Schiavo Findings Won't Be Rushed

The St. Petersburg Times ^ | May 9, 2005 | Leonora LaPeter

[tbritton]

Schiavo findings won't be rushed

Despite conflicting calls for thoroughness and quick results, Jon Thogmartin won't let appeals from the public force his hand.

LARGO - People around the world have talked about the life and death of Terri Schiavo, but Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin will get the last word.

For the past month, he has been working on her autopsy. She has taken over his office and consumed his working hours. He appeared for an interview in blue scrubs, looking every bit the wiry medical examiner with his bald head and tiny wire-rimmed glasses.

"That's her and that's her," he says, pointing to piles of documents and boxes of slides stacked all over his office.

..

Thogmartin, 41, knows Schiavo's autopsy will probably be the most publicized of his career. He won't talk about it until he is done and estimates it will be two or three more weeks.

He has received hundreds of letters and e-mails about the brain-damaged woman who died March 31, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed. Many ask him to look for signs she wasn't brain-dead or signs of abuse, among the allegations made during the protracted battle between her parents and her husband over whether to keep her alive.

"They are of no consequence to me," says Thogmartin of the letters.

The lively Texan, publicity shy and fiercely protective of his wife's and child's privacy, is known for doing everything by the book. He denied requests from Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, to allow their own pathologists to observe the autopsy.

"It is routine in cases of criminal importance to not allow any biased pathology advocates in the morgue," he said. "I'm the independent pathologist."

[cabbieguy]

Hot Damn, I was worried we might go a day without a Shiavo update.

[bjs1779]

And...that has to do with what? It some how justifies Mark Fuhrman making money off this tragedy? And if you think it is any thing more than that, you are naive.

If I may inject myself here, isn't it a fact that a Fuhrman book (I presume he made money on it) has also led to a murder conviction of a prominent family member in this country?

[dennisw]

You waste my time. Thanks anyway.

[unbalanced but fair]

Fuhrman came in very late to the Moxley case and used mostly other people's work. Dominic Dunne had done most of the leg work for years and published jointly with him. I don't see how Furhman should take much of the credit at all. I think it was his notoriety that encouraged Dunne to collaborate with him, and Dunne had been ill at that time.

[bjs1779]

I don't see how Furhman should take much of the credit at all. I think it was his notoriety that encouraged Dunne to collaborate with him, and Dunne had been ill at that time.

I don't know if Furhman takes credit for it. Certainly others do think he deserves it. From my perspective, I hope he found a collaborator in Terri's case also. Don't you?

[bjs1779]

Thanks. I'll try to figure how they arrived at the Karen Carpenter syndrome with no witnesses.

[unbalanced but fair]

It would be good to have everything in the open. I am just skeptical about the short time frame before publishing. Especially when you consider the amount of testimony and medical evidence etc. Still people will have to decide for themselves about all of this.

[bjs1779]

It would be good to have everything in the open. I am just skeptical about the short time frame before publishing. Especially when you consider the amount of testimony and medical evidence etc. Still people will have to decide for themselves about all of this.

Very true. Some dogs just have better sniffers than others, too. We'll see.

[Gimme]

These autopsy results should have been in weeks ago.


It was worthless, the autopsy. It's like the UN investigating themselves, ain't gonna find a thing except more of the same plus the ME refused to have any witnesses. It stinks.

[Gimme]

" how they're going to discount, diminish, and otherwise refute the autopsy."

What a load of crap!! 1. An autopsy cannot prove a PVS
2. The ME wanted no witnesses to the autopsy 3. The evidence (of spousal abuse) is in ashes. 4. Its Florida State law, NOT the "good will" of MS, that an autopsy be performed. 5. It was murder!! You guys can talk this thing to death and make yourselves feel really great with the "feel good autopsy report". The fact is a heathy woman was murdered for no good reason except that her adulterous husband wanted her dead, why did he want her dead? For the Money!! Why did he want her cremeated against her own religion, EVIDENCE. All nice an tidy like. Disgusting. What a horrible man he is.

