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Gov. Bush seeking Schiavo investigation

Gov. Jeb Bush, who has asked a prosecutor to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, answers questions about the case at a news conference on Friday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Jeb Bush, who has asked a prosecutor to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, answers questions about the case at a news conference on Friday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Embarking on what may be a politically risky path, Gov. Jeb Bush reopened Terri Schiavo’s case Friday by asking a prosecutor to review a perceived delay by her husband in seeking medical help after her collapse 15 years ago.

Two days after an autopsy appeared to put allegations against Michael Schiavo to rest, Bush asked Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernard McCabe to look into what the governor called an unexplained 40- to 70-minute gap between Terri Schiavo’s collapse and her husband’s call to 911.

Calling the request an “outrage,” Michael Schiavo accused the governor of attempting to deflect attention from the autopsy findings, which concluded that his wife was not strangled or beaten at the time of her collapse, as her parents had alleged. Why she collapsed remains undetermined.

“I have consistently said over the years that I didn’t wait but ran to call 911 after Terri collapsed,” Michael Schiavo said in the statement released by his attorney. “I wasn’t wearing a watch or looking at a clock and I have stated in my sworn testimony that `I’m not good with dates and times.”’

The governor said he contacted the state attorney based on two prior but conflicting statements Michael Schiavo made about the time of his wife’s collapse in the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990.

In a 2003 interview on “Larry King Live,” Michael Schiavo said he heard his wife fall to the floor around 4:30 a.m., the same time he told the medical examiner’s office. Later, during the 2000 trial on his wife’s end-of-life wishes, he said he heard a “thud” and raced to find his wife lying in the hallway about 5 a.m.

Yet, according to the autopsy report, paramedics weren’t summoned to the Schiavos’ apartment in St. Petersburg, Fla., until 5:40 a.m. They arrived 12 minutes later to begin resuscitation efforts.

“In light of this new information, I urge you to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome,” Bush wrote to McCabe. “Mrs. Schiavo’s family deserves to know anything that can be done to determine the cause and circumstances of her collapse 15 years ago has been done.”