The Terri Schiavo Case

Introduction

This introduction is about a case that started in 1998 about a woman that was in a vegetable state after collapsing in her home in Florida in 1990 after suffering from a heart attack. The after math is that the heart attack caused her brain to lose oxygen and it made her fall into a coma. After she was out of a coma she last her awareness. For several years doctors tried to give her physical therapy to reinstate her awareness but, in 1998 her husband asked to remove her feeding tube which would eventually kill her and her parent refused to do so because they still thought she had a fighting chance. In this report I will talk about the dispute that lasted from 1998 to 2005 and will pick a side that was right from wrong. My perspective of this case is that it is a sad story because it involves greed, lost of love belief, non belief and too many points of view. Sadly this story has a bad end because in my belief, Terri’s husband never gave his wife a fighting chance and the only thing he was worried about was not the health of his wife but the money he got for the misdiagnosis.

A Family’s Faith and a Husbands greed

In the early morning of February 25, 1990 Terri collapsed in a hallway of her St. Petersburg, Florida, apartment. Firefighters and paramedics arriving in response to Michael's 9-1-1 call found her face-down and unconscious. She was not breathing and had no pulse. They attempted to resuscitate her and she was transported to the Humana Northside Hospital. The first medical assessment indicated that in her system she was dieting trying to keep her weight down and all she was drinking was fluids daily. The doctors also indicated that her potassium level was very low which is very unhealthy for a human being. The physician indicated that a serious consequence of low potassium levels can be heart rhythm abnormalities, including sudden arrhythmia death syndrome. Vomiting, a self-induced act for many bulimic patients is another cause of low potassium levels.

Terri's husband, Michael, later filed and won a malpractice suit against her obstetrician on the basis that he failed to diagnose bulimia as the cause of her infertility. In the law suit Michael Schiavo won a settlement of over $700,000 dollars and an additional $300,000 dollars, but here is the sad part, not only did not give some of the money to terries parents but also he keep the money all to himself and later on Terri’s parent sued Michael for some of the settlement money so they could help find resources to help their daughter in need.

When you get married to a person don’t you say at the altar through thick and thin and to death do us part? The way I look at it is that Michael skipped a part and just went to the part where it states till death do us part because the