As to the point of brain size at autopsy -- many are attributing the small size of the brain to dehydration. From prior scans that I have seen on the web, it appeared that Terri's brain had loss mass (sorry if that is not the proper term) long prior to the autopsy. What is your opinion on this point?
As to the point of brain size at autopsy -- many are attributing the small size of the brain to dehydration. From prior scans that I have seen on the web, it appeared that Terri's brain had loss mass (sorry if that is not the proper term) long prior to the autopsy. What is your opinion on this point?
You're right, her brain had a great deal of obvious atrophy on the scans. This isn't my field, but colleagues who read scans regularly told me those were among the worst they'd seen. The details of the autopsy make it clear that groups of cells were dead and disintegrated, sometimes replaced by other tissue, as opposed to simply dehydrated.