Schiavo Autopsy Confirms Diagnosis

The autopsy done on Terri Schiavo has been released and to the surprise only of those who listened to the steady stream of nonsense coming from her family and amplified by the media, it confirmed exacly what Michael Schiavo, Judge Greer and the medical experts who examined her had said all along:


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."

He also concluded that there was no evidence of any trauma such as strangulation or abuse. Will this end the debate and convince the other side? Of course not. Their arguments are based purely on emotion and are immune to facts. The Larry Klaymans of the world are impervious to evidence and logic. When the facts don't support their position, they just fall back on ad hominems and red herrings.

Here is the autopsy report in full.

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A wag might wonder whether the brains of the people who were trying to keep Terri's feeding tube down her throat were of the same size. But I'm not a wag ;-)

It's a good thing that they did an autopsy.

If only we had cut her brain out earlier, we would've known it was okay to kill her.

But seriously... the ME also found no sign of heart attack. Apparently, we'll never know what cause the poor woman's brain damage in the first place.

Not that I need to know; what business is it of mine?

They didn't need to do an autopsy. They could have concluded the same from CT or PET scans. I suspect (but don't know) that they did.

Look, let's get something straight. This controversy was about money. It's likely that the parents were upset with the fact that the malpractice settlement provided for a sum for "loss of consortium" for the hubby, but nothing for them. That's what led to the breakdown between the Schindlers (the parents) and the hubby.

If you think I'm joking, I am not.

I read this on google news and immediately thought to come here, as I expected you'd be forcing pro-intervention crowd to eat some crow. You came through.

I wonder what the guy you did the radio show (the "you're part of a culture of death" guy) has to say right now.

I expect some Iraq War-esque spin on this one. "We never claimed she wasn't in PVS, we just thought the parents should decide" or something of that ilk.

Matthew wrote:

I wonder what the guy you did the radio show (the "you're part of a culture of death" guy) has to say right now.

I think I can provide you with a verbatim transcript of what Klayman would say:
"Well of course that's what the autopsy showed, so what? This so-called 'expert' is part of the same system that killed her, you didn't really think he was going to admit that they made a mistake, did you? You're not going to get an admission like that out of the liberal culture of death."
And then he would have excused himself to go and sue his mother again.

I found it quite interesting that Ms. Schiavo was completely blind, given that so much of the "Save Terri" people's "case" relied on her alleged responses to visitors, following balloons with her eyes, etc.

Ed is right, of course, that none of the autopsy report's findings will make a bit of difference to the "Save Terri" side. Religious faith is impervious to facts.

By Michelangelo (not verified) on 16 Jun 2005 #permalink