Michael Schiavo Larry King Live

CNN Live ^ | 10-24-03 | Larry King

[JustPiper]

Michael Shiavo gets Larry King Monday October 27th,2003. This is a change of programming from website!

[MVV]

I felt the same way and then thought that it is never a waste of airtime when their story is being told and their faces are on national t.v. I am hoping they all go on LKL to have a well uninterrupted 45 minutes to tell their stories and rebutt what MS and Felos said on Monday night.

[EternalVigilance]

I really don't know. I just thought the message had some interesting points that I had never heard mentioned in this discussion.

[EternalVigilance]

Hope there is something useful there!

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

LOL, thanks, but I'm definitely not the best choice. I'm out on disability and I'm rusty. There are far more knowledgeable folks than me out there. She needs to get a good experienced medic or trauma doc. Greta's in DC, she should be able to find someone at one of the major trauma centers.

[First_Salute]

At Michael Schiavo pleads case on CNN --- posted at FR on Oct. 28, 2003, by JohnHuang2 ---

Reply 9 ---

"In last night's interview, Schiavo addressed the strangulation testimony by asking why her neck was not bruised and her trachea damaged."

Michael Schiavo assumes "the hands on approach," when that is not required.

In addition, a "rigid neck" that is considered in Terri's case, as a sign of "strangulation," can instead be caused by various other methods of attempting to cut off a person's airways.

For example, a hypothetical couple "having a domestic dispute" ---

A husband "getting carried away" during their argument(s) into the night and early morning hours, enough to "forget himself" ...

He, a large heavy man, sits quickly on the upper back of his relatively smaller, lighter wife, who herself had been sitting on the floor and bent over some, exhausted and crying.

He forces her to the floor face down and causes her to hyperextend her neck as she struggles to raise her head, break free, and get air --- there is a dislocation of certain areas of her neck's connective tissues, the resulting strains and pinching of nerves leading to a severely "rigid neck."

With the immediate presence of his body heat in addition to her diminishing oxygen supply, she goes into shock.

She is forced into unconciousness; then some minutes more pass, of insufficient oxygen (not necessarily a denial of all blood) flow to her brain; her heart beat might be undetectable.

Things go from bad to worse with the time that the husband remains upon her.

The husband regains some semblance of reason and senses her change of state, as well as what may befall him. He gets himself off of her, paces around, then he returns to her and checks, but cannot detect, her pulse ... he calls for help.

Her injuries would be revealed, over a year later in bone scans of the head, neck, torso, and lower body. Her injuries include a compression fracture of the wife's L1 vertebra, which literally plays a pivotal role in support of the upper back.

No heart attack.

Just trauma to tell the tale, in her bones.

 

[floriduh voter]

There was no heart attack. Based upon what hubby said last night on Larry King, he heard a thud in the hall and stated that he "went to get her." How many husbands who hear a thud in the hall automatically assume it's their wife and then "go get them?" Wouldn't it be more appropriate to just state that he went to see what the noise was and it turned out to be Terri?

If I hear a noise, I don't go "get" someone. Sounds like she was already being objectified by MS.

Terri had no pulse but she didn't have a heart attack. Same thing happened to my brother. No pulse but no attack. He's young but had to get a pacemaker. Terri doesn't need a pacemaker.

Terri needs an independent medical guardian ad litem and a restraining order so her husband can't come near here. He also said on LKL that he wasn't going to stop no matter what.

[MVV]

Wow! Another fabulous post. I am learning so much about how Terri was found just reading all these posts, thanks for the good info.

[Hildy]

I'm not going to judge a man who's wife is in a PVS from having a little happiness.

