Malpractice Newsroom

Michael Schiavo Swore Under Oath To Provide Rehabilitative Care For Terri, But After Receiving A $1.6 Million Malpractice Award In 1993 He Has Prevented Physical Therapy, Dental Care And Basic Medical Care

JACKSONVILLE, Fl., March 16  The "court-ordered homicide" of Terri Schiavo by Florida's Sixth Circuit Judge George Greer, is scheduled to commence this Friday, March 18, and is being lobbied to Congress by the Justice Coalition to be stopped.

According to the Justice Coalition, time is running out and immediate action must be taken to support the "Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act" (HR 1151), which was introduced by Rep. Dave Weldon, M.D (R-FL) and Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL).

Terri suffered serious brain damage in mysterious circumstances in 1990 that left her disabled. She was a healthy 26-year-old with no prior history of trouble. There was only one witness on the night of her collapse, her husband, Michael Schiavo. After thorough review and legal opinions regarding Terri's case, President/Founder of Jacksonville, Florida's Justice Coalition, Ted Hires, stated that he has "concluded that Terri Schiavo is most certainly the ultimate victim. There is a very real possibility that an act of domestic violence caused Terri's present condition."

Hires officially asked Gov. Jeb Bush, two weeks ago, to appoint a special prosecutor and the FDLE to investigate the origin of Terri's collapse and more than 30 ongoing violations of Florida law which protects the right of disabled citizens. Her legal guardian and estranged husband, who has been cohabitating with another woman for 10 years, is the suspect in the Department of Children and Families investigation.

Michael Schiavo swore under oath to provide rehabilitative care for Terri, but after receiving a $1.6 million malpractice award in 1993, he has prevented physical therapy, dental care and basic medical care. She has been deprived of a swallowing test and physical rehabilitation since 1992 per the express orders of Michael Schiavo, Terri's legal guardian. Terri is still able to communicate with her parents after being deprived of therapy, (in violation of Florida Law FL.S. 744.3215) after 13 years of neglect.

In violation of federal and state guidelines, Terri has been held hostage in a home for the dying for the past five years, even though she is neither terminal, dying, unconscious, nor in a persistent vegetative state. Her PVS is merely a ruling from the Sixth Circuit and not a medical fact. The Schindler's lawyers have submitted over 17 medical doctors' sworn affidavits that Terri is not in a Persistent Vegetative State, over half of whom are neurologists, specializing in brain injuries. Judge Greer refuses to accept these opinions and allow them to be entered into the court record. These doctors' affidavits have repeatedly gone unreported by news accounts which only report the ruling from the 6th circuit.

According to the Justice Coalition, "this court-ordered starvation death is no less than judicial homicide. Removal of Terri's feeding tube, which would cause her agonizing and painful death, will destroy the only living piece of evidence into how and why Terri's bone scan reveals that she has a radiologist's diagnosis of a history of trauma." Michael has petitioned the court and has been granted permission to have Terri's body immediately cremated which would deny the state an autopsy and a chance to examine the fractures which the bone scan reveals are there.

The Justice Coalition asks that until the criminal allegations have been thoroughly investigated, that Gov. Bush take Terri into protective custody under Chapter 415.1051 of the Florida statues. The Coalition is also asking all citizens to take immediate action by calling Washington at 202-224-3121 to support and endorse TERRI'S LAW. This law will extend to Terri the same due process which is already afforded to convicted murders under the Writ of Habeas Corpus.

The Justice Coalition was founded in 1995 as a grass-roots organization seeking rights for victims in the criminal justice system. Founder Ted M. Hires, Sr., discovered when he and his staff were brutally victimized by armed robbers that the victims of crime had virtually no place in the process of dispensing justice. The Coalition keeps the public informed and involved through its monthly newspaper, The Victim's Advocate. Coalition, its founder, and some of the members, have won numerous local and national awards stemming from their activities in the area of getting the community involved before it is too late. The FBI honored Ted Hires with The Director's Award for Community Leadership, bestowed by Director Louis Freeh, in 1997.