I guess Bill Frisk's diagnosis was wrong.
(06-15) 08:40 PDT Largo, Fla. (AP) --
An autopsy released Wednesday found no evidence to contradict the diagnosis that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state after her 1990 collapse, backing up her husband's contention that she would not have recovered if she was given additional therapy as her parents requested.
"There's nothing in her autopsy report that is inconsistent with a persistent vegetative state," said Dr. Stephen J. Nelson, a medical examiner who assisted in the autopsy.
Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin, who led the autopsy team, concluded that there was no evidence of strangulation or other trauma leading to her collapse. He also said she did not appear to have suffered a heart attack and there was no evidence that she was given harmful drugs or other substances prior to her death.
Thogmartin said that Schiavo's brain was about half of its expected size when she died March 31 in a Pinellas Park hospice, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House and divided the country.
He said she would not have been able to eat or drink if she had been given food by mouth as her parents' requested.
"Removal of her feeding tube would have resulted in her death whether she was fed or hydrated by mouth or not," Thogmartin told reporters.
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"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill
(06-15) 08:40 PDT Largo, Fla. (AP) --
An autopsy released Wednesday found no evidence to contradict the diagnosis that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state after her 1990 collapse, backing up her husband's contention that she would not have recovered if she was given additional therapy as her parents requested.
"There's nothing in her autopsy report that is inconsistent with a persistent vegetative state," said Dr. Stephen J. Nelson, a medical examiner who assisted in the autopsy.
Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin, who led the autopsy team, concluded that there was no evidence of strangulation or other trauma leading to her collapse. He also said she did not appear to have suffered a heart attack and there was no evidence that she was given harmful drugs or other substances prior to her death.
Thogmartin said that Schiavo's brain was about half of its expected size when she died March 31 in a Pinellas Park hospice, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House and divided the country.
He said she would not have been able to eat or drink if she had been given food by mouth as her parents' requested.
"Removal of her feeding tube would have resulted in her death whether she was fed or hydrated by mouth or not," Thogmartin told reporters.
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"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill