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Wed 15 Jun, 2005 10:43 am
Schiavo autopsy shows no sign of trauma
BY MITCH STACY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LARGO -- Terri Schiavo did not suffer any trauma prior to her 1990 collapse and her brain was about half of normal size when she died, according to results released Wednesday of an autopsy conducted on the severely brain-damaged woman.
Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin concluded that there was no evidence of strangulation or other trauma leading to her collapse.
He also said she did not appear to have suffered a heart attack and there was no evidence that she was given harmful drugs or other substances prior to her death.
Autopsy results on the 41-year-old brain damaged woman were made public Wednesday, more than two months after Schiavo's death ended an internationally watched right-to-die battle that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House and divided the country.
She died from dehydration, he said.
He said she would not have been able to eat or drink if she had been given food by mouth as her parents' requested.
"Removal of her feeding tube would have resulted in her death whether she was fed or hydrated by mouth or not," Thogmartin told reporters.
Thogmartin said that Schiavo's brain was about half of its expected size when she died March 31 in a Pinellas Park hospice, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.
"The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. ... This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."
most people without a pro-life axe to grind did figure it out.
edited postscript: in fairness, i note that Terri's parents supporters were not limited to the pro-life camp. Nat Hentoff, leftist commentator with the Village Voice, for example, was a strident representative from the disability rights perspective.
Re: Sciavo - Couldn't we figure this out while she was "
thethinkfactory wrote:This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."
Anyone with half a brain could have figured that out.
I hope all the people who wanted to interfere with letting her die see this.....and the people that had convinced themselves that her husband had beaten her.
some people may never figure it out. from the latest AP,
In Washington, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that the autopsy results did not change the president's position on her case.
"Our thoughts and prayers remain with her family and friends," McClellan said. "The president was deeply saddened by this case."
no regrets about character assassination of the bereaved husband trying to fulfill his late wife's wishes for a dignified death.
She was also blind. As for the president I can understand his empathy since he too is brain dead.
This won't affect anything for those that think she should still be "alive". They think she should be "alive" even if she can't function at any level...
a spokeman for the family (Father Paul) says there needs to be more evidence so the lawyers will review the autopsy.
good grief.
Even when she was alive, there was no peace for her family.
Now that she is dead, it is still being trudged through.
>sigh<
I thought so.
They said her brain was liquified.
That was a lie.
*ahem*
HER BRAIN WAS NOT LIQUIFIED......as, lo, many here claimed....
Lash wrote:*ahem*
HER BRAIN WAS NOT LIQUIFIED......as, lo, many here claimed....
How do you liquify a brain other than a Bass O Matic(blender)...or drinking mucho alcohol?
So that justifies everything then? That "Lo, many" said that? And just how many is "many"? Could you show me more than two people who said that? I doubt it.
I dunno. Ask one of the people who kept saying, "Her brain is liquified..."
If her brain had been liquified, it would have poured out of her nose. It's pretty obvious that if someone said that they were exaggerating.
But how many said she was conscious, aware, and communicating?
I don't know any that said she was communicating.
She was OBVIOUSLY conscious.
Obviously aware.
And, occasionally responsive.
I never read liquified, though I did tune out a lot of the hysteria after a few weeks, since it was repetitious. I wonder how many morons think she was still alive by the time they disconnected the tube.
Well, I don't know anyone who said that her brain was liquified. Neener.
Brain tissue dissolved and was absorbed into the circulatory system, filtered through the kidneys and eliminated from the body as urine.
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