That nurse, Carla Sauer-Iyer, gave testimony to a legal counsel of governor Jeb Bush that was used as a basis for the Terri amendment that was declared unconstitutional by the Florida courts.
Iyer had stated in her August 2003 affidavit that "it was clear to me at Palm Garden that all decisions regarding Terri Schiavo were made by Michael Schiavo with no allowances made for any discussion, debate or normal professional judgment. My initial training there consists solely of the instruction, "Do what Michael Schiavo tells you or you will be terminated".
And terminated she was on Aug. 11, 1996, the day after she filed a police report, alleging that Michael Schiavo had injected Terri with insulin in an attempt to kill her. Although attempts have been made by The North Country Gazette to obtain copies of the complaint filed by Iyer with the police, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has refused to respond to the request and the Largo Police Department says it's out of their jurisdiction. Eleanor Centonze, mother of Schiavo's concubine Jodi Centonze, was allegedly employed as a clerk in the sheriff's office under Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice at the time that Iyer's complaints concerning Schiavo would have been filed with the police.
Iyer said in her affidavit that Schiavo was fixated on when his wife was going to die, allegedly asking "When is that bitch gonna die?", "Has she died yet?" and "When is she going to die?"
She stated in her 2003 affidavits filed with the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Pinellas County, which became a matter of public record and in the public domain, that on five different occasions she had tested Terri's blood sugar levels after Michael had visited Terri and found that her levels were so low it wouldn't even register on the glucometer. She said she had found needle marks on Terri which she had reported to her superiors and the nursing home administrator and ultimately to the police but instead of acting on her complaint, they terminated her.
After nurse Iyer repeated her testimony in a CNN interview in August 2005, an Eileen Sullivan after hearing the broadcast filed a complaint against Iyer to the Florida Department of Health who after a long period of review has decided to pull Iyer's nurses license.
The DOH attempted to force Iyer to voluntarily relinquish her nursing license and to never apply for re-licensure. Had she signed the proposed stipulation agreeing that her license was permanently revoked, taking away her livelihood, and agreeing to pay nearly $1,700 in fines and costs, Iyer would have had to agree to waive all rights to seek judicial review or to "otherwise challenge or contest the validity of this Voluntary Relinquishment and of the Final Order of the Board…."
Of course, Iyer is fighting this decision.
Iyer's attorney Allen R. Grossman of Gray Robinson of Tallahassee filed a response to the finding of probable cause on June 6, arguing that information contained in Iyer's interview was not confidential and that she had a First Amendment right to discuss her public testimony previously rendered in various legal proceedings.
There doesn't seem to be much information on the person, Eileen Sullivan, who filed the complaint but the whole thing seems to be some kind of scheme to silence Iyer.
Somehow related to all this is the news that Michael Schiavo told a few lies to get his nursing job for which he is not being prosecuted. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Michael had primary care responsibility for Terri, his wife.
A complaint had been filed against Michael Schiavo in August, 2005, for deceit, dishonesty and misrepresentation in filing false written statements with the court and the Pinellas County Sheriff's office in his employment application. The complaint was deemed legally sufficient in late 2005 and assigned to medical malpractice investigator Kevin Codol in St. Petersburg for investigation, coincidentally the same investigator assigned to the Iyer complaint. But by letter of March 7, DOH legal counsel stated that the Probable Cause Panel, the same two people who made the determination against Iyer, decided to close the case against Schiavo without a finding of probable cause but stated that additional information could be submitted within 60 days to determine if the case should be re-presented to a panel for reconsideration.
As this case did from the start, it smells of collusion, corruption and greed at almost every level. One can only wonder at the number of people that Michael influenced and bought off for him to achieve the death of his wife. Unfortunately for Michael, truth usually prevails no matter how long it takes.
All of the above and more is here. Read it all.