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Schiavo Timeline

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 29, 2005

Dec. 3, 1963: Theresa Marie Schindler is born to Bob and Mary Schindler, who live in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She grows up in Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

1981: Terri graduates from Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, Pa.
1982: Terri Schindler meets Michael Schiavo of Levittown, Pa., while a student at Bucks County Community College near Philadelphia.

Nov. 10, 1984: Terri and Michael are married at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Southampton, Pa.

1986: Terri and Michael Schiavo move to St. Petersburg to be near her parents.

Feb. 25, 1990: Terri Schiavo, 26, suffers cardiac arrest. Because her brain is deprived of oxygen, she lapses into what doctors call a persistent vegetative state and is placed on a feeding tube.

1990-1992: Michael Schiavo and his in-laws, Bob and Mary Schindler of Gulfport, work together to find a therapy that will help Terri improve, but she remains in a coma-like state.

November 1992: Michael Schiavo successfully sues the physicians who treated his wife before her cardiac arrest, and a Pinellas County jury awards the couple more than $1 million, with $750,000 designated for Terri's perpetual care. The sum, arrived at in January 1993, was a reduction from the original jury award.

July 29, 1993: The Schindlers petition to have Michael Schiavo removed as Terri's guardian.

Sept. 15, 1994: The guardianship case is dismissed.

May 1998: Michael Schiavo files a petition to discontinue Terri's life support.

Feb. 11, 2000: Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer grants the request and orders Terri's feeding tube removed. Her parents begin appeals.

Jan. 24, 2001: The 2nd District Court of Appeal upholds Greer's ruling to discontinue the feedings.

March 22, 2001: The 2nd District Court of Appeal grants the Schindlers a 60-day grace period to find out if the state Supreme Court will look at the case.

April 18, 2001: Florida Supreme Court declines to review the case.

April 23, 2001: U.S. Supreme Court declines to review the case.

April 24, 2001: Terri's feeding regimen ends.

April 26, 2001: Circuit Judge Frank Quesada orders Terri's feeding to resume after Michael Schiavo's former girlfriend came forward to say he lied when he testified that his wife once told him she would not want to be kept alive with no hope of improvement.

June 25, 2001: The Schiavo case goes back before the 2nd District Court of Appeal. Both sides make fraud and perjury allegations.

July 11, 2001: The 2nd District Court of Appeal rules Terri should be kept alive while Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers continue their battle over her fate. But the court says the parents must quickly show why Terri should be kept alive, or the feedings will be stopped.

Oct. 17, 2001: The appeals court orders Greer to hold a second trial to decide if new therapies might help Terri.

November 2001-January 2002: Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers try to resolve the case through mediation but fail to come to an agreement.

Oct. 11-22, 2002: With disputes over doctors settled, Greer opens trial on new therapies. Two doctors chosen by the Schindlers say Terri can be helped; two selected by Michael Schiavo say she is beyond help, and a doctor selected by the court agrees.

Nov. 22, 2002: Greer again orders Terri's feeding tube removed, setting a date for Jan. 3, 2003. The Schindlers appeal.

Dec. 13, 2002: Greer postpones his order to allow appeals to go forward.

June 6, 2003: The 2nd District Court of Appeal again reaffirms Greer's conclusion that Terri's feeding tube should be disconnected.

July 25, 2003: Reversing its earlier ruling, the 2nd District Court of Appeal grants a 30-day delay in returning jurisdiction to Greer.

Sept. 2, 2003: U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara refuses to block Greer from ordering the feeding tube's removal.

Sept. 17, 2003: With appeals running out, Greer sets a date of Oct. 15 to remove the feeding tube. The Schindlers ask a federal court to intervene.

Oct. 3, 2003: Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist rules that the law under which Greer ordered Terri's feeding tube removed meets the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.

Oct. 8, 2003: Judge Greer refuses to delay his order that the feeding tube be removed on Oct. 15.

Oct. 10, 2003: U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara rules that the federal court has no jurisdiction in the Florida case.

Oct. 15, 2003: Doctors remove Terri's feeding tube.

Oct. 21, 2003: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush successfully pushes for an emergency act of the state legislature to restore the feeding tube. The law becomes known as "Terri's Law.'" Terri is placed back on life support, but a new lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality is immediately filed to be heard by Pinellas Circuit Judge Douglas Baird. Court maneuvers and appeals resume.

Oct. 31, 2003: The Pinellas Circuit Chief Judge David Demers appoints University of South Florida health law professor Jay Wolfson as Terri's guardian ad litem with responsibility for determining whether she can learn to eat normally. His report to Gov. Bush advises tests and accord between Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers.

Nov. 20, 2003: Judge Baird refuses to step down as requested by Gov. Bush. In court filings, Bush had asked Baird to disqualify himself.

Dec. 10, 2003: Gov. Bush's second attempt to remove Baird from the case is turned down by the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Jan. 9, 2004: Gov. Bush's request for a guardian ad litem to perform an independent investigation of the case is denied.

Mar. 12, 2004: Baird refuses for a second time to allow the Schindlers to intervene in the court battle over Terri's Law.

May 6, 2004: Baird declares Terri's Law unconstitutional.

Sept. 23, 2004: The Florida Supreme Court declares Terri's Law unconstitutional.

Jan. 12, 2005: The Schindlers ask the 2nd District Court of Appeal for a new trial, claiming that recent statements by Pope John Paul II declaring euthanasia a sin apply in the case.

