Jeb Bush finally gets the point

LARGO, Florida (AP) -- An autopsy on Terri Schiavo backed her husband's contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding that she had massive and irreversible brain damage and was blind, the medical examiner's office said Wednesday. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.

But what caused her collapse 15 years earlier remained a mystery. The autopsy and post-mortem investigation found no proof that she had an eating disorder, as was suspected at the time, Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said.

Autopsy results on the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman were made public Wednesday, more than two months after her death March 31 ended a right-to-die battle between her husband and parents that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House and divided the country.

She died from dehydration, Thogmartin said. He 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.

He said that after her feeding tube was removed, 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.

He also said she was blind, because the "vision centers of her brain were dead," and that her brain was about half of its expected size when she died 13 days following the feeding tube's removal.

Michael Schiavo said his wife never would have wanted to be kept alive in what court-appointed doctors concluded was a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. The Schindlers, however, doubted she had any such end-of-life wishes and disputed that she was in a vegetative state.

The medical examiner's conclusions countered a videotape released by the Schindlers of Terri Schiavo in her hospice bed. The video showed Schiavo appearing to turn toward her mother's voice and smile, moaning and laughing. Her head moved up and down and she seemed to follow the progress of a brightly colored Mickey Mouse balloon.

They believed her condition could improve with therapy.

However, doctors said her reactions were automatic responses and not evidence of thought or consciousness, and Thogmartin's report went farther.

"The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain," he said. "This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."

Thogmartin said the autopsy report was based on 274 external and internal body images, and an exhaustive review of Terri Schiavo's medical records, police reports and social services agency records.

He said hospital records of her 1990 collapse showed she had a diminished potassium level in her blood. But he said that did not prove she had an eating disorder, because the emergency treatment she received at the time could have affected the potassium level.

Testimony in a 1992 civil trial indicated that she probably was suffering from an eating disorder that led to a severe chemical imbalance.

Over the years, the Schindlers had sought independent investigation of their daughter's condition and what caused it. Abuse complaints to state social workers were ruled unfounded and the Pinellas state attorney's office did not turn up evidence of abuse.

Calls seeking comments Wednesday from the Schindlers and Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, were not immediately returned.

Speaking before the report was issued, Felos, said the Schindlers continue to engage in a "smear campaign against Michael to deflect the real issues in the case, which were Terri's wishes and her medical condition."

During the seven-year legal battle, federal and state courts repeatedly rejected extraordinary attempts at intervention by Florida lawmakers, Gov. Jeb Bush, Congress and President Bush on behalf of her parents.

Supporters of the Schindlers harshly criticized the courts. Many religious groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, said the removal of sustenance violated fundamental religious tenets.

About 40 judges in six courts were involved in the case at one point or another. Six times, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene. As Schiavo's life ebbed away following the final removal of her feeding tube, Congress rushed through a bill to allow the federal courts to take up the case, and President Bush signed it March 21, but federal courts refused to step in.

Finale Findings.
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I was happy (not giddy) to see that those that thought she was in a veg state were right. I'm sure it was a very large relief to the husband. I'm sure the patents were not happy and will try for more findings, but who knows.

Baldimo:

I goes deeper than that. It was the hypocrisy and double talk, combined with the character assassination of the husband that was so appalling.

To be married is to be in an intimate relationship, where things are said to each other that are said to nobody else. This has been traditionally recognized.

Here, because the husband made a choice the pro-lifers didn't like, all that stuff had to be thrown out the window. Suddenly, it's the parents and sibling who are the family, not the husband-even though everyone recognized the husband before the Schiavo case.

The husband's statements that This is wahat Terri would want were simply dismissed, with no explanation. Hey, I would think that the spouse is the person one would speak of these matters, not the parents and siblings over Thanksgiving dinner!

It just seemed that all that was traditional was reversed because the pro-lifers screamed so loud, and the papers let them get away with it.

I didn't see it as any double speak issue. As much as I disagreed with my party of the issue I still saw it as being consistent in protecting those that can't protect themselves.

You can't slip nothing past "Jeb" can you.......?

Finally!

The character assassination of Michael Schiavo.

The El Switcheroo in steadfastly maintaining that it should be the parents and siblings, not the husband, who should make life-and-death decisions on behalf of the spouse.

Are these also consistent with your party's positions?

I am not big on oppologies - I often think they are trite and forced when employed in politics - but I can't stand Jeb, not only not oppologizing but using his lawyer to leave one last scathing, underhanded, sophmoric attack below the belt on a man who has been through enough.

It was HIS friggin wife for God's sake. So much for the Christian Ethics Jeb and George seem to live by. Judge not Jeb...

TTF