I remember once that Mr. Schindler said that it was almost like Terri had acquired cerebral palsy. I think he said that around the time of the Oct. 2003 event. I thought it was an interesting comment at the time, and I had not seen the similarities until then.
The terminology used in Terri's autopsy report is anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. It is very similar to, but more severe than, the hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy discussed in syriacus's post. Hypoxia = serious loss of oxygen. Anoxia = total loss of oxygen. Worse!
Just for the record, since Terri did not have a heart attack, we cannot attribute this oxygen deprivation in her brain to her "cardiac arrest." It is the other way around. It was the loss of oxygen to her brain that caused her to go into cardiac arrest.
Also for the record -- cc: Columbo -- Terri's blood tests showed lactic acidosis. This is a condition brought on by violent exertion in the absence of oxygen. The obvious explanation is that she was fighting desperately for life and breath while being asphyxiated -- probably by some sort of choke hold that cut the arterial blood flow in her carotids. That would be consistent with the brain damage. Nobody can say for sure that this is what happened, but I don't know of any hypothesis that fits the facts nearly as well as this one does.
Rangel accuses Dr. Bradley and myself of confusing the issue, medically speaking, by comparing Terri Schiavo to cerebral palsy. In fact, the Schiavo case isn’t all that different from a severe case of cerebral palsy, which is also believed to be caused by oxygen deprivation or some other insult to the brain. And there are cases of severe cerebral palsy in which the patient is completely and totally disabled - as disabled as Terri Schiavo.