TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Schiavo Investigation Arranged

ADVERTISEMENT

By JEROME R. STOCKFISCH and DAVID SOMMER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2005

TALLAHASSEE — An investigation into the circumstances surrounding Terri Schiavo's collapse 15 years ago is necessary "so that there can be closure," Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday.

Critics quickly charged that revisiting the volatile issue will have the opposite effect.

Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo's husband, said in a statement issued by his attorney, George Felos, that it is "sickening" that the governor and Terri Schiavo's parents, "for their own selfish reasons, want to keep this case going. ... For sensible people, the autopsy report gave closure in this case."

Terri Schiavo died March 31 after a court order allowed the removal of her feeding tube.

Her husband insisted she did not want to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state. He fought a seven-year battle against his in-laws, who wanted her kept alive. That battle stretched from the courts to the Florida Capitol, the U.S. Congress and the Vatican.

Bush on Thursday sent a letter by fax to Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, asking him to reopen the case, after a medical examiner's report was released Wednesday. The report supports Michael Schiavo's contention that his wife had irreversible brain damage for 15 years.

McCabe is on vacation. Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said his office will honor Bush's request.

Bush said that although the autopsy report "clarifies many questions surrounding the case, it leaves some unanswered." Those include the cause of Terri Schiavo's original injuries and a discrepancy in her husband's account of exactly what time she collapsed and when he summoned emergency help.

Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have suggested that her husband may have caused her collapse, but there was no evidence of that found in the autopsy.

The autopsy report states there was no evidence Schiavo had an eating disorder that caused her collapse, which had been suggested as a possible cause of her coma. The report rules out overt or blunt trauma, but Bush said blood tests done after her collapse would not have detected or ruled out many types of drugs or toxins.

Bush also stated Michael Schiavo testified in a medical malpractice trial that he discovered his wife had collapsed about 5 a.m. In a television interview, he put the time at 4:30 a.m. According to the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner's report, he called 911 about 5:40 a.m.

"Between 40 and 70 minutes elapsed before the call was made, and I am aware of no explanation for the delay," Bush said.

Michael Schiavo has stated he was not wearing a watch and did not look at a clock the morning of the incident. He reiterated Friday in the statement released by his attorney's office that he is not good with dates and times.

Prosecutors are aware that over the years Michael Schiavo has provided a range of time frames for his wife's collapse.

"Right now our mission is to find out what different statements have been made as to different times," Bartlett said.

He said previous inquiries also found discrepancies between what Michael Schiavo recalls and what his in-laws recall about the night Terri Schiavo's heart failed.

"The Schindlers think it was at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning," Bartlett said. "We'll see what we come up with."

Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said he considers the time discrepancy a loose end his examination could not address.

"He told Larry King in 2003 that it happened around 4:30 [a.m.]. He told me it was about 4:30. In depositions, he said it was 5 o'clock and that it was around 5 a.m.," Thogmartin said. "The Schindlers have no idea and said that when they drove to the hospital, the sun was coming up."

No Way To Set Time

Thogmartin said there is no way to determine medically what time Terri Schiavo collapsed.

As they do in all such cases, the paramedics immediately gave Terri Schiavo an antidote to an opiate overdose, he said. And the relatively unsophisticated drug test she underwent upon her arrival at the hospital would have been fooled by the opiate antidote.

It would not make sense for Michael Schiavo to wait an hour and then call paramedics if he caused her injury, Thogmartin said. "You have to use common sense," he said. "The timing of this wasn't important for many years. ... It's just a loose end."

Bush said he is not implying Michael Schiavo's conduct is suspect: "I'm not suggesting anything other than this new information came out in the medical examiner's report." .

"If you were Terri Schiavo's husband and this came out as it did because of a medical examiner's report, you'd want to have this information looked at and be determined not to be something of concern," Bush said. "If you were a family member on the other side of the dispute, you would want the same thing."

Bush's efforts drew criticism from a former prosecutor.

Denis de Vlaming, who has represented defendants in high-profile criminal cases, said investigating memory lapses or inconsistent statements in a 15-year-old case is a waste of time. "The whole thing is ludicrous," he said. "They would need a confession that he waited, knowing she was in danger, before they could move forward" with criminal charges.

He agreed with Thogmartin that it would make no sense for Michael Schiavo to wait to call paramedics if he caused his wife's injury. "It presupposes he knew she was in a coma and wouldn't be able to say what happened," he said.

Bush seemed to acknowledge the investigation may not pan out. In his letter to McCabe, he wrote, "I understand that these events took place many years ago, and that you may not be able to collect all the relevant records and physical evidence. ... The unanswered questions may be unanswerable, but the attempt should be made."

In April, a poll showed that 59 percent of registered voters disapproved of the way Bush handled the Schiavo case.

Bow To Right-To-Life Groups?

A political science expert said those numbers may not be as important to Bush as mending fences with right-to-life groups he may have disappointed with his inability to keep Schiavo alive.

"The larger political motive has to do with 2008," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Acknowledging Bush has said he will not run for president, Sabato said he could change his mind or be a running mate. "This makes him more acceptable than he already is to right-to-life groups, and it does smooth over the earlier difficulties," he said.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT