Posted on 05/09/2005 5:30:34 AM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...
Won't matter, don't look for any smoking guns. Everybody will dispute any findings and nothing will be conclusive.
People seem to believe autopsies are convenient, efficient, and done in an hour (thanks to CSI). Hell, a DNA test is a 15 second test, isn't it?
they won't rush the findings because they need time to write them so as to please everyone.
Two or three more weeks.
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More time for the conspiracy wonks...
Autopsies don't take this long. I wonder why the delay, and this clown isn't going to tell. Oh, he's a "fiercely independent" Texan. LOL
Skip the cheap drama and release the autopsy tomorrow, which I'm sure will clear the death cultists anyway.
Let me be the first to conclude that the losing entity will say the fix was in.
Should be enough time to get out a quicky book and make appearances on the talking heads shows and conservative christian radio..
How can an autopsy conceivably take more than 7 days to perform and write up? This is a puff piece done by a human interest story reporterette.
You hit the bullseye.
exactly...
You and I are reading from the same page. This is what I expect as well. Thanks for your post.
As someone else here on FR put it: "they need to get the 'th' exactly right".
ping
"How can an autopsy conceivably take more than 7 days to perform and write up?"
The purpose of an autopsy is to determine cause of death.
Examining her brain how would you determine what part of it died 15 years ago? What part of it died in the intervening 15 years? What part of it died this year?
"It is routine in cases of "criminal" importance to not allow any biased pathology advocates in the morgue,"
This seems telling to me.
What does it matter what the autopsy shows? Terri is dead, and Michael can just say "well, the court appointed doctor. . ."
The whole world knows the cause of death: Lack of hydration.
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