Might investigate allegations husband waited over 1 hour to call 911
Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday he might ask a state attorney to investigate allegations that Terri Schiavo's husband waited more than an hour to call 911 after her 1990 collapse.
Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have previously said their son-in-law waited more than an hour to make the call. An autopsy report released Wednesday didn't address the allegation.
"There's some doubt about when she did collapse and how long it took ... for the 911 call to be made," Bush said. "Which I think is worthy of some investigation. I don't know what form it would take."
Bush said he might ask Bernie McCabe, state attorney for Pinellas-Pasco, to look into the issue, but that would have to wait until McCabe returned from vacation.
Bush said the medical examiner shouldn't determine if there was a gap.
"This is really out of his realm," Bush added. "It's not a medical examiner's job to determine why there would be a gap if there was one."
Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, didn't return a phone message Thursday.
Terri Schiavo died March 31 from dehydration after her feeding tube was disconnected despite unsuccessful efforts by Bush to keep her alive.
The battle between her husband and parents over whether she should be allowed to die also engulfed the courts, Congress, the White House and divided the country.
The autopsy supported Michael Schiavo's contention that his wife was in a persistent vegetative state and revealed no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused before she collapsed.
It's not known why Terri Schiavo's heart stopped, causing her collapse, but oxygen was cut off from her brain and left her with severe damage. The autopsy showed that she suffered irreversible brain-damage and even blindness, and her brain had shrunk to half the normal size for a 41-year-old woman.
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