[blueriver]

He's there every day.

Till of course the money came in - then he put a DNR on her chart and stopped all treatment. You need to look a little closer at the time line of when Michael did the things he did and when he STOPPED.

[blueriver]

Intellectual honesty flew out this window a long, long, long time ago.

So you claim to be on the high ground of intellectual honesty? If so answer a simple question. Why did George Greer - the person who was supposed to be looking out for Terri all these years - why did he keep Terri bound to a man that was sleeping with another woman and having kids with another woman? Surely no woman in America would want to stay married to such a man yet this judge forced Terri to do so. So be honest.

[Melas]

You're being absolutely hysterical.

[MHGinTN]

" 5. It was murder!!" Please, stop using that term since it is a speculative term. Terri was executed on orders from a probate court judge; to define it as murder will require a judicial ruling by a judge or a jury. Continuing to use 'murdered' only adds to the 'let's move on now that this one has been put down and you right-to-lifers have been stimmied' crowd smarmy face slappings; you give them a tangential distraction by which they joyously divert the threads.

[Gimme]

"You're being absolutely hysterical."

Actually I am appalled and outraged that this has happened in the USA, no court stepped in to do the right thing. They passed it around like a hot potato. Back and forth and it was beyond cruel.No one reheard the testimony, gave it a fair review. Geez we have criminals in jails that have better treatment then Terri received.
That folks knowingly murdered this poor woman and find every reason to justify it when there is no justification for this brutality, none whatsoever!!
Why arent more people just as outraged? Is life not life, if it is not "normal"? Do we just stomp on it, and kill it, if it's injured? I assume folks are raised to respect LIFE. There was no need to murder Terri like that except the need for her husband to have a fat check in his hand. How can a judge go against the parents who raised her far more years then she was married to that creature? It makes no sense whatsoever and it's pure evil. She was well, she smiled at her mother, she opened her eyes when asked to do so. She needed to be with the family who loved her NOT the family that wanted the bucks and her dead for years!!

[TAdams8591]

" People around the world have talked about the life and death of Terri Schiavo, but Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin will get the last word."

How is the above any different from anyone else in authority in Pinellas County?????

The report is probably already written, and will only confirm Judge Greer's findings.

[russesjunjee]

Juries can be manipulated easily. Especially in medical cases where they are not familiar with medical lingo.

Did Terri have a documented history of an eating disorder in her medical records? Does anyone have photos of Terri running her finger down her throat after lunch?

I'm sorry, but body chemicals can become unbalanced for more than one reason. My aunt almost died from a potassium imbalance and she certainly doesn't have an eating disorder.

It will take something much more than the word of Felos or Michael to convince me that Terri had an eating disorder.

I am going to read the article about the case that is listed in a post right before this one. Maybe it has some more answers.

Regardless of what caused Terri's health to suddenly deteriorate, it is still wrong to starve people to death.

Terri's death was simply a murder that no one will ever have to go to jail for because our society weighed the value of the murdered in the scales before pronouncing judgment on the murderer. Society deemed that Terri was disposable, and Michael got off scott free…end of story.

What a wonderful precedent the state of Florida has established...Bring us your tired, your disabled, your inconvenient, and we will kill them for you post haste.

If I was an elderly retiree living in the state of Florida I would be getting the heck out of there right now.

[blueriver]

Please, stop using that term since it is a speculative term. Terri was executed on orders from a probate court judge; to define it as murder will require a judicial ruling by a judge or a jury.

Well we all know this will never happen, so according to you it can not be called murder because it will never be tried as such. What a load of crap. People murder people every day - never get caught and so according to you they did not commit murder. You are kidding - aren't you?

[TAdams8591]

The "facts" are as follows: NO ONE proved her eating disorder "caused" her collapse. NO ONE even proved Terri HAD and eating disorder. The "cause" for Terri Schindler's collapse is and has been in dispute.

Those are the "facts."

[russesjunjee]

Thanks for the link. I will check it out.