Saying No to the Culture of Death

One of the many controversies involved in the scandal of the death sentence placed upon the innocent Theresa Schindler at the request of her faithless husband is that of his attempt to kill Theresa by not allowing her to receive antibiotic treatment for an infection. The incident occurred at Sable Palms Nursing Home and not long after it happened Michael Schiavo, with the help of his attorney, George Felos, arranged to have her taken into the Florida Suncoast Woodside Hospice. This arrangement was illegal because Theresa was not terminally ill at the time that she was taken to Woodside Hospice.

The following is extracted from Michael's testimony regarding why he refused to allow Terri to be given the antibiotic treatment:

November 1993
Michael Schiavo Deposition, Guardianship Hearing

Q. What was her bladder condition?
MS. She had a UTI.

Q. What is that?
MS. Urinary tract infection.

Q. What did the doctor tell you treatment for that would be?
MS. Antibiotic usually.

Q. And did he tell you what would occur if you failed to treat that infection? What did he tell you?
MS. That sometimes urinary tract infection will turn to sepsis.

Q. And sepsis is what?
MS. An infection throughout the body.

Q. And what would the result of untreated sepsis be to the patient?
MS. The patient would pass on.

Q. So when you made the decision not to treat Terri's bladder infection you, in effect, were making a decision to allow her to pass on?

MS. I was making a decision on what Terri would want.

Q. Had the bladder condition been treated?

MS. Yes.

Q. And was...what was the reason that the bladder condition was treated?
MS. Sable Palms Nursing Home said they could not do that by some Florida law which wasn't stated.

Q. But you didn't change your opinion or your decision to not treat the bladder condition?
MS. We did change it.

Q. Correct?
MS. Repeat the question.

Q. You did not change your decision not to treat the bladder condition, correct?
MS. I had to change my decision.

Q. Sable Palms changed it for you?
Attorney Nillson Objection

Q. Okay. Is there any reason that you would not make the same decision that you previously made if the problem came up again?

MS. Repeat your question. You're losing me here.

Q. Let me be more specific. If your wife developed another condition that could result in her death, is there any reason that you would not take the position that you're not going to treat that condition and you're going to instruct the doctor not to treat that condition?
MS. I wouldn't instruct anybody, no.

Q. You instructed the doctor not to treat the condition, correct?

Attorney Nillson Objection

Q. You did instruct the doctor not to treat her bladder condition, correct?
MS. Uh-huh. Yes.

Q. If a similar...would you do the same?
MS. I'm thinking.

Q. Take your time.
MS. I probably wouldn't instruct the doctor to do it.

Q. So you've changed your opinion?
MS. Sort of, yeah.

Q. Why have you changed your opinion?
MS. Because evidently there is a law out there that says I can't do it.

Q. Is that the only reason?
MS. Basically, maybe.

Q. What you're telling me is, is that there is nothing in your belief or feelings that have changed. The only thing that has changed is the fact that you perceive the law prevents you to do what you intended to do?
MS. Correct.

Q. What did you do with your wife's jewelry?
MS. My wife's jewelry?

Q. Yeah.
MS. Um, I think I took her engagement ring and her...what do they call it...diamond wedding band and made a ring for myself.

Q. What did you do with her cats?
MS. Her cats were put to sleep n the advice of my mother-in-law.
(Note: The veterinarian who performed the euthanasia of Terri's pets came forward to say there was never any suggestion from Terri's mother that this be done and only Mr. Schiavo's insistence.)

So now we know that Michael, prior to the guardianship trial attempted to kill Theresa by trying to ensure that she did not get treatment for a UTI. Besides the lie about putting the cats down, it seems that Michael has incriminated himself, indicating that he was attempting to kill his wife by denying her antibiotic treatment. Note how Michael shifted the blame from himself to the doctor. He has claimed under oath that Theresa's doctor told him to refuse the antibiotic treatment.

I will be completing this saga with the transcripts of the affidavit of the nurses from Sable Palms nursing home. It would be useful if more of their staff would now come forward with any information concerning the behaviour of Michael Schiavo. The only nurse who sided with Michael at the trial was a nurse Adams and she did what Mikey wanted, because she claimed that she had not observed any kind of movement that indicated that she was not comatose. However, I think that Mikey better make sure that he retains a good lawyer in the near future because it might be that there is written evidence that Theresa was observed to be "awake".



Addenda: Since I first wrote this piece I have discovered that Michael lied when he said that he would not do the same thing again. His record for telling the truth took a further nose dive with the release of the DCF documents indicating alleged investigations of various allegations of abuse. Among those documents I discovered one that is of vital interest in relation to this issue. Michael made another attempt to kill Terri by refusing proper treatment in 2003. The complainants were staff from Morton Plant who rightly objected to the manner in which he was treating Terri and refusing to allow her to receive proper treatment for her conditions. I will be doing an update of the above by giving further details on this second and more serious allegation of yet another attempt to murder Terri.