Terry Schiavo Report of Autopsy, Full Text as Released by Medical Examiner

Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office via St. Petersburg Times ^ | June 13, 2005 | Jon R. Thogmartin, MD

[FairOpinion]

Cause of Death: Complications of Anoxic Encephalopathy.

Manner of Death: Undetermined

The persistent vegetative state and minimally conscious state, are clinical diagnoses, not pathologic ones.

(these are all statements from the report)

[Smartaleck]

"I find the listing of the cause of death totally unacceptable."

"Pg 28 7. By what mechanism did Theresa Schiavo die?
Postmortum findings...show that she died of marked dehydration."

You have a problem with that finding?

[Smartaleck]

"Thanks. Does the brain shrink during 2 weeks of dehydration?"

Very little. Loosely worded, the body has a remarkable ability to try to preserve the brain. During periods of dehydration the body will direct fluids to the brain as a priority. Lots of med info on the web about this phenom.

[Smartaleck]

"I thought that the main dispute was did she deserve to live or die."

You may recall that MS indicated she was in a PVS, hence no reason to continue treatment etc.. Several doctors were called in with mixed opinions. The parents said she wasn't PVS and offered that she could see, follow a balloon, swallow etc.

The autopsy report supports MS and directly indicates the parents were wrong in their contention that she could see, swallow etc.

[Smartaleck]

"Don't lie about the autopsy, read it from end to end. I did, and I saw the truth."

Probably not lies so much as not having read the autopsy or not understanding the findings, hence, idle speculation trying to change reality?

[jazzlite]

"You people are not to be believed. Flame me after this but you really should start getting your minds opened up to the truth. The truth is this: The autopsy shows Terri was brain dead, Read page 35, it sums it up nicely. She was also Cortically blind, as in she could not see.
She also couldn't swallow. All the hype about nurses feeding her, about her responding to stimuli and following balloons with her eyes, were just that: HYPE.

The truth is most of you don't care what was wrong with her, you think it was wrong to pull her feeding tube even if that was what she wanted. If she had left a written will with those wishes you would still call it murder. This is your opinion and you are entitled to it and to state here on this forum and others, but state it truthfully please. Don't lie about the autopsy. It shows what Mike had said all along, Terri was in PVS plus she was blind. She was not aware of her surroundings, she did not say I WAAAAAA as her parents lawyer tried to claim. She had been dead for all intents and purposes for 15 years and she deserved to finally be put to rest.

Don't lie about the autopsy, read it from end to end. I did, and I saw the truth.
I know some of you will blast me here and call me a "member of the cult of death". I am profile, I hate and abhor abortions, but I also hate to see people suffer needlessly. If you really cared for Terri, you would be glad she has moved on, however you don't care for Terri, you care about being right and about keeping anyone alive no matter how awful their condition. Flame away.
22 posted on 06/15/2005 11:36:30 PM PDT by calex59"

Folks like myself do wonder why it is so important to you to believe the propaganda put out by those who want to see euthanasia become commonplace in our nation, like it was under Hitler in Germany. Also, why is it such a thrill for folks like you to think that a helpless human was murdered by the state because she was helpless? Do you think for a moment that the powermongerers among us want only the power of human beings exercised?..No! They want to exercise the power of God for they envy him most. When the power over life and death is exercised, then the most brutal tyranny can take over. It happens everywhere in underdeveloped nations and the "in your face" death forced upon Terry Schiavo was a giant step toward institutionalized euthanasia in this nation..In addition, the old argument that it is the same as when tubes and artificial machines are removed from those suffering from cancer who are never without excruciating pain is like comparing apples and oranges. As a member of the medical community, I also will tell you that the same dirty politics exists there as we see existing everywhere else..I was very angered when I heard about the results of the autopsy, but I expected it for I believe all the "bedfellows" in this situation had their "ducks all in a row" for this one..No one was going to accept the responsibility for murdering her, just like the most hardened criminal on death row most usually will not accept the guilt for his/her crime.For all who still grieve over this travesty in our nation, just remember..God is just and life is short at best.

[Natural Law]

What is important here is how large Terri's brain was with respect to its original size. Not all brains or heads start out the same size.

[Jimmy Valentine]

The Leftists have their victory. It is now legal to do away with those that are "inconvenient" as opposed to "terminal".

There will be a harvest to be reckoned with come a day when we "Baby Boomers" become "inconvenient" to our children.

Think of Chelsea pulling the plug on Hillary so that she can get her hands on the money. My, won't Hillary be surprised that her pup turned on her.

