Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, and his doctors won a $1.2 million medical malpractice lawsuit based on the claim that Terri's brain injury was caused by a three-stage progression of a potassium imbalance that caused a heart attack, depriving her brain of oxygen. The Schindler family has long believed otherwise.
"It's extremely rare for a 20-year-old to have a cardiac arrest from low potassium who has no other diseases," Baden said Friday on Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren." He restated that such an occurrence would be "extremely unusual unless she had certain kind of diseases, which she doesn't have.
"She was in her 20s. The reason that she's in the state she's in is because there was a period of time, maybe five minutes or eight minutes, when not enough oxygen was going to her brain," Baden explained. "That can happen because the heart stops for five or eight minutes, but she had a healthy heart from what we can see."
Baden has a different theory about what caused Mrs. Schiavo's brain injury, based on a 1991 bone-scan report that only became available to the Schindlers in 1998.
"That bone scan describes her as having a head injury. That's why she's there. That's why she's getting a bone scan," Baden explained, "and a head injury can cause, lead to the 'vegetative state' that Ms. Schiavo is [allegedly] in now."
Dr. W. Campbell Walker completed the March 7, 1991, bone scan, which was requested to "evaluate for trauma" as the result of a suspected "closed head injury."
"This patient has a history of trauma," Walker wrote. "The presumption is that the other multiple areas of abnormal activity also relate to previous trauma."
Walker listed apparent injuries to the ribs, thoracic vertebrae, both sacroiliac joints, both ankles and both knees.
"It does show evidence that there are other injuries, other bone fractures that are in a healing stage," Baden explained. Those apparent injuries were likely the result of "some kind of trauma. The trauma could be from an auto accident, the trauma could be from a fall, or the trauma could be from some kind of beating that she obtained from somebody somewhere. It's something that should have been investigated in 1991."
Baden, author of three books on forensic pathology, has served as chief pathologist for the City of New York and as director of the Forensic Sciences Unit of the New York State Police.
Pamela Hennessy, spokeswoman for the Schindler family, expressed their hope that "something positive will come out of this."
"This is what that family and their doctors have been saying for a number of years," Hennessy told CNSNews.com on Monday. "Finally, they have an independent and unsolicited expert coming forward to concur with their suspicions. Dr. Baden has said that 'this matter simply must be investigated,' and that is what the family has been asking for since 1998."
Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities (ACPD) describes itself as "Florida's protection and advocacy program for persons with disabilities" on its Web site.
The agency receives federal funding to administer the "Protection and Advocacy System for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PADD)" program. The law that created the program also gives the agency wide latitude in investigating alleged abuse or neglect of the disabled.
"PADD ... has the authority to pursue legal, administrative and other appropriate remedies or approaches to protect and advocate the rights of individuals with developmental disabilities who are or who may be eligible for treatment, services or habilitation, or who are being considered for a change in living arrangements," ACPD's Web site explains, "[and] has the authority to investigate incidents of abuse and neglect when reported if there is probable cause to believe the incidents occurred."
Richard LaBelle, an attorney and ACPD board member involved in the investigation, said he did not know how long the inquiry will take.
"I think to the extent that Terri is still alive and will be receiving food and water," LaBelle told the Chicago Tribune, "we think that's a positive development."
How quickly ACPD makes a determination will depend on how difficult it is for the agency to gain access to Mrs. Schiavo's medical records and to the people it needs to interview on both sides of the legal battle.
ACPD is to be granted "access at reasonable times and locations to any resident who is an individual with a developmental disability in a facility that is providing services, supports and other assistance to such a resident," according to relevant statutes. The agency "may bring suit on behalf of individuals with developmental disabilities against a state or agencies or instrumentalities of a state."
That authority to bring lawsuits potentially includes actions against a disabled person's legal guardian, as guardianship is considered an "instrumentality" of the state government. Schiavo's decisions regarding his wife's health care, or the alleged lack thereof, have all presumably been made in his official capacity as her guardian.
"They are conducting a pretty comprehensive investigation into past and current allegations of abuse, allegations that Terri is being abused, neglected and exploited," Hennessy said. "They're going to be looking over the current condition that she is in, the fact that therapy has been withheld, the fact that she's kept in isolation. All these things are abuses."
Schiavo's attorney and so-called "right-to-die" advocate George Felos has denied allegations that Schiavo assaulted his wife in the past or is "abusing" her by allegedly denying medical care and therapy. Felos has refused to talk to CNSNews.com, however, since mid-September.
Schiavo is believed to be challenging the constitutionality of "Terri's Law," legislation passed by the Florida legislature last week giving Gov. Jeb Bush authority to order Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube re-inserted and her nutrition and hydration resumed. Felos filed a challenge before the bill was signed into law but was told to resubmit the filing later.
Terri's Law requires the chief judge of the circuit court in Pinellas County, Fla., where Mrs. Schiavo lives, to appoint an independent guardian to replace Schiavo. University of South Florida public health professor Jay Wolfson is expected to be named at a scheduled Nov. 5 hearing. Hennessy said the family was not pleased about that prospect.
"The family and the attorneys are not comfortable with Dr. Wolfson," Hennessy said. "He has stated on local television that he is opposed to Terri's Law, that he is uncomfortable with it, so we feel that creates an instant bias."
Hennessy believes attorneys for the Schindler family will submit an objection to Wolfson's appointment.
Doctors hired by Schiavo, and one court-appointed doctor, say Mrs. Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state," defined by Florida law as "a permanent and irreversible state of unconsciousness in which there is an absence of voluntary or cognitive behavior and an inability to interact purposefully with one's environment." However, numerous other medical professionals have noted that she responds to the sound of her mother's voice by smiling, tracks moving objects with her eyes and responds to tickling or jokes with laughter.
None of those responses, they say, could come from a person in a persistent vegetative state.
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