Brain-damaged woman who entered a vegetative state following cardiac arrest and a subsequent coma. She became the focus of a legal battle over the issue of extended life support.
In her early adulthood, she settled in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she worked as an insurance agent.
She went into cardiac arrest in February of 1990; her life support was not removed until 2005.
Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, fought an extended legal battle with Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, in an attempt to keep their daughter on life support.
Florida governor Jeb Bush intervened in the Schiavo case, mandating that Terri be reconnected to her feeding tube after the tube had been temporarily removed in 2003.