Terri Schiavo Case Summary

On February 1990, Terri Schiavo had a heart attack caused by an eating disorder, hypokalemia, lack of potassium in the blood stream. She developed hypoxic-encephalopathy, which means she developed brain damage from lack of oxygen support to the brain. When taken to the hospital the physicians recommended a CT scan. The CT scan showed no activities of cerebral cortex. The neurologic examinations of Terri Schiavo indicated her in a persistent vegetative State.

Persistent vegetative state is a condition of no physical or emotional response. It is a medical condition of unresponsiveness. There is no cure for this medical condition, but treatment can help. The patient is kept alive by medical interventions which includes, tube feeding, catheterization, and resuscitation.

Terri Schiavo was now in a Persistent Vegetative state. Her family and her spouse had a hard time dealing with a condition this complicated. The case was then taken to the court in 2002. The trial took place in Florida and was conducted for six days. The trial included four neurologists,radiologist and her physician. All of the physicians agreed with persistent vegetative state of Terri Schiavo. The court came to the conclusions of “ clear and convincing” evidence. The

decision was made by Florida Second District Court of Appeal.
Therefore, Terri’s case became challenging, as she had not left any advance directive for family and friends about her wishes.

Her spouse, Michael Schiavo became the legal guardian of Terri Schiavo. Therefore now it was his decision on Terri’s condition. He still had hope in his heart that his wife would get better, but after 3 years of therapeutic treatment with no improvements crashed his hopes. He then agreed with the physician on diagnosing Terri irreversible persistent vegetative state. He thought that his wife would not want to be kept alive by a machine, however the Schindler’s family disagreed with Mr. Schiavo, they believed that Terri could get better as time pass, with new

treatments.
The different opinions between Mr. Schiavo and the Schindler’s family broke down and it became a huge public dilemma. After Mr. Schivo refused treatment for his wife after an infection, he was criticised for not being loyal and empathetic for his wife. He was also criticised for living with another woman, whom he had two kids with. However Mr. Schivo was not the only one who was criticised , The Schindler family was also criticized for not accepting the truth on Terri’s condition.
New laws were made due to lack of agreement between the two sides. The tube feeding was moved three times. March, 18 2005 was the last time the tube was removed. Terri lived without any tube feeding for 13 days and she died on March, 31 2005.
Throughout the story of Terri, my decision remained the same. I believe that Terri had the right to live even though she was unresponsive, she still had the right to live. I also believe that Mr. Schiavo should have given the guardianship to the Schindler's family since he was not interested in the care of Terri. The court should’ve taken the guardianship away from Mr. Schiavo and they should have given the guardianship to Schindler’s family, since they wanted their daughter to live. They cannot interfere in someone’s right to live.