they terminated her.
Although Iyer was simply relating what was already a matter of court record, Elizabeth Sullivan from Sutton, Massachusetts, herself a registered nurse, took exception to Iyer being interviewed on CNN, complaining to DOH's Division of Medical Quality Assurance on March 22, 2005, the day after Iyer's interview initially aired, saying that Iyer had made "inflammatory remarks" regarding Michael Schiavo.
The matter sat dormant for nearly 11 months until May 6 when the formal administrative complaint was filed against Iyer. DOH attempted to force Iyer to voluntarily relinquish her nursing license and to never apply for re-licensure. Had she signed the proposed stipulation agreeing that her license was permanently revoked, taking away her livelihood, and agreeing to pay nearly $1,700 in fines and costs, Iyer would have had to agree to waive all rights to seek judicial review or to "otherwise challenge or contest the validity of this Voluntary Relinquishment and of the Final Order of the Board.
Questions have been raised if the Board of Nursing and Department of Health are engaging in double standards. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/071306DoubleStandards.html
A complaint had been filed with DOH against Michael Schiavo in August, 2005, for deceit, dishonesty and misrepresentation in filing false written statements with the court, including stating false academic credentials on his application for guardianship of his wife, and the Pinellas County Sheriff's office in his employment application.
Schiavo is a licensed by the state of Florida as a registered nurse and respiratory therapist. He is employed as a registered nurse by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in the inmate division.
By letter of March 7, DOH legal counsel stated that the Probable Cause Panel, the same two people who made the determination against Iyer, decided to close the case against Schiavo without a finding of probable cause but stated that additional information could be submitted within 60 days to determine if the case should be re-presented to a panel for reconsideration.
In early May, about the same time that DOH issued a determination to revoke Iyer's license, a statement from the registrar's office of Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania, stating that Michael Schiavo had not received a degree from the college as he had falsely stated under oath on his guardianship application, was submitted to the DOH deputy general counsel.
After learning of DOH's closure of action in the Schiavo case, Bush legal counsel asked DOH to "take another look" that that case.
DOH has now indicated that it has reopened its investigation into Schiavo's nursing license.
In addition to the falsified academic creditials, also at issue in the complaint concerning Michael Schiavo is his discussion of Terri's medical condition, a gross breach of privacy rights, in an interview which aired on Oct. 27, 2003 on Larry King Live.
Sullivan had maintained that Iyer's comments violated the Nurse Practice Act, the same code which Michael Schiavo is subject to as a nurse.
The 2005 Florida Statutes - Title XXXII - Chapter 464 - Nursing
Schiavo, self-acknowledged principal caregiver of Terri Schindler Schiavo, discussed intimate and private details of his wife's medical condition on the Larry King Show on Oct. 27, 2003, and other shows, totally decimating any claim that he was protecting her right to privacy.
AUDIO TAPE OF LARRY KING SHOW Oct. 27, 2003 (requires Real Player)
TRANSCRIPT OF THE LARRY KING SHOW Oct. 27, 2003
It has also been alleged that details about Terri's medical condition which had not previously been made public but which were revealed by Schiavo in his book, "Terri: The Truth", breach the confidentiality rules of the Nurse Practice Act and should subject Schiavo to disciplinary action. 8-16-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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