By BOBBY SCHINDLER
During my family's battle to save my sister Terri Schiavo from death by dehydration, a tremendous amount of debate raged over whether or not she was in what the medical profession refers to as a persistent vegetative state (PVS).
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Indeed, the PVS diagnosis was used as one of the deciding factors in whether my sister should live or die. It was the core catalyst in the court ordering the removal of Terri's food and water.
When Terri's husband first petitioned the circuit courts to remove her sustenance, my family was naive about PVS and what the diagnosis actually meant, and could not believe a court would ever order her food and water withdrawn. As the battle over my sister's life progressed, however, we learned—the hard way.
The more anecdotal testimony we heard about the diagnosis of PVS, the more my family was convinced that Terri simply didn't fit the profile and was never PVS. We also suspected such a diagnosis (typically made at the bedside) was seriously flawed.
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