Originally Posted - November 7, 2006

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On Oct. 30, the Telegraph, (www.telegraph.co.uk) published an article written by Michael Sheldon which was titled "Her Soul Had Gone, Her Body Was Ready", attempting to glamorize Michael Schiavo and support his "woe is me" attitude that he has championed for the past year and a half since the death of his brain damaged wife, Terri Schindler Schiavo last March, a death which he had sought through the courts since 1998.

The article also appeared to be a rah-rah piece for his book "Terri: The Truth" which contains numerous false statements, even fabricated testimony.

Schiavo continues to insist that it his wife, in name only as he was living with another woman with whom he had fathered two children, was in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery. He had consistently blocked all attempts for new testing and still misrepresents the findings of the autopsy.

Schiavo also continues to maintain that Terri had made unwitnessed comments -hearsay--that she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means. While most people would agree that all people, including Terri, should have a choice, it's hard to fathom that if Terri had been given the choice of whether she wanted Michael Schiavo to decide her fate or her parents, that she would have conclusively chosen Schiavo, especially in view of her statements prior to her sudden collapse that she wanted to divorce him.

After Sheldon's article appeared, with multiple erroneous statements passed off as facts, Bobby Schindler, Terri's brother, penned a response and submitted it to the Telegraph in rebuttal to Sheldon's interview with Michael Schiavo.

The Telegraph refused to give Schindler equal space and refused to print any corrections to their article.

The response as submitted by Bobby Schindler appears below, to set the record straight:

Dear Mr. Shelton,

As a way of introduction, I am Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother. I am writing you regarding your article, 'Her soul had gone, her body was ready', which contains many inaccuracies. It is my understanding that the substance for this article was obtained from your interview with Mr. Schiavo. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2006/10/30/hschiavo30.xml

My family no longer pays attention to Mr. Schiavo's self promotion or do we wish to engage in resurrecting old disputes. Our present efforts are dedicated, via Terri's Foundation, to aid and protect the disabled and elderly from experiencing the same horrific abuse that my sister experienced.

However, whenever an article is published that endorses Mr. Schiavo's total disregard for honesty, it is incumbent upon us to provide an accurate accounting of the facts, which can be substantiated by court documents or by simply researching Mr. Schiavo's own words.

In your column, Mr. Schiavo's assertion that the money awarded to Terri only enabled him to pay her medical bills is patently false. At a 1992 medical malpractice trial, Mr. Schiavo testified that he believed Terri would live a normal lifespan and that he not only fully intended to care for my sister the rest of her life, but that he also intended to bring Terri home and afford her lifelong care and rehabilitation.

Part of Mr. Schiavo's 1992 testimony:

Q: You're a young man. Your life is ahead of you. When you look up the road, what do you see for yourself?
MS: I see myself hopefully finishing school and taking care of my wife.

Q: Where do you want to take care of your wife?
MS: I want to bring her home.

Q: If you had the resources available to you, if you had the equipment and the people, would you do that?
MS: Yes, I would, in a heartbeat.

Q: How do you feel about being married to Terri now.
MS: I feel wonderful. She's my life and I wouldn't trade her for the world. I believe in my marriage vows.

Q: You believe in your wedding vows, what do you mean by that?
MS: I believe in the vows I took with my wife, through sickness, in health, for richer or poor. I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm going to do that.

The jury agreed and close to $800,000 net was earmarked for Terri's lifelong therapy and rehabilitation. Sadly, as soon as the money was in the bank, Mr. Schiavo had a change of heart and began refusing my sister treatment. That is what caused the rift between Mr. Schiavo and my family. And it was just a few months subsequent to this breach that he effectively abandoned my sister by committing to another woman and eventually having children by her. Medical documents will verify that none of the award money was used for Terri's rehabilitation as he promised; instead more than $600,000 of this money was paid to Mr. Schiavo's attorney in his pursuit to end my sister's life. This all can be validated in court records.

