Right-to-die case debated again

In a hearing, Terri Schiavo's parents say she can recover. Her husband says she's in a vegetative state.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 12, 2002

CLEARWATER -- Terri Schiavo's mother walks into the room and begins speaking, as though her daughter can hear and understand every word.

"How's my girl?" Mary Schindler says, touching her daughter's face and adjusting her pillow.

Terri appears to react to her mother. She moans. Her face breaks out in what her parents say is a bright smile. Her face, they say, lights up.

Is this the face of a woman in an irreversible, 12-year vegetative state?

Terri Schiavo's reaction to her mother, captured on videotape, was played Friday during the first day of a hearing to decide that very question. After years of litigation, the hearing was ordered by an appeals court last year in hopes of resolving a right-to-die case that has attracted national attention.

After watching video of Mrs. Schiavo for much of the morning, her husband, Michael Schiavo, who says his wife would not have wanted her life continued by a feeding tube, discounted her reactions.

"She's done that for 13 years," he said, describing her facial reactions as involuntary. "It proves nothing."

Mrs. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, who have fought in the courts to keep their daughter alive, said the tapes prove their daughter, now 38, can recover with new medical treatments.

"Obviously, there's awareness there," Bob Schindler said. "She's not in a vegetative state."

In the first day of the hearing, Mrs. Schiavo's treating physician, Victor Gambone, testified that he doesn't think Schiavo can recover from her condition. He admitted he had not seen Mrs. Schiavo react as strongly as she did in the video.

But the doctor said he has seen other reactions which, he believes, are physical reflexes that have nothing to do with mental ability.

"Her condition is one in which there is no recovery," Gambone said. "The damage done to the brain is not repairable."

Gambone said he has seen no change in Mrs. Schiavo's condition since he began treating her.

Pat Anderson, the Schindlers' attorney, played clips of Mrs. Schiavo listening to piano music and appearing to interact with another doctor, opening and closing her eyes upon command. Gambone described her behavior as involuntary reactions that don't prove Mrs. Schiavo can recover.

Later, Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said, "She does have some movements. They're random."

The 2nd District Court of Appeal last year ordered the hearing after Mrs. Schiavo's fate was seemingly decided. Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube had been ordered removed. Then, a judge ordered a resumption of the feeding while the Schindlers pursued a suit against their daughter's husband.

Months later, the appeals court decided that Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer should hear testimony from doctors about Mrs. Schiavo's chances of recovering.

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