[texasflower]

Left: CT scan of a normal 25 year old; Right, Terri Schiavo's most recent scan

[Electrowoman]

Cranford? Read this, too:

http://www.sffaith.com/ed/articles/1998/0398ws.htm

On that CT scan, and comparison of the images posted? Read here:

http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/codeblueblog/

[concerned about politics]

Right, Terri Schiavo's most recent scan

Her frontal lobe is still all there. That's the conscience mind. She may be alive and well in her mind, but unable to connect with her body. How frightening!
The brain works similar to a hologram. When certain areas of the brain are damaged, other areas ofter pick up the slack.

[Wacka]

Terri's seems to be taken at the level of the sinuses- see the space in the white area (bone) on top. The normal one was taken much higher up.
I have seen a girl that had severe seizures and the only cure was to literally remove half her brain- she is in college.
There was another teenage girl that was perfectly normal. She got in a minor accident and had a CAT scan. The doctors were amazed that most of her skull was filled with fluid! Her perfectly normal functioning brain was only an inch thick layer right under the skull bones. She is in college now.

[tophat9000]

Left: CT scan of a normal 25 year old; Right, Terri Schiavo's most recent scan

Can you give us your idea of the percent of living brain loss you assume she lost her rights as a human being to live...

I would say at 100% living brain loss and the brain can no longer support her body function's...

I do not assume she will get better...what I do assume is what is left is still a human being and minimal natural human rights still exist...

I do this as much for me as I do others as I do not want the state or others rating peoples humanity and there rights by percent...

While in life all men are not equal in a logical physical sense's... in the U.S. all men are consider equal before the law to protect all... you are not a percent (any more) a human being ...you are or are not a human being

Can you give us a percent of brain loss and or IQ point a human being longer is a human being?

[ChefKeith]

And are those the same "slice" of the relative scans? And why compare the scan of a 25 YO to Terri's "most recent scan" She is what 40 YO now?

[jazzlite]

"Left: CT scan of a normal 25 year old; Right, Terri Schiavo's most recent scan."

Medical records can be tampered with..We do not know this is her scan..A second and third opinion from neutral experts have not been done. And, anyway, we constantly learn new things about the brain that we did not know before..For example, we used to think that once injured, brain cells would never be rejuvenated..Now, we know that is not true. How do we know that we, being confined to a bed in a dark room for 15 years, being denied any kind of therapy even the brushing of our teeth, would not have our body organs, even our brains, suffer damage? We know that our bones lose their calcium and our muscles atrophy when we are immobile..Why not severe losses in every organ? Terri Schiavo has proved the past 12 days to be exceptional strong considering the confinement forced upon her by her loving husband.

[raygun]

That's what I thought. Anoxic anoxia does that. They don't know why, but sometimes after several months that happens i.e., atrophy of the white matter (holoencephalopathy). Clearly this is not hydranencephalopathy, but its not good whatever it is. Furthermore, it appears that significant edema is present, as the cortex is swollen completely to the surface of the skull, and the frontal cortex embolus certainly can't be any good either. One can clearly see the thalmic implant in the scan also. Based on that scan, and MRI would be pointless, and attempting to remove the thalmic implant could kill her outright (as all surgery has statistical probabilities of fatality).

The lights may be on, but nobody's home.

I really feel sorry for Michael. Nobody has any idea what he went through with her in the years before she had her cardiac infarction and went into a coma. Only people who've actually lived and had to deal with somebody who had an eating disorder can understand what that entails. Karen Carpenter killed herself the same way. Bulemia is bad enough, but anorexic patients over time destroy muscle tissue, and the affect on heart tissue is absolutely devastating.

If prior to having a cardiac infarction, she was diagnosed with terminal heart pathology, her anorexia would've precluded her from being considered to be a viable organ receipiant. The transplant team review board would have refused to put her on the UNOS waiting list on the basis of a contraindictory psychological condition.

[avile]

While there is substantial atrophy on her scan as is typical in an elderly Alzheimer's patient, it is very inappropriate to show as the normal a section from a different level in the brain.
apples should be compared to apples. either show her original versus the latest (at the same anatomic level in the brain or a normal at the same level) Time mag did the same thing.

[Flightdeck]

Let me get this straight: You think people with severe brain damage should be put to death?