THOGMARTIN: Her brain was profoundly atrophied. The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. This was due to diffused hypoxic ischemic damage. There was massive neuronal loss or damage. This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.
Of note, there was severe occipital (ph) lobe necrosis (ph). Her vision centers of her brain were dead. Therefore, Mrs. Schiavo had what's called cortical blindness. She was blind, could not see.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/15/lt.01.html
So, all that stuff about Terri 'watching' this, that or the other was hooie.
> Dr. Nelson was asked in a press session if his findings
> ruled out Terri being conscious to some degree and able
> to communicate with her family? "No," he said.
He also said all the findings were consistent with that diagnosis. In fact, he said, "The findings of Terri Schiavo are very consistent with persistent vegetative state.
I made the comparison in my report to Karen Ann Quinlan. Karen Ann Quinlan died 10 years after being in a persistent vegetative state. Her brain, Karen Ann Quinlan, weighed more than Terri Schiavo's brain weighed.
The typical things associated with persistent vegetative state are those normal functions of beating heart and breathing and no other types of cognitive function that occurs in the higher portions of the brain."
Now, let's not rehash the whole debate, eh?
Let's just be glad **this** woman wasn't so badly damaged, and was able to recover. That's great, truly great, for her and her family.
How does this statement by Dr. Thogmartin, any other statement by him, anything contained within the actual autopsy report, or any of the accompanying documents prove that Terri's brain was dead, as you claimed? How does it prove that Michael's doctors were lying on the stand when they testified that Terri was aware? How does it prove that at the time Michael's doctors examined Terri and determined that she was aware and could see, that she was brain dead and blind?
Postmortem findings, including the state of the body and laboratory testing, showed that she died of marked dehydration.
How does this prove that she was dead before she was dehydrated?
You've made some false claims, and continue to refuse to back them up. Now you're adding comparisons to Karen Quinlan, who remained on a feeding/hydration tube until the moment she died. Naturally her brain was not dehydrated like Terri's was. The fact that Terri's brain was dehydrated does not prove that she was brain dead prior to the dehydration. You'll have to come up with something better than that.
You just did rehash it, eh?
The interesting result from the autopsy is not that Terri was injured -- duh -- but that she didn't collapse due to bulimia. That changes the whole story. We have to look more closely this time.
Would you like to take our one question quiz? It is simply this. How did Terri go from being perfectly healthy and asleep in bed, to face down on a hallway floor, in cardiac arrest, unconscious, making gurgling noises, unresponsive, nearly dead, right after Michael got home late that Saturday night?
The answer must conform to all known medical facts including the traumatic injuries reported on Terri's bone scan and the lactic acidosis in her blood tests.
It's not an easy test. I've posed it dozens of times. Nobody has even come close yet.
No. Blindness, like PVS, is a clinical diagnosis that cannot be established with certainty postmortem. Terri's vision was observed clinically by Dr. Maxfield, by Dr. Hammesfahr and by Dr. Cranford, who actually complimented her tracking. That is on video for you to see and hear if you wish.
It was Dr. Thogmartin's findings that were conjectural. He may have been mistaken, or the discrepancy between his view and the doctors who actually observed Terri's vision may have been due to additional damage to her cortex caused by her being dehydrated to death.