[pc93]

The Interview That Wasn't
Michael Schiavo got the usual Larry King softballs. Here are the questions King should have asked.
by Wesley J. Smith
10/28/2003 9:00:00 AM


MICHAEL SCHIAVO, Terri Schiavo's husband, finally went on national television last night to tell the world his side of the story. Appearing on "Larry King Live," he strived mightily to play the loving husband. Until more than half way through the interview, when King got around to tentatively asking Schiavo whether or not it is true that he has a girlfriend. (King, who must have known the answer, somehow failed to mention that Schiavo has already sired two children with this woman, who he calls his fiancé.)

The loving husband answered, "I'm lucky. I have two great women to love." He then paused to take a swipe at Terri's mom, "My girlfriend has done more for Terri than her own mother." Asked what that might be, Schiavo answered, "She washed her clothes."


THAT EXCHANGE should have opened the door to some very interesting conversation. King could have asked Schiavo if he is raising children with another woman--a matter finally brought up by a caller near the end of the show--why he should continue to have any say over Terri's care, given that the sanctity of the marriage vows he took are no longer operable. King didn't, of course, which is precisely the reason why people in the center of heated public controversies like to go on his show.

There are a number of questions King should have asked Schiavo:

(1) Why did Schiavo tell a medical malpractice jury in 1992 that Terri would live a normal life span? After Terri's collapse, Schiavo sued for medical malpractice. Under civil law, the longer Terri was expected to live, the larger the verdict would probably be. This fact of legal life could explain why Michael presented evidence to the malpractice jury not only that Terri would likely live a normal life span but also that he intended to be a good and loyal husband and care for her for the rest of his life.

(2) Why did Schiavo have a rehabilitation expert testify in front of the malpractice jury to present a detailed plan of therapy for Terri? Schiavo and his lawyer claimed that Terri is incapable of improving physically, but during the 1992 trial, a rehabilitation plan and its anticipated undertaking provided one of the underpinnings for the jury's $1.3 million award. Of that money, Schiavo received $300,000, lawyers' fees were paid, and about $750,000 was put in trust to pay for Terri's rehabilitation.

(3) Given that the jury awarded $750,000 to be used in part for Terri's therapy, why hasn't Schiavo provided any rehabilitation for her since 1991? When asked by King about the issue of rehab, Schiavo described some early efforts to help Terri, such as an experimental surgery in 1990. But he never identified when this rehab took place.

Which is an important point. The only efforts ever undertaken to improve Terri's condition took place in 1990 and 1991. They had ceased by the time of the malpractice trial in 1992 because her insurance coverage had run out. Indeed, the pressing need to restart therapy was an urgent part of the malpractice case. It could have--and should have--paid to restart the rehabilitation that had been abandoned due to lack of funds.

Once Terri's $750,000 was in the bank, however, Schiavo would not approve a single cent of it to be spent on rehabilitation. Not only that, but once the money was in the bank, Schiavo ordered a "do not resuscitate" order placed on Terri's chart so that if she had a cardiac event, the doctors would not attempt to save her. And within a few months of the money being deposited, Schiavo also refused to permit curative treatments, such as antibiotics for infections. If Terri had died during the early or mid-1990s, as Schiavo's orders were designed, he would have inherited somewhere around $700,000.

The issue of Terri's money did come up several times during last night's interview. Schiavo assured King he isn't in it for the money because there is only about $50,000 left in Terri's estate.

(4) Is it true that Terri's money has paid for attorneys to make her dead, instead of therapists to make her better? The answer is, unquestionably, yes. According to court records, George Felos, the dutiful "right to die" attorney who sat at Schiavo's side on King's show, has been paid over $350,000 from Terri's trust fund. Another of Schiavo's attorneys, Debra Bushnell, has received about $90,000. These two lawyers alone have received more than half of Terri's entire trust.

According to court records, when Schiavo began his quest to pull Terri's feeding tube in 1998, she had more than $700,000 in the bank. This was primarily because Schiavo generally refused to authorize payments for any nursing home services on Terri's behalf beyond the basics of room and board. Thus, only about $50,000 was paid on her behalf in the five years following the jury verdict. Since 1998, about $650,000 (not taking into account any earnings from the fund) has gone out--not for therapy, but primarily for lawyers.

