The attorney in the malpractice case, Gary D. Fox, later wrote in an op-ed piece for the St. Petersburg Times that Schiavo suffered from a chemical imbalance caused by bulimia. "One night, Terri purged, which caused her potassium level to drop low enough to cause a heart attack," Fox wrote. He also said that doctors who treated Schiavo for infertility failed to detect her eating disorder and refer her for treatment.
Wolfson, the guardian, also linked Schiavo's cardiac arrest to a chemical imbalance possibly brought on by her "aggressive weight loss, diet control and excessive hydration."
Michael Schiavo, visiting his wife in 1990, won part of a settlement in a medical malpractice suit. He petitioned in 1998 to have her feeding tube removed.
(Joe Walles -- St. Petersburg Times)
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_____Terri Schiavo Dies_____
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Photo Gallery: A photographic look at the Schiavo case.
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Video: Brother Paul O'Donnell announces Schiavo's death.
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Guardian's Report: Report by Dr. Jay Wolfson, guardian ad litem for Theresa Marie Schiavo, for Gov. Jeb Bush and the Fla. 6th Circuit Court.
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Terri Schiavo's Unstudied Life (The Washington Post, Mar 25, 2005)
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After her collapse, her diet became simple: vitamin-enriched beverages and water, fed through a gastric tube.
Schiavo lived longer than anyone predicted, longer than medical literature suggested she would. She was taken for countless neurological tests, CT scans and swallowing tests. For the first three years, she received physical, occupational, speech and even recreational therapy. "There is evidence early in her records of care that she said 'no' during physical therapy session," Wolfson wrote in his report to Florida's governor. "That behavior did not recur and was not further referenced."
As the legal fight intensified and national right-to-life groups joined the campaign in 2003, pictures of her began to surface. In a photo that was entered into evidence by her parents to counter Michael Schiavo's contention that his wife was in a persistent vegetative state, she is made over with lipstick, eye shadow, mascara and gold earrings. The vivaciousness of the glamour shot is stunning, except for the ruby red mouth that is half open.
Nurses stacked pillows around her in bed to keep her from rolling. Her family, broken in different camps and speaking through lawyers, took turns visiting her. The money once in contention had dwindled to $70,000, one of Michael Schiavo's lawyers, Deborah Bushnell, recently told the St. Petersburg Times. On March 18, they removed her feeding tube for the last time.
Outside her hospice facility, police kept the crowds back. Several protesters tried to bring her cups of water and were charged with trespassing.
Inside her room, they kept her lips moist with balm. Without sustenance, she lasted 13 days, and then she died.
Staff writer Manuel Roig- Franzia contributed to this report.