Jan. 24, 2005: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear arguments for Terri's Law.

Feb. 22, 2005: The 2nd District Court of Appeal lets a stay that had blocked removal of Terri's feeding tube expire. Before the tube can be removed, Judge Greer issues an emergency stay. Protesters appear at Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, where Terri is being cared for.

Feb. 23, 2005: In Greer's court, the Schindlers ask for more time to file appeals to address whether new therapies will help their daughter and whether their daughter's religious beliefs prohibit withholding nutrition.

Feb. 24, 2005: The Department of Children & Families files a surprise request to intervene in the case, seeking a stay in removal of the feeding tube while it investigates what it claims are new allegations of abuse and neglect.

Feb. 25, 2005. Judge Greer gives Michael Schiavo permission to have Terri's feeding tube removed on March 18.

March 3, 2005: DCF's Schiavo petition is unsealed and claims new evidence of abuse and neglect.

March 7, 2005: Greer hears arguments over whether Terri should be fed orally if her feeding tube is removed.

March 8, 2005: Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Orlando, and U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Palm Bay, introduce similar bills in their respective branches of Congress that would extend due process rights to the severely disabled and give the Schindlers legal recourse to prevent the removal of Terri's feeding tube.

March 9, 2005: State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Orlando, introduces a bill that presumes anyone who is severely incapacitated would want a feeding tube unless he or she explicitly refused the tube in writing. State Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, sponsors the Senate version.

March 10, 2005: Greer rules DCF will not be allowed to delay the removal of Terri's feeding tube.

March 14, 2005: Bills to halt the removal of the feeding tube advance in the Florida legislature.

March 15, 2005: A narrower bill that would affect only those ruled to be in a persistent vegetative state whose families disagree on withholding food and water and who have not left a written directive passes the Senate Judiciary Committee.

March 17, 2005: The state House passes the Schiavo bill, but the state Senate does not. Nine Republicans join Democrats in opposing the legislation.

March 18, 2005: The Senate Health Committee requests that Terri and Michael Schiavo appear at an official committee hearing on March 28. A House committee was issuing congressional subpoenas to stop doctors from disconnecting the tube.

March 18, 2005: Terri's feeding tube is disconnected after Judge Greer re-confirms his ruling.

March 19, 2005: Congressional leaders from both parties agree on a bill that would allow the tube to be reconnected while a federal court reviews the case. The White House said President George W. Bush would sign the bill when it passed.

March 20, 2005: The Senate passes the bill, but Democrats in the House delay passage of the measure.

March 21, 2005: The House passes the bill after members who had left on Congress' two-week break scramble to return to Washington for an early morning vote. President Bush signs the bill outside his White House bedroom. The Schindlers file an emergency request with a Tampa federal judge to have the tube reconnected.

March 22, 2005: U.S. District Judge James Whittemore refuses to order the reinsertion of the tube. He said the Schindlers failed to establish a "substantial likelihood of success" on the merits of their arguments. The parents appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

March 23, 2005: On the fifth day of the tube removal, the 11th Circuit declines to order the reinsertion of the tube. The Schindlers appeal to the Supreme Court.

March 24, 2005: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses the case. Circuit Judge Greer denies the DCF motion to take custody of Terri. Pinellas Park and Pinellas County law enforcement are on alert to enforce a restraining order preventing the Florida Department of Law Enforcement from removing Terri from the hospice.

March 25, 2005: District Judge Whittemore again refuses to order reinsertion of Terri's feeding tube. The Schindlers appeal.

March 26, 2005: The Schindlers' attorney says there will be no more federal appeals. Greer denies the Schindlers' final trial court appeal. The Schindlers file an emergency petition with the Florida Supreme Court. It is rejected.

March 27, 2005: Communion and last rites are performed for Terri, who is Catholic. Protests outside the hospice gain intensity. A member of the Schindler family asks demonstrators to be calm.

March 28, 2005: Gov. Jeb Bush reiterates there is nothing else he can do to have feeding resumed.

March 29, 2005: The Rev. Jesse Jackson visits the Schindlers. Just before midnight, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees to consider an emergency petition by the Schindlers.

March 30, 2005: The appeals court rejects the bid.

March 31, 2005: Terri Schiavo dies about 9 a.m. at age 41.

April 5, 2005: Terri Schiavo is eulogized before a crowd of more than 400 at Most Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church by siblings Suzanne Vitadamo and Bobby Schindler.

June 15, 2005: An autopsy shows that Terri Schiavo was blind and had irreversible brain damage, largely supporting the position of her husband and undercutting the Schindlers' allegations that their son-in-law caused her condition.

June 20, 2005: Michael Schiavo lays his wife's ashes to rest at Clearwater's Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in a reversal of long-stated plans to bury her at a family plot in the Philadelphia area.

Jan. 23, 2006: Michael Schiavo marries Jodi Centonze, his longtime fiancée and the mother of his two children, in a religious ceremony at Espiritu Santo Catholic Church in Safety Harbor.

March 27, 2006: Michael Schiavo publishes "Terri: The Truth" on the same day that the Schindlers publish "A Life That Matters: The Legacy of Terri Schiavo—A Lesson for Us All."

Aug. 1, 2006: David Gibbs, the Schindlers' attorney, publishes "Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terry Schiavo and What It Means For All Of Us."

Tribune research by Angie Drobnic Holan, Buddy Jaudon and Matthew Grayson.

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