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

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