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."

[unbalanced but fair]

Rumor mongering by the media does not equal medical fact.

But Rumor mongering by you does? Who the heck are you and why should I believe you, any more than I believe the media?

[EternalVigilance]

Teach her to eat? How can you teach someone to eat with NO motor skills, NO function of their arms or any other portion of her body, mainly the BRAIN. How can you teach someone to eat when their brain can't even teach them how to hold a freaking spoon or voluntarily swallow for that matter. You will have to do better than that for me to buy that explanation.

A) She could swallow. Swallowed her own saliva just like you do.

B) Her nurses regularly smuggled her jello cubes and fed them to her in defiance of Michael Schiavo's unconscionable ban on doing so.

You're pretty loose with the facts for someone who claims to like the facts so much, newbie.

How can you teach someone to eat when their brain can't even teach them how to hold a freaking spoon...

Sounds like you agree with George Felos, who claimed in court that "the litmus test is whether someone can bring a spoon to their mouth".

[unbalanced but fair]

get out a quicky book and make appearances on the talking heads shows...

Mark Furhman is way ahead of you. LOL!

[AppyPappy]

It's not name-calling. We really are ignorant. Terri's husband made sure that no one ever documented her condition so that the public could make a rational decision.

The fact is that he refused to divorce her even though he was living with another woman and had children with her. He refused to allow cameras, he limited visits by others and he put limits on her parents. He made sure we were ignorant so that people could draw conclusion based on their own feelings rather than evidence.

That's is how our wonderful responsible media could claim she was "a vegetable on life support" and the public would swallow it. That's how people could confuse this case with a "terminal" case and argue from that perspective. That's how people could argue that her "husband" was the best person to make decisions for his "wife".

[Freedom Dignity n Honor]

Electrolyte imbalances can also be caused by ingestion of too much fluid.

Terri was reportedly drinking about 15 glasses of tea a day.

[EternalVigilance]

Terri was reportedly drinking about 15 glasses of tea a day.

Definitely a capital offense.

/grim sarcasm

[Freedom Dignity n Honor]

I think that there are alot of people who drink alot of fluids like that but they aren't dead.

I think that could explain the electrolyte imbalance that Terri had, though, I don't think that's what caused her incident.

Terri couldn't have been drinking fluids too much out of line, though, she apparently wasn't bloated but maybe enough to skewer the electrolyte tests.

HAHA! We'd have to get rid of sooooo many who drink too much fluid, Eternal. Umm wait, don't give the death cultists any more ideas. ;)

[russesjunjee]

If there were no other mitigating circumstances I might be able to buy the electrolyte imbalance theory, but there are too many unexplained and suspicious events swirling around Terri's case for me to be able accept that theory.

Just the fact that Terri's original police report has mysteriously "degraded" away is enough to set my "spidey" senses tingling.

There should have been a grand jury investigating of Terri's case years ago. The fact that there has been open opposition to any kind of investigating or information sharing in Terri's case should have been enough to set every American's "spidey" senses to tingling regardless of what side of the issue they were on.

Usually when there is mass suspicious surrounding an individual those suspicions are found to be grounded at least 50% of the time. Terri should have gotten the same benefit of the doubt that any other citizen would have gotten under similarly suspicious circumstances. She had the right to a thorough and fair investigation of the events surrounding her story.

Because Terri's investigation was blocked at every turn America now has to live with the realization that there is at least a 50% chance that it murdered an innocent woman at the behest of the death lobby.

Too much bloody water has passed beneath the bridge where Terri is concerned. These autopsy results will never be enough to clear the air.

[dennisw]

April 2. Why the delay? Can you read English?

[russesjunjee]

It is my understanding that that the malpractice lawsuit that claimed Terri had an eating disorder was never litigated.

The doctor's insurance company settled out of court based on the fact that it would be cheaper to settle than to litigate even if the doctor was Innocent. So, there was never any presentation of such evidence.

Someone please correct me if that case was actually litigated.

[russesjunjee]

Very interesting point of view.

I've never had it presented to me quite like that.

Your point is very valid indeed, but remember there are legal guidelines for removing advocacy powers from a spouse who has conflicting interests or any reason to be hostile toward his/her spouse.

Regardless of how we may feel about Michael's adultery on a moral level, it is illegal in the state of Florida, and it definitely made him have conflicting interests with Terri.

That issue was ignored by our award winning judge Greer, and it never should have been.

[russesjunjee]

Ive never seen that documented anywhere. Could you possibly point me to a link?

[russesjunjee]

Look into for yourself. There is plenty of documentation out there about how the rumor was traced back to an individual reporter. There reporter's name is even available if you are interested.

[unbalanced but fair]

So you're saying a malpractice suit, no matter the outcome, was filed based on a rumor?

[lugsoul]

It was tried. And the ER diagnosis when she was brought in included severe hypokalemia.

[joesbucks]

While it is illegal is not normally prosecuted. It can be grounds for divorce, but the harmed spouse must petition the divorce. Terri was in a quandry here. I know there are scriptural reasons for divorce. They are relatively few. There are many other reasons states recognize such as abuse and other reasons. Many, but not all devout Catholics won't even persue or recognize the scriptural divorces. If you'll notice, Terri's family to the best of my knowledge never advocated a divorce on her behalf, but put the onus of divorce on Michael to initiate it. The burden and guilt of the divorce would then be Michaels alone.

There's something else here too. One of the Schindler's reasons for maintaining her life was something to do with her soul not going to heaven. It was discussed and quickly shushed so I never heard thier reason for this belief. I've often wondered if they believed that if she had a hand in her medical condidtion (the reports of various dieting schemes) that she could not then have the chance to repent and redeem herself if she was removed from the tube and allowed to die.

I know this is a strecth and pure speculation on my part. It is not intended to be insight or knowledge or provocation. Just for debate and discussion.

[russesjunjee]

It happens all the time.

That's why the courts are crowded with gold diggers. You can accuse any one of anything and and force them to prove their innocence even if the accusation is unfounded.

All you have to do is bring is your pet expert witness to back your side of the story and Wa-La! Your Rich.

[blueriver]

The moral of this story is many. But two are, if you have a hand in your situation, then you bear some accountability for it. And beware who you are getting in bed with with regard to marriage.

The other moral to this story is that if you happen to end up like Terri and live in Pinnellas county don't expect that Judge George Greer will do the right thing for you and give you a divorce from a cheating adulterous spouse who wants you dead.

[blueriver]

Terri was in a quandry here.

Terri was not in a quandary. Here is what I don't get about this argument. Supposedly the court was there to ensure that Terri's wishes were carried out, it was also the courts job (the judge's job) to ensure that Terri was properly taken care of. So why is it this court went out of it's way to satisfy Terri's "wish" for death and yet it totally denied her one of the most obvious wishes she would of had? And that would have been a wish for a divorce. I think it would be clear as day that Terri never would have wanted to remain married to a man that was not only sleeping with another woman but having kids with her. So for this court to keep Terri bound to a man that was doing what Michael was doing to her goes to the very heart of just how corrupt this court and this judges was.

[joesbucks]

But you've got to beware of the killer spouse first and foremost, then you have no worry about Greer.