Actually, her husband tried several therapies, even sending her to California for experimental therapies involving a thalamic stimulator. From the Wikipedia entry:
The doctor's use of "near PVS" was obviously a sensationalistic ploy to get the Hot Pockets crowd who are more interested in the 5 word summary than truly understanding what was going on. Looks like it worked... If you can pay attention to an article for more than five seconds, you may want to read this, which explains how there's a vast difference between Herbert's condition and Schiavo's.