quote:

Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 I'm kinda wondering, wouldn't it just have been better if they euthanized her right away and got it all over with in a matter of minutes? I mean, she was going to die anyway...

That obviously would have been a better way, but unfortunately euthanasia is illegal in the US. You have the right to refuse medical treatment (the whole case was based on the premise that Schiavo told her husband that she wouldn't want to live as she was) but not the right to assist someone to die.

It's stupid, but that's the law unfortunately.

___________________
http://eschatonnow.blogspot.com/

quote:

Schiavo Autopsy Finds No Sign of Trauma By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago 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 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 Schiavo's death March 31 ended an internationally watched right-to-die battle between her husband and parents that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House and divided the country. Thogmartin 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. She died from dehydration, Thogmartin 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. He also said she was blind, because the "vision centers of her brain were dead." Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had fought their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, in court for seven years over her fate. Thogmartin said that Schiavo's brain was about half of its expected size when she died 13 days after her feeding tube was removed. "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." He said a review of hospital records of her 1990 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. The cause of her collapse has never been definitely proven, but testimony in a 1992 civil trial indicated that she probably was suffering from an eating disorder that led to a severe chemical imbalance. The Schindlers, though, don't believe she had an eating disorder and have accused Michael Schiavo of abusing his wife, a charge he vehemently denied. Speaking before the report was issued, Michael Schiavo's attorney, George 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." Bill Pellan, chief investigator for the medical examiner's office, said Tuesday that Thogmartin reviewed police reports, medical records and other documents in trying to determine the cause of her brain damage. During the long legal battle, numerous abuse complaints made to state social workers were ruled unfounded. Michael Schiavo convinced the courts his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially with no hope of recovery, contending that she made statements to that effect before her collapse. Her parents doubt she had any such end-of-life wishes and also disputed that she was in a persistent vegetative state. They believed she could get better with therapy. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050615...zkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

You believe these activist doctors??? Take your lies elsewhere, I saw the video, she drooled in recognition when she saw her mother!!!!

___________________
Retro ...

Ahem....hey Occrider:

quote:

...Jon R. Thogmartin, M.D., District Medical Examiner for District 6, Pinellas and Pasco Counties, since December 2000. Dr. Thogmartin was born in Wellington, Texas, and received his doctorate in medicine in 1990 from University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and his bachelor of science in biology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1986, magna cum laude. Dr. Thogmartin was Associate Medical Examiner in Broward County and Dade County before becoming District 15 Medical Examiner in Palm Beach County in April 1999, a position he left in November 1999 to accept the position in Pinellas and Pasco. Licensed in both Florida and Texas, Mr. Thogmartin is also certified in Anatomic, Clinical and Forensic Pathology by the American Board of Pathology. Jon Thogmartin has been honored by the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society (1989), Phi Beta Kappa (1986), and Robert Stewart Hyer Society (1985). He also received the Silver Medal of Valor from the Metro-Dade Police Department in November 1996. Jon Thogmartin has been accepted as an expert in the field of Forensic Pathology in U.S. Federal Court and in the Circuit Courts of Dade, Broward, Palm Beach County and the State of Michigan. His major fields of interest are wound ballistics, firearms, infant deaths, child abuse, asphyxia, and forensic toxicology. Thogmartin has also done his share of teaching. In Texas, beginning in 1984, he was a teaching assistant at Southern Methodist in the Department of Chemistry, and at the University of Health Science Center at San Antonio in the Departments of Cellular and Structural Biology and Pathology. More recently, in Miami, at the Dade County Medical Examiner Office and IACP Seminar, he taught a course on Strangulation and Other Compressions. Jon Thogmartin has been published in the Journal of Forensic Science, American Journal for Medical Pathology, and Journal of Pediatrics, in addition to the Palm Beach Post and Medical Examiner Annual Report. ...

Taken from URL: http://www.clwbar.org/resipsa/june-july01/article396.html

What's interesting is that the previous M.E. was Dr. Joan Wood who was involved with the Lisa McPherson case.

___________________

quote:

Originally posted by ogvh5150 Ahem....hey Occrider: quote: his doctorate in medicine in 1990 from University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and his bachelor of science in biology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1986, magna cum laude.

University!!?? I knew he was a byproduct of liberal, activist cultivation farms. I'd probably want to kill cripples too if I went to one of those thingies.

___________________
Retro ...

Like I said, I found it odd about him and Dr. Wood. I also find it odd that the findings are months after this woman was cremated. Sure he did the autopsy before it, I just find it a tad strange.

Were there any independent autopsies outside of Fla.?

___________________

quote:

Schiavo's parents not swayed by autopsy results LARGO, Florida (AP) -- An autopsy that found Terri Schiavo suffered from severe and irreversible brain-damage has done nothing to sway her parents' position that she deserved to live and may have gotten better with therapy. The long-awaited report Wednesday found Schiavo's brain had shrunk to about half the normal size for a woman her age when she died March 31 after her feeding tube was disconnected. (Full story) The autopsy also determined she was blind. Bob and Mary Schindler disputed the results, insisting their daughter interacted with them and tried to speak. Their attorney said the family plans to discuss the autopsy with other medical experts and may take some unspecified legal action. "We knew all along that Terri was profoundly brain damaged," said Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler. "We simply wanted to bring her home and care for her. It all goes back to this quality of life." The findings vindicated Schiavo's husband in his long and vitriolic battle with his in-laws that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House and divided the country. Michael Schiavo and court-appointed doctors have said she had no hope of recovery. She died at age 41. The autopsy also found no evidence that Terri Schiavo was strangled or otherwise abused before her sudden 1990 collapse -- countering allegations by the Schindlers that she was abused by her husband. Yet medical examiners could not say for certain what caused the collapse, long thought to have been brought on by an eating disorder. George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, said the findings back up their contentions made "for years and years" that Terri Schiavo had no hope of recovery. He said Michael Schiavo plans to release autopsy photographs of her shrunken brain. "Mr. Schiavo has received so much criticism throughout this case that I'm certain there's a part of him that was pleased to hear these results and the hard science behind them," Felos said. The Schindlers fought their son-in-law in court over their daughter's fate for nearly seven years, battling to the end with conservatives at their side. The autopsy counters a widely seen videotape the Schindlers released of Schiavo in her hospice bed. Schiavo appeared to turn toward her mother's voice and smile. She moaned and laughed. Her head moved up and down and she seemed to follow the progress of a brightly colored Mickey Mouse balloon. Her parents said that showed she was aware of her surroundings, but doctors said Schiavo's reactions were automatic responses and not evidence of thought or consciousness. "There's nothing in her autopsy report that is inconsistent with a persistent vegetative state," said Dr. Stephen J. Nelson, a medical examiner who assisted in the neurological portion of the autopsy. Cause of death was dehydration from removal of the feeding tube, but the underlying reason for her brain damage was officially listed as "undetermined." The autopsy included 274 external and internal body images and an exhaustive review of Schiavo's medical records, police reports and social services agency records. Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin said the autopsy produced no conclusion on what triggered the temporary heart stoppage that caused her collapse and brain damage. He said there was no evidence of drug use, though he cautioned that Schiavo was not tested in 1990 for every conceivable substance that could have been in her blood. He said there was no proof she suffered from an eating disorder such as bulimia, which can disrupt the body chemistry with lethal effect. The main piece of evidence cited for an eating disorder -- the low levels of potassium in her blood in 1990 -- could have been caused by the emergency treatment she received at the time, Thogmartin said. While she had lost more than 100 pounds since high school, Schiavo never confessed to an eating disorder, she did not take diet pills and no one had witnessed her purging food, the medical examiner said. He discounted the possibility that she had overdosed on caffeine from drinking large amounts of tea in an effort to keep her weight down. In addition, the autopsy found no traces of morphine in her system at her death, although she had been given two doses in the days before she died. The Schindlers had contended that morphine might have been used to speed their daughter's death. In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the autopsy did nothing to change President Bush's position that Schiavo's feeding tube should not have been disconnected. He had signed a bill, rushed through by Congress in March, that was a last-ditch effort to restore her feeding tube. Experts said that the autopsy demonstrates how difficult it is for people to recover from severe brain damage. "People should understand that sometimes, for known or unknown reasons, individuals sustain massive brain injury that for which healing is not possible," said Dr. Karen Weidenheim, the chief of neuropathology at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. "Everything that could have been done was done for this lady for 15 years, and this case is very tragic." Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/06/1...y.ap/index.html