I also find it offensive for Mr. Schiavo to claim that Terri had no hope of recovery, and that somehow he was able to conclude that my sister's "soul was gone", leading one to falsely believe that Mr. Schiavo is an expert in theology.

Mr. Schiavo apparently has forgotten what he wrote in his 1991 diary commenting on how encouraged he was; not only that Terri was improving, but that she was showing signs of awareness. This was also confirmed in Terri's medical records by Terri's nurses noting that she was beginning to speak, saying words such as "mommy" and "stop".

Mr. Schiavo also fails to disclose that there were over 40 medical professionals, many being distinguished neurologists that believed Terri should have had been provided the chance to improve from the new medical technology that is currently available. Most importantly however, was that many of these doctors believed Terri was not in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) and could have benefited significantly from rehabilitation. Nonetheless, contrary to the doctors willingness to help, all rehabilitation was denied by Mr. Schiavo for more than 13 years without any credible explanation.

Additionally, I would like to remark on Mr. Schiavo's comments regarding Terri's autopsy. It seems to me that Mr. Schiavo uses the autopsy to justify Terri's death by deliberately mischaracterizing and omitting facts of the report.

I urge you to read the autopsy report issued by the Independent Medical Examiner, Dr. Jon Thogmartin.
Find Law - Terri Schiavo: Autopsy Report

First, Dr. Thogmartin clearly stated that he was unable to conclude whether Terri was in a PVS because PVS is a clinical diagnosis (person must be alive), and cannot be confirmed by autopsy. Moreover, the consulting doctor to Dr. Thogmartin, Neuropathologist Dr. Stephen Nelson, could not even rule out that Terri could have been in a minimally conscience state (MSC), which is a higher level of consciousness then the PVS diagnosis. Even more important however, was that Terri's frontal and temporal poles and insular-cortex demonstrated relative preservation. This meant that Terri's cortex retained function and that her brain was more normal in the area that controls higher-level thinking.

And subsequent to the autopsy there were doctors that refuted many of the key findings made by the IME, including the suggestion that the autopsy proved that my sister suffered irreversible brain damage and would not have benefited from rehabilitation. Furthermore, medical literature adduces evidence that a substantial portion of the "loss in Terri's brain weight" observed postmortem, and that Terri's much-vaunted "total cortical blindness" may have been due to the dehydration to which she was subjected.

Finally, Mr. Schiavo's falsely claims that my sister had an eating disorder, but fails to mention that there was never any evidence of this allegation. To the contrary, the autopsy concluded that there were no signs that my sister suffered from any kind of eating disorder. In fact, the IME is dumbfounded as to what caused Terri's collapse while she was home alone with Mr. Schiavo at such a young age of 26.

Furthermore, it is significant to note one of the doctors sued by Mr. Schiavo for medical malpractice was later exonerated of any malpractice by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. The Agency found that the doctor was correct in his assessment that Terri did not suffer from an eating disorder prior to her collapse.

Terri was not dying. She was physically as healthy as you or I, only Terri received food and water via a feeding tube. Nonetheless, the court ruled to kill my sister based on the hearsay evidence provided by Mr. Schiavo, when in a timely fashion, just prior to a 2000 court hearing, Mr. Schiavo suddenly remembered Terri allegedly made end of life wishes. Keep in mind, Mr. Schiavo's revelation came 8 years after Terri collapsed and, as already stated, while he was living with the woman he asked to marry.

Sadly, it appears that Mr. Schiavo, and a growing number of people in our society have misplaced their true compassion. Every reason Mr. Schiavo and others use to somehow justify killing the disabled, feeling they've become some type of "burden", is every reason why we should be doing everything in our power to protect and love them unconditionally.

From the beginning, my family's only intention was to care for and give my sister the love and affection she deserved for the rest of her life. My family still mourns that the court refused this simple, humane and decent request.

Sincerely,

Bobby Schindler    11-06-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette