Originally Posted - January 13, 2007

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What goes around, comes around.

Even for Michael Schiavo.


When a former caregiver of the late Terri Schindler Schiavo was under fire by the Florida Board of Health last August, threatened with having her nursing license revoked for allegedly disclosing confidential information about the disabled woman on CNN, Michael Schiavo was quick to condemn, saying that Carla Sauer Iyer had violated her oath and "is getting what she deserves".

Now the shoe is on the other foot and Michael Schiavo, 43, registered nurse and licensed respiratory therapist, currently employed at the Pinellas County Jail, is the subject of a disciplinary proceeding wending its way through the red tape of the Florida Department of Health for disclosing confidential information about his wife on the Larry King Live Show. There's one difference though.

While the subject matter discussed by Carla Iyer during her interview on CNN was part of the court record and already in the public domain, the graphic confidential information Schiavo revealed about his wife's gynecological condition on national TV wasn't part of court proceedings and hadn't previously been publicly disclosed.


It was Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos, who maintained that they were protecting the disabled woman's right to privacy.

George Annas, chairman of the department of health law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University School of Public Health, has said that while federal privacy regulations allow the release of patient information in some judicial proceedings, that doesn't allow nurses like Schiavo to discuss it on TV or elsewhere.

The DOH investigator in the Iyer case, Kevin Kodol of St. Petersburg, had stated that divulging confidential patient information violates state code and federal law. The information that Iyer disclosed wasn't confidential: information disclosed on national TV by Michael Schiavo was.

When asked for his comments regarding the attempt by DOH to revoke Iyer's nursing license, Schiavo was quoted as saying, 'This is America. The governor is entitled to be wrong again. What Carla did is wrong and what the governor is doing to protect her is wrong. Why does he want to help people who lie?"

But it was proven Carla Iyer hadn't lied.

It has been proven that Michael Schiavo did lie, in multiple occasions, including swearing under oath on his application for guardianship that had earned a bachelor's degree. He lied again on his employment application filed with the Pinellas County Sheriff's office and former sheriff Everett Rice, the former employer of the mother of Jodi Centonze whom he had lived with since the early 90's and with whom he fathered two illegitimate children but refusing to divorce his wife after the multi-million dollar awards in the medical malpractice lawsuits he filed.

The one who violated the nursing oath appears to be Michael Schiavo but will he finally get what he deserves?

Will Gov. Charlie Crist continue to cover for Michael Schiavo as he did when he was attorney general, especially considering that the members of Florida's Board of Nursing are appointed by Crist?

Last year the Florida DOH received a complaint from a Massachusetts registered nurse who said that Iyer had improperly disclosed confidential patient information about the late Terri Schiavo when she appeared on CNN on March 28, 2005, a few days before the death of the disabled woman.

Iyer had been employed as the charge nurse at Palm Garden of Largo Convalescent Center from April of 1995 to Aug. 11, 1996 while Terri Schiavo was a patient and in August, 2003, 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 to cause her death. http://www.terrisfight.org/userfiles/File/Affidavit%20C%20Iyer%20082903.pdf

She later, at the request of legal counsel for Gov. Jeb Bush gave a sworn affidavit in December, 2003 for submission with the Governor's response the legal challenge of Terri's Law which was signed into law in October, 2003 by Gov. Bush resulting in the reinsertion of the feeding tube after Judge George Greer had ordered it removed. Ultimately, Terri's Law was ruled unconstitutional.

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". http://www.terrisfight.org/userfiles/File/Affidavit%20C%20Iyer%20082903.pdf

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?"

The complaint against Iyer lay dormant until mid-2006 when the state advised her they were going to revoke her nursing license but offered to settle the complaint if she would voluntarily give up her license, pay $1,683 in administrative costs and agree not to apply for a license in the future.

Iyer, 42, of Plant City who works as a registered nurse in Lakeland, refused and requested an administrative hearing. At the hearing in mid-August, the state reversed its decision to revoke her nursing license with an attorney for the DOH telling the Board of Nursing that Iyer had acted properly and had a duty as a nurse to try and protect a vulnerable patient from suspected abuse.

In attacking Iyer's statements about him, Michael Schiavo defiantly asked "where's the proof" and reminiscent of questions surrounding his self-serving hearsay testimony that Terri had expressed her wish that she wouldn't want to be kept alive by a feeding tube, Schiavo challenged Iyer, "Why would she be the only one that ever heard that?"

There are no witnesses to any of Schiavo's claimed utterances made by Terri prior to her collapse about not waiting to be sustained by artificial feeding or to have all food and water withheld from her.

Schiavo, who has repeatedly claimed that his multiple discrepancies involving the collapse and injuries involving Terri were due to his "bad memory", hadn't "remembered" Terri's supposed wish to die at the time of the medical malpractice trial when he was seeking money and told the jury that he wanted to take care of his wife for the rest of his life and would even get his nursing license to do so.

But long before he got his nursing license in 2000, albeit it took him two tries to pass the nursing exam, Schiavo had already teamed up with euthanasia advocate George Felos and attorney Deborah Bushnell to get court permission to kill his wife.

"I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling", Schiavo swore in taking his nursing oath.

That oath didn't stop Michael Schiavo.

The North Country Gazette has learned that the DOH has completed an investigation into allegations that Michael Schiavo disclosed confidential medical information about his wife on the Larry King Live show on Oct. 27, 2003 as well as in his book, "Terri: The Truth", released last spring.

The Prosecution Services Unit of the DOH office of General Counsel has indicated that the complaint and resulting DOH investigation will be presented at the next available Probable Cause Panel of the Board of Nursing to decide if a formal disciplinary proceeding should be initiated.

The panel could issue an administrative complaint charging Schiavo with a disciplinary violation or may dismiss the case.

Included in the complaint is additional information regarding Schiavo's alleged falsification of his academic credentials, falsely affirming under oath that he had obtained a bachelor's degree from Bucks County Community College.

In addition to enhanced substantiation that Michael Schiavo falsified his academic credentials, it is alleged that Schiavo allegedly violated the Nursing Practice Act and Florida Statutes, in particular for revealing confidential information about his wife and ward during the time he was employed at the Morton Plant Mease Hospital both as a RT and RN, during times when Terri was admitted to the hospital and including, but not limited to, Oct. 27, 2003, when he graphically disclosed Terri's medical condition on national television on the Larry King Show and violated her right to privacy. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/071306DoubleStandards.html

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.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE LARRY KING SHOW Oct. 27, 2003

KING: We're back with Michael Schiavo. With him is his attorney, George Felos. What is the current medical state of Terri?

SCHIAVO: Terri is in a chronic, persistent vegetative state.

KING: Meaning she has...

SCHIAVO: She has no awareness, no consciousness. She's in a contracted state. Her hands, her arms, her legs are contracted.

SCHIAVO: Yes. Terri's had perfect care. She just had her teeth cleaned three months ago.(Editor's Note: After years of neglect) And to touch on the gynecological, the gynecologists that took care of her told me -- and I'm only following what doctors tell me to do -- because it's so hard -- and I'm sorry to be so explicit -- to open her legs. She doesn't open them like you and I would at a gynecological examine.

KING: You to pry them apart?

SCHIAVO: Yes.

KING: So it's hard to do a gynecological exam?

SCHIAVO: Right. Right. So unless there's blood, or if there's foul smelling -- I'm sorry to be so explicit, but that's what it's all about.

At all times, Michael Schiavo maintained total control of Terri Schiavo's medical care and she was, in every since, his patient, indicating that he failed to meet minimal standards of practice when he disclosed the confidential information.

Last March, the Probable Cause Panel had closed a previous complaint against Schiavo and his nursing license 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.

A complaint had been filed with the DOH against Michael Schiavo in August 2005 for deceit, dishonesty and misrepresentation in filing false written statements with the court and sheriff's office.

After learning of DOH's closure of action in the Schiavo case, legal counsel for then Gov. Jeb Bush asked DOH to "take another look" that that case. That matter has been in the queue since last summer after substantiation from Bucks County Community College registrar's office was submitted to DOH, confirming that Michael Schiavo did not earn a bachelor's degree from there as he claimed under oath.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/062506SchiavoNurse.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/031606NoProbableCause.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/042006BushRevisit.html


Schiavo and attorney Felos had claimed that they were defending Terri's right to privacy. In an interview on the Larry King show in October 2003, Felos claimed that Michael had tried to protect Terri's right to privacy. Michael then revealed embarrassing information about his wife which served no legitimate purpose and had not been part of any prior public proceedings.

Terri had sustained brain damage during a still unexplained incident on Feb. 25, 1990, when her brain was deprived of oxygen for four to six minutes. After her husband unsuccessfully tried to kill her by sepsis by withholding medical treatment, illegal in Florida, he then sought to end her life by obtaining a court order to withhold her food and water and on March 31, 2005, Terri died of marked dehydration 13 days after her feeding tube was removed, ending nearly 12 years of court battles between Schiavo and Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler who fought to keep her alive.

"I have fought so long to keep her out of the public eye", Schiavo said, yet his actions did just the opposite. 1-13-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette