Questions raised about Terri's collapse

WorldNetDaily.com | October 26, 2003 | WND

[joesnuffy]

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH Questions raised about Terri's collapse Celebrated forensic pathologist says 1990 injuries should be investigated

Posted: October 26, 2003 5:45 p.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A world-renowned forensic pathologist with over 40 years experience as a medical examiner, is challenging the official version of early events in the Terri-Schindler Schiavo case, providing the parents of the brain-disabled woman with powerful ammunition in their battle to save their daughter's life from her court-ordered starvation death.

Interviewed on the Fox News Channel, Michael Baden, co-director of the Investigative Unit of New York State Police in Albany and former chief medical examiner for New York City, ruled out potassium imbalance and a heart attack as factors in Terri's mysterious collapse 13 years ago – which left her severely incapacitated and unable to speak – and pointed to head trauma and bone injuries as a more likely cause.

Baden explained to host Greta van Susteren it was unlikely for a woman of Terri's age at the time to have a potassium imbalance, unless she had certain types of diseases, which she didn't have.

"Too little potassium can cause the heart to stop beating properly and lead to lack of blood flow to the brain and death of brain cells by lack of oxygen, but that's very unusual, Greta, extremely unusual," he said.

That Terri's heart was healthy would rule out the likelihood of cardiac arrest, he said.

"The reason she's in the state she's in is because there was a period of time, maybe 5 minutes or 8 minutes, when not enough oxygen was going to her brain," said Baden. "That can happen because the heart stops for 5 or 8 minutes, but she had a healthy heart, from what we can see."

Baden said he studied a bone scan made in March 1991at a hospital, that describes her as having a head injury. "That's why she's there, that's why she's getting a bone scan."

"A head injury can cause, can lead to the vegetative state that Ms. Schiavo is in now," he continued, adding it showed evidence of other injuries, bone fractures.

Something totally different

Van Susteren asked if he were suggesting a potassium imbalance caused a fall that led to a head injury, or perhaps some "pre-existing head injury [led] to her passing out."

"Something totally different," Baden answered.

Baden said the injuries suggested some kind of trauma. "The trauma can be from an auto accident, the trauma can be from some kind of beating that she obtained from somebody somewhere. It's something that should have been investigated in 1991 when those findings were fresh," and added, "Maybe they were. Maybe they were investigated by the police at that time."

The Fox News interview with Michael Baden and information on Terri's fight for life is posted on the family's website.

Previous articles:

Media 'getting it wrong' on Terri Schiavo story

Doctors: Terri case not 'death with dignity' issue

Constitutional showdown brewing over Terri's Law

Terri snatched from hospital

Terri lives!

Florida legislators move to rescue Terri

Will 'Terri's Bill' save her life now?

Terri Schiavo denied Last Rites

Gov. Bush 'fails' Terri

Abuse report filed for Terri

Desperate parents petition High Court

Lawyers: Bush can step in for Terri

Starvation begins for Terri Schiavo

Husband protests video showing alert Terri

Terri Schiavo wants to live

No intervention for Schiavo

Joni Eareckson Tada joins vigil for Terri Schiavo

Federal judge says Terri Schiavo must die

Hearing today on woman scheduled to starve

Prayer vigil for Terri Schiavo

Bush steps in for Schindler-Schiavo

Florida AG intervenes in Schiavo lawsuit

Order signed for starvation of disabled woman

Disabled woman wins reprieve

Another 9-11 date with death

Federal judge considers Schiavo case

Federal Court grants emergency hearing in Schiavo case

Attorney: Jeb Bush letter only a 'good first step'

Gov. Bush's plea for Schindler-Schiavo rejected

Jeb Bush intervenes for Schindler-Schiavo

Legal setbacks clear way for Schiavo starvation

Schindler-Schiavo on 'death row'

Husband bars priest from brain-damaged wife

Brain-damaged woman hospitalized

Fight for life bombshell: Terri trying to talk

Petition drive launched for Terri Schiavo

[Batrachian]

"a medical examiner, is challenging the official version of early events in the Terri-Schindler Schiavo case, providing the parents of the brain-disabled woman with powerful ammunition in their battle to save their daughter's life from her court-ordered starvation death."

I don't understand. Didn't they pass a law and now she can't be put to death? What battle is there now?

[Gringo1]

Is that the same guy who was accused of doing autopsies at his house on his dining room table?


Just wondering.

[concerned about politics]

I don't understand. Didn't they pass a law and now she can't be put to death?

It's on hold. Her husband and pro-death groups are still fighting to starve her to death.

[ecru]

okay. so if she had a potassium imbalance she would have had to aquire it from serious loss, from diuretics or laxatives. and i mean LOTS of em! Does a prescription even exist from a doctor that she had some?

We will never know because her husband has requested that her medical records be sealed.

If she had a heart attack from this 'imbalance' then her heart SHOULD DEFINATELY have damage that can be seen during an electrocardiogram, or an echocardiogram...can we check this out?

We can't because her husband will not allow it.

Does she have any scarring, bone trauma caused by an attempted choking/strangulation? Can any of these suspicious questions be answered through an autopsy if she is successfully murdered by starvation.

WE WILL NEVER KNOW... because Michael Schaivo will NOT allow an autopsy!

hmmm...maybe he is trying to hide something?

[concerned about politics]

Interviewed on the Fox News Channel, Michael Baden, co-director of the Investigative Unit of New York State Police in Albany and former chief medical examiner for New York City, ruled out potassium imbalance and a heart attack as factors in Terri's mysterious collapse 13 years ago – which left her severely incapacitated and unable to speak – and pointed to head trauma and bone injuries as a more likely cause.

Good. I think she needs a guardian replacement. In my opinion, there's too many reasons for her husband wanting her dead.
I'd like to see a complete, unbiased investigation into the Terri issue. What happened to her? Would her husband have more to gain by her death other than his freedom, and - as he claims- to fill her wish?

[11B3]

I don't know why everyone is beating around the bush here. Her husband tried to kill her back in 1991 and is still trying to cover it up by finishing the job through the courts. He gets insurance money, and at the same time covers up his attempted murder. I'm glad to see that someone is finally investigating the circumstances behind her condition.

[_Jim]

Google searches reveal this, contended by his wife:

"DATE: 1997 In January, the wife of Dr. Michael Baden ... filed papers in her divorce action against him in New York City. According to his wife's papers, Baden once performed a pair of autopsies on the couple's dining room table"

[Senator Pardek]

Baden once performed a pair of autopsies on the couple's dining room table"

How many times can a dining room table die?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Michael Baden, MD, a familiar face on cable news networks, has conducted more than 20,000 autopsies in his career spanning more than four decades. Baden frequently serves as investigator and expert witness in high-profile forensic cases. Past cases have included the murders of Chandra Levy, JonBenet Ramsey, Nicole Brown Simpson and Sunny von Bulow. Baden has served on the Congressional Select Committee on Assassinations, which conducted a reopened investigation of the John F. Kennedy killing. He was New York City medical examiner from 1960 to 1985 and currently serves as co-director of the Medicolegal Investigative Unit of the New York State Police. Baden is also the author of "Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner" (1989) and "Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers" (2001), and host of the HBO series "Autopsy."

[ecru]

Doesn't mean he isn't a good ME.

Gives "bringing your work home with you" new meaning doesn't it? LoL.

[concerned about politics]

According to his wife's papers

Divorce cases can get pretty mean. Because she said it doesn't mean it's true. Was she sueing for big money?

[ecru]

LoL! I never thought of that!

Very witty =)

[RLK]

I don't know why everyone is beating around the bush here. Her husband tried to kill her back in 1991 and is still trying to cover it up by finishing the job through the courts.

--------------------

I'm not beating around the bush. That's what I suspect happened.

[_Jim]

Doesn't mean he isn't a good ME.

DIDN'T say he wasn't ... ALL the references on Google seem to have the same origin, too ("News of the Weird") ...

[_Jim]

Divorce cases can get pretty mean.

That's what I'm thinking ...

[Senator Pardek]

That's why they keep me here...

[_Jim]

How many times can a dining room table die?

Until ... it hasn't got a leg to stand on?

(Question asked - question answered.)

[ecru]

i was just ribbing ya =)

i would think that cutting people up for 40 years would certainly make you an odd person. or at least give you one heck of an odd sense of humor.

[Senator Pardek]

I suppose he went for a different saw in this case.