Remembering Terri

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," March 31, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: One year ago today Terri Schindler Schiavo passed away after her feeding tubes was removed by order of a Florida court. Earlier, Sean and I spoke with Terri's sister, Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo, and Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, about the new Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation and their new book, "A Life That Matters", in which they discuss their feud with Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: What are the unanswered questions? What are the questions the media is not asking, Michael, that you would like to have answered? Both of you.

SUZANNE SCHINDLER-VITADAMO, TERRI SCHIAVO'S SISTER: Michael was there with her the night of the collapse, and he has not properly been questioned about what happened that night. And another thing that he's not properly been questioned about are Terri's alleged wishes, that it took eight years to assert, after he announced his engagement to Jody.

BOBBY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S SISTER: There are different versions of Terri's collapse that night. And you know, every time he was asked about Terri's collapse, it changed. And it's troubling.

HANNITY: You — he does write about you and he writes about the night of the collapse. He does talk about the last moments of Terri. You know, I know that Felos, his attorney, "She never looked so beautiful. She never looked so calm." You saw her just before she died. Was she calm? Was she beautiful? Was she suffering?

SCHINDLER: We believe so. And if you would have seen Terri. But they have to say that. Because if they would tell the truth of how Terri was suffering, what she looked like, it was the most horrific and barbaric thing that any person would have to experience.

HANNITY: Yes, and that was — but is this just a spin because this is a cause you believe in, a political cause?

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: No, I mean, if you're in the room and you saw her, she was definitely suffering. It was an awful...

HANNITY: No, they're spinning it, because they want people to believe, "Oh, this was a peaceful death."

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: Absolutely. They have to say that, just as Bobby said earlier.

SCHINDLER: This thing is happening — although my sister's case made national and international headlines, this thing is happening every single day. We are killing people — America is killing people because they're disabled, because they have brain injuries. And for them, this is their agenda, and they want to make this a quality of life — a quality of life issue.

COLMES: Welcome. It's a shame that the two sides of the families can't find some common ground here. You don't see any possibility of that, do you?

SCHINDLER: You know, as Suzanne said, our issue with Michael is over and what he says doesn't matter at this point. And we're just going to try to do what we can and speak for those who can't speak for themselves.

COLMES: You know, there was an autopsy that said no signs of abuse. You disagree with the autopsy. I know you feel he said some very mean things about you. And his side feels that he's been basically accused of wife abuse.

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: Well, you know, Alan, something happed to Terri that night, and the autopsy was unable to come up with any definite reasons for her collapse and Michael was there the night Terri collapsed and something happened to Terri and we don't know.

SCHINDLER: And the autopsy, the IME did leave the autopsy report open in case there was any additional new evidence that might surface at some point.

COLMES: But none has, as we know of, right?

SCHINDLER: Not right now, no.

COLMES: The other part where it said, "No amount of treatment or rehabilitation would have reversed the state that she was in." Do you disagree with what the autopsy said?

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: Well, if anybody — I'll tell you, Alan, if anybody went in that room with us or was in there, like, with my parents and my mom talking to Terri, nobody can tell us that Terri wasn't responsive and that Terri wasn't aware.

Terri didn't have rehabilitation for close to 12 or 13 years. So obviously, she is going to deteriorate at some point.

SCHINDLER: And it didn't matter to our family. It didn't matter the severity of Terri's brain injury and it shouldn't matter. Nothing should justify the purposeful killing of an innocent disabled person.

COLMES: I know that Michael gets some blame here, but isn't this a guy who became an EMT, left his job, changed his career, basically said, when asked, your family wanted to get Terri back and take care of her. And he said, "You don't give somebody back, simply because they're sick. Some people — some people regard that as being protective of Terri.

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: Right. What about his wedding vows?

COLMES: Well, he believes he was observing his wedding vows.

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: He made a commitment through sickness and in health.

COLMES: He did. He didn't give her back. He said, "I'm going to take care of her. I'll change my career."

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: He didn't take care of her.

COLMES: I'll go and bring her around and when he got medical evidence that nothing more could be done, that's when things changed.

SCHINDLER: When the money came in and was put in Terri's trust, everything changed. And what is so important here, that's what we're talking about in our book, because there's so much in our book that was never disclosed in the media. Michael waited eight years for Terri's wishes to surface and it was after — it was after that he announced that he was going to marry the woman he was cohabitating with. So the wishes, we believe, were fabricated, and from that point on, he just warehoused Terri and isolated her in a nursing home and not take care of her any more.

SCHINDLER-VITADAMO: Let me ask a question. Why would he not give her any — she only had about a year and a half rehabilitation.

COLMES: Well, he claims he took her around, took her to California, took her all over the country, did everything he could do until such time — now a number of doctors came forward, neurologists who examined her, and said there could not be improvement. You have affidavits in your book from five different doctors, but none of them actually examined Terri. Did they not? Or did they look at videotapes and that's how they determined...

SCHINDLER: The problem with our family is we were never able to properly explain the situation, what was going on with Terri and with Michael. And that's one of the purposes of our book, is to explain what our family went through, you know, what happened to Terri. And that we're just a loving family that wanted to care and love her and take care of her. And that was our intention from the beginning. But so much got distorted in the media. And hopefully, when you read the book, you'll understand why our family's doing — what we're doing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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