The court determined that Schiavo would not have wished to continue life-prolonging measures,[4] and on April 24, 2001, her feeding tube was removed for the first time, only to be reinserted several days later.

[20] Electrolyte imbalance is often caused by drinking excessive fluids, and a serious consequence of hypokalemia can be heart rhythm abnormalities, including sudden arrhythmia death syndrome.

Richard Pearse was appointed by the court as a second guardian ad litem (GAL), and on December 29, 1998, reported "Dr. Jeffrey Karp's opinion of the ward's condition and prognosis is substantially shared among those physicians who have recently been involved in her treatment."

[23] Given the lack of a living will, a trial was held before Pinellas County Judge George Greer during the week of January 24, 2000, to determine what Schiavo's wishes would have been regarding life-prolonging procedures.

According to Abstract Appeal Trial Order, her parents "claimed that Terri was a devout Roman Catholic who would not wish to violate the Church's teachings on euthanasia by refusing nutrition and hydration."

In this decision, the court found that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state and that she had made reliable oral declarations that she would have wanted the feeding tube removed.

Since clinical records indicated that Terri Schiavo was not responsive to swallowing tests and required a feeding tube,[17] Judge Greer ruled that she was not capable of orally ingesting sufficient nutrition and hydration to sustain life, and denied the request.

On August 10, 2001, on remand from the Florida Second District Court of Appeal, Judge Greer heard a motion from the Schindlers claiming that new medical treatment could restore sufficient cognitive ability such that Terri Schiavo herself would be able to decide to continue life-prolonging measures.

The trial court order was particularly critical of Hammesfahr's testimony, which claimed positive results in similar cases by use of vasodilation therapy, the success of which is unsupported in the medical literature.

Iyer claimed in her affidavit that her initial training in 1996 consisted solely of the instruction, "Do what Michael Schiavo tells you or you're terminated", and that standing orders were not to contact the Schindler family, but that she "would call them anyway".

Within a week, when the Schindlers' final appeal was exhausted, State Rep. Frank Attkisson and the Florida Legislature passed "Terri's Law" in an emergency session giving Governor Jeb Bush the authority to intervene in the case.

Part of the legislation required the appointment of a guardian ad litem (GAL), Jay Wolfson, to "deduce and represent the best wishes and best interests" of Schiavo, and report them to Governor Bush.

[49] The Schindlers' other attorney, Pat Anderson, was concurrently challenging Michael Schiavo's right to be her guardian, and, on June 16, 2004, she made a petition for writ of quo warranto.

"[60] The following day, Greer denied the first motion as well, citing that an affiant doctor for Michael cautioned that fMRI was an experimental procedure that should be conducted in an academic setting, because Schiavo had already undergone swallowing tests and failed, and because VitalStim had only been performed on patients who were not in a PVS.

"[55] Following Greer's order on March 18, 2005, to remove the feeding tube, Republicans in the United States Congress subpoenaed both Michael and Terri Schiavo to testify at a congressional hearing.

[62][63] President George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans anticipated Greer's adverse ruling well before it was delivered and worked on a daily basis to find an alternative means of overturning the legal process by utilizing the authority of the United States Congress.

Soon after Senate approval, the House of Representatives passed an identical version of the bill S.686, which came to be called the "Palm Sunday Compromise" and transferred jurisdiction of the Schiavo case to the federal courts.

[7] American disability rights groups traditionally tend to ally themselves with Democrats and the political left;[7] however, in the Schiavo case, they joined pro-life organizations in opposing the removal of her feeding tube and supporting the Palm Sunday Compromise.

While the stay was in effect, Florida Department of Law Enforcement personnel prepared to take custody of Terri Schiavo and transfer her to a local hospital for reinsertion of the feeding tube.

If Bush (or the Florida Legislature) had ignored Greer's order by attempting to remove her from the hospice, a confrontation between the Pinellas Park Police Department and the FDLE agents could have ensued.

In addition to studying Terri Schiavo's remains, Thogmartin scoured court, medical and other records and interviewed her family members, doctors and other relevant parties.

Microscopic examination revealed extensive damage to nearly all brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, the thalamus, the basal ganglia, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the midbrain.

Specifically, external signs of strangulation including cutaneous or deep neck injury, facial/conjunctival petechiae, and other blunt trauma were not observed or recorded during her initial hospital admission.

[74][75] Quinlan entered a persistent vegetative state in 1975, and her family was allowed to remove her from a ventilator in 1976 after a ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court based on her right of privacy.

[76] Cruzan was diagnosed with PVS in 1983 and her legal case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that "clear and convincing evidence" of her wishes to die under such circumstances was needed.

According to medical ethicist Matthew Stonecipher, "The movement to challenge the decisions made for Terri Schiavo threatened to destabilize end-of-life law that had developed over the last quarter of the 20th century, principally through the cases of Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan.

[7][64] They argued that persistent vegetative state is frequently misdiagnosed, and that the reasons for withdrawal of life support from a patient should be scrutinized since even family member surrogates can have conflicts of interest.

(Page headers in the web publication show the name change occurred in 2010, compare volume 1 to 2 for 2010)[94][95] In 2006, both Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers released books telling their sides of the story.

[96][97][98][99][100][101][102] During the Terri Schiavo case in March 2005, a talking points memo on the controversy was written by Brian Darling, the legal counsel to Republican Senator Mel Martínez of Florida.

[104] Martínez stated that he had not read the memo before he inadvertently passed it to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democratic supporter of the Palm Sunday Compromise legislation which gave federal courts jurisdiction to review the Terri Schiavo case.