[FairOpinion]

Pages 13-17 have discussion of the examination of brain and neurological examination. I hope some medical doctors here will read it. They talk about some parts of the brain and nerves being normal, and that her optical nerve was thin, but still within the normal range.

I find the listing of the cause of death totally unacceptable. They are supposed to list the immediate, direct cause of death, which is dehydration -- the ME did NOT put that down as the official cause. It doesn't matter what he says, what matters, is what's in the autopsy report.

Suppose someone shoots a person, who had Parkinson's disease, or whatever, and the person dies. Are they going to list the cause of death as "complications of Parkinson's disease"?

Also, they mention that Terri's brain weighted 625 g, about half of that of a normal brain. 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. So the weight of her brain doesn't mean much.

[FairOpinion]

PING for the actual 39 page autopsy report.

I don't know if it was posted inside of the various articles, but I figured people would have trouble finding it.

You may want to ping the Terri ping list.

[alancarp]

Cause of Death: Slow Murder by Starvation, sanctioned by multiple courts.

[onyx]

Actual report ping.

[Peace Is Coming]

Cause of death was dehydration.
Could being severly dehydrated cause the brain to shrink due to the fact that the brain contains water as one of the components?

[alancarp]

Recall that during Terri's last days, mouthpieces for the alleged husband were repeating some reports from a brain scan that supposedly indicated that Terri's brain had atrophied to 20% of its original size (and therefore proved the 'persistent vegitative state' prognosis)?

Even from my totally uneducated perspective, I believe this report represents a flat denial of that claim.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I heard just a few seconds of an ABC radio "news" employee saying that the report proves that the husband was right.

I thought that the main dispute was did she deserve to live or die. I thought her family wanted to take care of her knowing of the brain damage but the husband, et al. said no, she should die it's "what she wanted." I thought that there were many disputes. Not all have been settled says the report.

I guess it's called MSM spinning and spiking. It's what they do. ABC was one of the phony polls that served as a news item for days, "99.9999999999999999 percent of Americans want her 'released'!"

[Clinging Bitterly]

bump for later

[Gelato]

I googled for "severe dehydration" and "brain damage." Got this result several times: "Untreated severe dehydration may result in seizures, permanent brain damage, or death."

Considering the numerous occasions in which Terri underwent forced dehydration--the first time, then in Oct 2003, and again months ago, ultimately causing her death--isn't it likely that such trauma to the body had some effect on her already fragile condition, specifically to the brain?

How many medical examiners know what a brain looks like after numerous occasions of severe dehydration in a person, particularly when the patient had already lessened brain function?

What is the typical brain weight of person who died from dehydration?

Did the medical examiner take these sorts of questions into account?

[flaglady47]

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. So the weight of her brain doesn't mean much.

Boy, you aren't the brightest bulb in the pack, are you.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

"They are supposed to list the immediate, direct cause of death, which is dehydration -- the ME did NOT put that down as the official cause."

Good point. A sham right there.

[k2blader]

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. Makes one wonder what they think should be done with others who are similarly disabled.

[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?

[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.

[evad]

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

Clearly there is a relationship.

[Saundra Duffy]

We had to look at George Felos' grotesquely evil face again yesterday and listen to that disgustingly evil voice. They (CNN) asked him if Michael Schiavo was owed an apology and you should have seen the smirk! If you want to know what satan himself looks like and sounds like, he's a dead ringer for George Felos.

[MarMema]

Quinlan lived for 9 years after her ventilator was disconnected. Bioethicists needed another a solution for disabled people. In 1983, Daniel Callahan noted that "a denial of nutrition may...become the only effective way to make certain that a large number of biologically tenacious people actually die"

"Terri Schiavo is a trial run for the future imploding of Social Security and Medicare. The coming rationing of services was the reason I went to court in 1992 against the prohibition of the private contract. Though it is difficult financially for many to bow out of the system, it may be necessary to do so in the near future to maintain our honor and our values. The shades of the Hegelian Rational Utility are upon us, just as I predicted in my speeches years ago. The rush to judgment despite so many ambiguities was fueled by euthanasia advocates' thirst for a precedent."

the new face of medicaid
"Seniors and the disabled are pushing the program to the breaking point"

[deport]

So the weight of her brain doesn't mean much.

---

What about her entire body wieght..... was it down percentage wise due to loss of fluids?

[kozachka]

Pages 13-17 have discussion of the examination of brain and neurological examination. I hope some medical doctors here will read it. They talk about some parts of the brain and nerves being normal, and that her optical nerve was thin, but still within the normal range.

The neuropathological report shows several important findings:

1. There was severe hydrocephalus within the cerebral cortex. (The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain which performs higher, non-reflexive functions--i.e. thinking and seeing, rather than breathing or involuntary movement.) The normal volume of CSF (cerbrospinal fluid) in the brain is 125 cc; in Schiavo's case, it was 645 cc (weighing 678 gm).

Schiavo is noted as having pronounced "hydrocephalus ex-vacuo", which occurs when there is damage to the brain, and results in actual shrinkage (atrophy or wasting) of brain tissue.

The brain itself weighed only 615 gm, which means the cranial cavity was more than 50% water (when you consider than brain tissue is denser than CSF).

2. Although the cranial nerves, including the optic nerve, were largely intact, the occipital lobes were the worst affected parts of the brain. The occipital lobes are responsible for visual perception (our mind's interpreting and processing impulses received from the retina). So, while the eyes may have been moving around, Schiavo couldn't actually "see" anything. She was blind.

3. The final comment made by the pathologist: "Brain weight is an important index of its pathologic state. Brain weight is correlated with height, weight, age and sex. The decedent's brain was grossly abnormal and weighed only 615 gm (1.35 pounds). That weight is less than half the expected tabular weight for a decedent of her age, 41 years 3 months 28 days. By way of comparison, the brain of Karen Ann Quinlan weighed 835 grams at the time of her death, after ten years in a similar persistent vegetative state!"