On the matter of dehydration explaining her brain size: get a grip. There was 5 times as much cerebrospinal fluid in her skull as should have been there. Conceivably, dehydration could have explained a small amount of the change in brain mass. Let's go way over the top and say 10%. Her brain was still about half the size it should have been.
Large parts of her brain, most of it, were, flatly, gone.
Under no circumstances, ever, was she going to recover.
Now, whether she should have been remanded into the custody of her parents, since they wanted to keep her alive anyway, is another matter entirely. An injustice, in the absence of a clear living will, might well have been done there.
Anyway, it's great that the woman in this story wasn't damaged like that, so she could recover.
I'm not debating whether or not she would recover. I really don't know. All I'm saying is that there is a big difference between being "brain dead" and being in a PVS. If someone were to conduct a poll and ask people if they would, morally, support pulling the plug on a "brain dead" person, I would answer "yes". Unfortunately, reporters would incorrectly extrapolate from that that I support starving/dehydrating to death someone like Schiavo. From a moral standpoint, as I understand it, the Catholic Church does not oppose removing artificial life support from someone who is "brain dead." The problem I have with the news coverage of the Schiavo case is they kept reporting it as she were "brain dead", when she wasn't. Thus, public opinion on the issue was skewed. I don't know if she would recover or not. All I know is that she was alive in the same sense that a baby is. She had to bed fed, washed and changed, just like a baby. But she could also breathe, move a little and have a heartbeat like a baby. It is a crime that she wasn't given at least the opportunity to develop.
"An injustice, in the absence of a clear living will, might well have been done there."
Hers was just such a case; I would rather use the word inhumane than injustice, though.
Last night on an episode of HOUSE doctors removed the entire right hemisphere (HALF) of a man's brain because they believed by so doing his overall brain function would vastly improve. He was neither in a coma or vegetative state before or after the surgery. And the entire program is based on real medicine.
Terri who was not brain dead, or in a comatose or vegetative state, was brain damaged. After Michael left her languishing for over ten years with no therapy what so ever, some recovery for Terri was less promising, but not hopeless. And as cases like the one in this article prove, doctors are frequently wrong.