Terri Schiavo’s case started long before the cameras appeared.
It was February of 1990 when the 26 year old suffered a cardiac arrest（心脏停搏）.
She went several minutes without oxygen from her collapse -- and experienced a profound
brain injury. The first couple of days, doctors didn’t know if she was going to live or die.
Lack of oxygen left Schiavo with severe brain damage and in what doctors call a persistent
vegetative state, or PVS -- a condition in which the parts of the brain that control
thinking and awareness are damaged or destroyed.
Only the brain stem, which controls basic reflexes like breathing, remains.
Initially, Terri’s husband and parents cared for her together, exploring potential
treatments and rehabilitation. But, four years after her collapse,
Michael Schiavo says doctors gave him a grim prognosis.
It was to a point where Terri wasn’t going to function. There was nothing more.
And they told us, her mother was sitting right there at the time,
there was nothing more they could do for Terri.
In 1998, Michael Schiavo petitioned（请求） to have his wife’s feeding tube removed,
saying she had told him and others she would not want to live in this condition.
Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought desperately to keep her alive,
insisting that removing her feeding tube would be tantamount(等同于） to murder.
People think Terri was in a coma, she was brain dead, that she was terminal.
Terri was not dying. Terri had a profound brain injury
and our family wanted to care for her just the way she was.
With no living will（遗嘱） expressing her wishes, it was up to the state courts to decide Terri’s fate.
They went to court more than anybody has ever gone to court, in my experience,
in fighting about an end of life care case.
This was probably the most litigated case that I can think of. We were up and down
the federal court system, the state court system, many many times.
At least 19 judges heard the case through various appeals and the decisions were
all ultimately in Michael Schiavo’s favor, going back to the original court ruling
that said there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Terri would not want to be
kept alive, and that her feeding tube should be removed.
She told me what she wanted and the courts heard it over and over and over again.
For Terri’s parents, the legal decisions were devastating.
They appealed to the media and the public.
Please, please, please, save my little girl.