Where is the rest of the video and medical evidence?

Here's part of a post I wrote in a comment thread on codeblueblog, responding to a couple of questions about the Terri Schiavo case:

First, if the videos show evidence of awareness and response on Terri's part, why haven't we seen more than a few 30-second or minute-and-a-half clips--where is the rest of the video?

Secondly, why were there only two doctors who examined Terri Schiavo and questioned the PVS diagnosis, when there were at least 4 or 5 who examined her and said she was definitely PVS? The 50-some-odd affidavits questioning the PVS diagnosis were from health professionals who either didn't see Terri in person at all or who observed her without actually performing a medical diagnosis, and wrote affidavits based on some combination of video/audio tapes, examining medical records, reading trial transcripts, etc. rather than actually examining her--why?

Regarding the first question, I don't think that it is practical for the Schindlers to put all 4-odd hours of video on the internet--primarily because of time and bandwidth restraints. There are some longer clips available--for instance, here's one 5 minutes long (which is quite a large file to handle on dialup--you must use RealPlayer to play this, and it is a very large 2280 KB file).

I suspect that if you wrote to the Schindlers or their lawyers and offered to pay the costs of copying and mailing the items, they would be more than happy to provide you with copies of every bit of video and audio they have of Terri that they are legally allowed to release. They were offering the entire video for order on their website at one time, I believe--one of the DCF complaints filed had to do with that. We know from various affidavits that many of the doctors and others who wrote affidavits saw the entire videos that were presented in the 2002 hearing as well as other video and audio tapes, so obviously the Schindlers don't have a problem with sharing the unedited videos.

The reason there is not more video and audio evidence is because both Michael and Judge Greer repeatedly denied petitions to allow photos, video and sound clips taken of Terri. Most of the ones we do have were taken in violation of court orders, and the Schindlers were actually informed that if they released them to the public or tried to take any more, they would be arrested and/or visitation would be denied.

Michael filed a court order requesting that none of this information be released at all, and has filed a number of complaints and proceedings against the Schindlers for releasing the ones they have released. Here's a page with a link to the letter from MS's lawyer to the Schindlers threatening to remove their visitation rights in relation to the video I linked above.

As for the doctors, it does bother me that just between Feb 2000 and Sept 2003 there were at least 8 petitions to the court requesting that the Schindlers be allowed to have doctors examine and/or treat Terri, all of which were denied. There were at least 20+ requests that the Schindlers be allowed to obtain various medical tests and evaluations which were denied--and out of the 16-some-odd tests the doctors requested done for the 2002 trial to accurately determine Terri's condition, only 4 were approved.

It would be reasonable to assume that there were also multiple occasions before and after that when the Schindlers may have asked Michael to allow them to get a second opinion or allow a doctor to examine Terri and they were denied, but those didn't go to court and so there would be no public record of them.

There are also at least 6 court documents on file between 2000 and 2005 requesting that the Schindlers have access to Terri's medical records and that her care providers be allowed to discuss her medical information with them, and asking Judge Greer to find Michael in contempt for not sharing medical information with them even after the 1996 order that they be allowed access to this information. Judge Greer never ruled on some of these, categorically denied others, ruled that Michael had already given them enough information in another (because her "medical condition" hadn't changed and so they didn't need any new info.), and ordered Michael to give them nothing but a single discharge report in another.

And, there are a number of times the Schindlers filed petitions to have Michael removed as guardian, which the judge never ruled on at all--for or against.

A couple of other interesting bits of information are: that the Schindlers filed multiple times to have Terri moved from Hospice to another type of care facility and these were denied even though she didn't qualify under hospice or Medicare rules to be there in a Medicare-funded facility, for terminal patients only, that offered no therapy or treatment; and that Judge Greer authorized payment of Michael's expert doctors but not the Schindlers' in the 2002 trial, even though all 5 were hired under order from the court.

You can see a summary of all the filings in the case and the rulings if you scroll down to the bottom of the page at this link.

The only time I can find that the Schindlers were actually allowed to have access to all of Terri's medical records and have any of their doctors examine Terri was surrounding the 2002 evidentiary trial. At that time they got to have 2 doctors examine Terri and were given a 3-foot stack of medical records completely out of order and scrambled, which they had very little time to sort through before the proceedings began.

Also, since there was an approved visitors' list the Schindlers most likely didn't have the luxury Michael had (and used, according to court documents--he did change doctors after initially choosing others for the 2002 trial) to change doctors if they discovered that one of the two doctors they had chosen was unreliable or not convincing for their case.

If there was no evidence that Terri's condition was not as claimed, why deny her family access to her medical records and not allow them to get a second opinion from another doctor? What harm would it have done to let just one of these doctors examine Terri, or allow a few of the tests performed? Why should it be such a big deal that Michael fought so very hard to allow no video, audio or photos whatsoever taken of Terri or released to the public?