MIAMI, June 17 - Gov. Jeb Bush asked a state prosecutor on Friday to investigate the circumstances of Terri Schiavo's collapse, saying a new autopsy report revealed a possible gap between when Ms. Schiavo fell unconscious and when her husband called paramedics.
"It's a significant question that during this entire ordeal was never brought up," Governor Bush told reporters in Tallahassee after faxing a letter to Bernie McCabe, the state attorney in Pinellas County, where Ms. Schiavo suffered extreme brain damage when her heart temporarily stopped beating in 1990.
In a statement on Friday, Ms. Schiavo's husband, Michael, called Governor Bush's actions "sickening" and said he had called 911 promptly.
The governor's letter could further prolong an exhaustively fought case that even many of his fellow Republicans said it was time to close after the autopsy found no evidence of foul play in Ms. Schiavo's collapse nor any sign that further treatment would have restored the functions of her withered brain.
Governor Bush, who vehemently fought the court-ordered removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube, said he decided to seek an investigation after speaking with Dr. Jon R. Thogmartin, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, on Tuesday, a day before his report was released. According to records, the report says, a 911 call was placed about 5:40 a.m. on Feb. 25, 1990.
But Mr. Schiavo said in an interview with CNN's Larry King in 2003 that he found his wife on the floor outside their bedroom about 4:30 a.m. and quickly called 911.
The governor said that Mr. McCabe, a Republican, had agreed to open an investigation. The prosecutor did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
The question of whether Ms. Schiavo's husband purposely delayed seeking help was never a significant issue in the case. A lawyer for Ms. Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, mentioned it after the autopsy report came out on Wednesday and said he had pointed it out in a letter to Dr. Thogmartin shortly after Ms. Schiavo's death, at age 41, on March 31.
The autopsy did not determine why Ms. Schiavo's heart stopped in 1990. But it generally supported Mr. Schiavo's contention that her brain damage rendered her unaware and incapable of recovering. And it countered arguments by her family, who fought Mr. Schiavo's decision to remove his wife's feeding tube and found a powerful and passionate ally in Governor Bush, that she was responsive and could improve.
Mr. Schiavo, who almost always directs his lawyer to speak on his behalf, issued his own response to the governor's action on Friday. He said that his memory had always been fuzzy and that the timing of his 911 call had never been questioned.
"I have consistently said over the years that I didn't wait but 'ran' to call 911 after Terri collapsed," Mr. Schiavo said in a news release. He said he was not "wearing a watch or looking at a clock" that night.
The release included excerpts of responses Mr. Schiavo gave to various lawyers and to Mr. King about when he found his wife.
"I'd say, about 4:30 in the morning, I was, for some reason, getting out of bed and I heard a thud in the hall," he told Mr. King on Oct. 27, 2003. "I race out there, and Terri was laying in the hall. I went down to get her. I thought, 'Well, maybe she just tripped or whatever.' I rolled her over and she was lifeless. And it almost seems like she had this last breath. So I held her in my arms, and I'm trying to shake her up. I ran over, I called 911."
According to his statement, Mr. Schiavo agreed with lawyers who, during a 1992 malpractice suit he filed against his wife's doctor, asked whether he found her on the floor "about 5:00 in the morning." He also said that during a trial in 2000 over his request to remove his wife's feeding tube, he testified, "I'm not good with dates and times."
The Schindlers' lawyer, David Gibbs, said on Friday that for years they had focused on fighting to prolong their daughter's life, but that the autopsy report rekindled their curiosity about the time inconsistencies.
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