Terri Schindler Schiavo collapsed from supposed brain damage in Feb 25 of 1990 at the age of 26. She was taken to the hospital where she was placed on a ventilation tube but within two weeks she was able to breathe on her own. Her husband Michael Schiavo was granted guardianship and volunteered her for experimental brain surgery. In 1991 Michael stopped for physical therapy where it was reported that she could say words such as "No", and "Mommy". Later that year he filed a malpractice suit against Terri's doctors for not noticing that his wife was suffering from an eating disorder. Michael was granted $600,000 for Terri's care and Terri was granted $1.5 million. Of this money $780,000 was put in a trust for Terri. In 1993 Micheal took Terri off of physical therapy despite pleas from the family and in 1995 he began seeing another woman who he eventually had two children with. Micheal then claimed that Terri never had wanted to live by mechanical means and proposed for her tube to be removed. The family resisted. Court cases battled on for 8 years until on March 18, 2005 the tube was removed. The family continued to appeal to the court to replace the tube, but the court wouldn't listen. Deprived of therapy and rehabilitation for almost 12 years, Terri died on March 31, 2005, 14 days later from dehydration and starvation.
To see videos of Terri please see the following link:
http://www.terrisfight.org/pages.php?page_id=37