[tutstar]

I want to make sure you got pinged to this.

[blueriver]

I'd like to hear a MD weigh in on this question, I've seen it speculated about enough today to get my curiousity up...

I would like to hear how it is possible to diagnose someone as PVS without taking into consideration the fact that they are blind. Didn't all their analysis get derived from her ability or lack of ability to make eye contact? One has to wonder how qualified these Dr's were when they did not even diagnose that she was blind. Very disturbing.

[Smartaleck]

"Well, helloooo, this is after she was being dehydrated for two weeks. The brain is 80% water, so naturally during the extended process of dehydration, it would lose water and weight."

Mild dehydration... The autonomic nervous system causes the vessels in the brain to ***become dilated to keep more blood in the brain*** while vessels in the rest of our body become constricted to keep our blood pressure up. The pressure from the dilated vessels puts pressure on the
brain (because it's encased in the skull) and we get a headache.

Luckily, there are many compensatory mechanisms in place to protect the brain above all other body parts. Groups of cells in the aorta and in the hypothalamus work to sense the fluid volume and the osmolarity (how concentrated or dilute the blood is) and orchestrate hormonal signals to ***compensate for the loss of water.***

You can find this information in a basic physiology book ( one by Lauralee Sherwood) and many neuroscience texts in your library.
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/sep99/938556195.Ns.r.html

Dehydration...
When we become hypovolemic several things happen. First our heart speeds up. It pumps less volume per beat (stroke volume) but beats more often to compensate for this and maintain cardiac output (the number of liters of blood pumped per minute). Second the blood levels of catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine) go up. ***This causes blood vessels in the critical organs such as heart, brain, liver and kidneys to dilate*** and the vessels in the less critical areas (gut, muscles) to constrict. Changes in the output from our sympathetic nervous system reinforce this. ***The net effect is reduced blood flow to the muscles and gut and more to the brain etc.*** Thirdly, receptors that measure our blood pressure, our sodium level, etc. tell the brain to increase our volume, this kicks in our thirst mechanism. Fourthly, the atria of our heart, since they are smaller in diameter reduce their production of ANP, a peptide hormone that stimulates the kidneys to make urine. Thus the kidneys reduce their secretion of sodium and urine.
Robert S. Joseph, RPh, MD, FCCP
Board Certified Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine

In other words, the brain weight loss would be minimal. Please feel free to select a bulb.

[evad]

If you do a google on "Hypernatremic Dehydration shrinkage" you'll come up with a myriad of hits.

Clearly there is a relationship.

[evad]

One has to wonder how qualified these Dr's were when they did not even diagnose that she was blind

Interesting and disturbing indeed.

How would a blind person react to light stimuli?

[blueriver]

You may recall that MS indicated she was in a PVS, hence no reason to continue treatment etc.. Several doctors were called in with mixed opinions. The parents said she wasn't PVS and offered that she could see, follow a balloon, swallow etc.

One has to call into question the PVS diagnosis when it was based on her ability to follow a balloon when she was supposedly BLIND. Makes all these Doctors look like complete quacks.

[tutstar]

There was no sig on the admitting papers, no reevaluation every six months -and- they already owe the gov't over 14,000,000.00 in fraudulent medicaid claims. They should have been shut down long ago. Want to lower taxes? Surely recouping money paid out nationwide in fraudulent claims would help the gov't out a lot.

[tutstar]

How do you know she suffered if her brain had so much damage?

Why is it ok to dehydrate and starve a human? We don't do it to animals, we would never tolerate it as the method of execution for criminals but for some reason society has come to the conclusion that if you don't have a Paris Hilton body and a lucrative career then that person is suffering and must be released? Released from what?

Forced is a more accurate word.

[tutstar]

Thogmartin said in the hour long press conference there is no proof of bulemia and her heart was strong.

[Smartaleck]

"It is interesting isn't it ***how certain people use the size of Terri's brain (per these "autopsy results") to rationalize that it was right to dehydrate and starve her to death***"

Could you give an example of one these people's post?
Thanks

[Tribune7]

She also couldn't swallow.

So what harm would there have been to let the family provide her with water to sip? You still would have got the result you wanted.

[Smartaleck]

"Makes all these Doctors look like complete quacks."

You're talking about the parents doctors right?

Other Dr.s as well as the judge didn't buy the eye balloon edited to make it look like she could see video.

[lugsoul]

No. It was half the weight of a normal brain. Not the same thing.