And yet on "Larry King" Schiavo went so far as to suggest that Bob Schindler, Terri's father, is fighting to save Terri's life because he wants her money.

(5) So how could Terri's father make any money off the case? Schiavo's story is that once Schindler became Terri's guardian, he would get her a divorce, and then he would stop her food and fluids. The alleged point of such a scheme being that as next of kin, the Schindlers would inherit their daughter's money.

This sounds like a mighty stretch, particularly given that Bob Schindler has spent every nickel he has--including his entire retirement fund--desperately trying to save his daughter's life. If Bob Schindler is a venal man, he has a funny way of showing it.

Schiavo told King that his falling out with his father-in-law occurred in February 1993, when Schindler demanded a share of the proceeds in Terri's trust fund. But Schindler and his wife Mary tell a different story. They claim that the argument was over their insistence that the long-suspended rehabilitation recommence, since there was finally money available to pay for it. They contend that the breach of relationship occurred because Schiavo refused. The behavior of both parties since seems much more consistent with this story than with Schiavo's version of events.

Too bad Larry King didn't ask.


Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and an attorney and consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. He is the author of Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder."

[floriduh voter]

Pat Anderson was on Greta's last night. Did I miss her again Tuesday the 28th? I dozed off altogether with radios and tv on.

[EternalVigilance]

Agreed.

[EternalVigilance]

Interesting. All true.

[MVV]

... I dozed off altogether with radios and tv on...

LOL! Geez, I know what you mean, thank god my cell phone rang and it was my mother calling to make sure I was watching, of course it rang a hundred times which woke me up, I too was waiting for Pat and Bobby to come on, but had to wait through the wildfire coverage and the Peterson case...

It gets worse once we light the woodstove...out in a flash.

[Mo1]

Yes, it did have some interesting points ..

I'm not a dentist and I know they are just pictures but the ones that I could find .. she doesn't seem to show any signs of tooth decay in them

Actually, they look pretty good

[EternalVigilance]

Yeah, her heart and her teeth seem pretty good, don't they..

[mickie]

Yes, Pat was on Greta's show tonight.
I am getting sick of seeing the Schindlers and their attorney get the short shift every night.
Why bother having them on if they can't get a dime's worth of time to talk!

[SarahW]

FWIW, some bulimics don't rely strictly on barfing to purge, or don't stick a finger down the throat at all - their favorite means of purging after an episode of gorging, is to abuse laxatives and diuretics.

Laxative abuse can cause life-threatening electrolite imbalance, even if only done occasionally.

Unusual erosion of tooth enamel is a sign of bulimia, but you can be bulimic and have good teeth.

[MVV]

I'm not going to judge a man who's wife is in a PVS from having a little happiness...

According to the family's attorney, Michael was screwing around on Terri only months after he realized she wasn't "coming home", he is suppose to be a catholic, they were married in a catholic church, we catholics believe that adultery is a SIN, he's committed more than adultery more than once with more than one women, and now has two daughters out of wedlock....

So please forgive us if we get upset and nasty with sluts that screw married men, and he is STILL married. If he wants to end the marriage than get a divorce and let Terri's family take her care and therapy on, something MS has failed miserably at doing. He's obviously moved on with his life, now let poor Terri do the same.

[floriduh voter]

Hi, there. Nothing new here in Tampa Bay. The Schindlers were on tv tonight from the RV talking about Michael's molestation of the truth on LKL last night.

They were sitting on the couch. If anything breaks, I'll be in touch but I was snoozing for awhile but got a call from a Vigiler looking for breaking news.

No Vigils in progress but all are ready to mobilize if we are needed at Hospice Woodside.

Okay to take a break. Terri looked really good again today. She seems to be getting better care now that the whole world is watching.

[Hildy]

Yes, I agree. Let Terri move on.