Schiavo Autopsy
Bloomburg has the first report on the release today of the autopsy findings for Terri Schiavo. Her brain, it was reported, was"profoundly atrophied'' and weighed half the size of a normal brain when she died on March 31, Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said during a press conference in Largo, Florida. No amount of therapy would have reversed her trauma, he said.There is also a report that contrary to claims that she had been abused in some way by her husband, resulting in injury to her neck or back, there were "no signs of trauma or neck injury."
But as The Guardian and AP note, she was blind. The autopsy looked for but found no evidence of an eating disorder, interestingly.
As to whether the feeding tube was helping her, in terms of providing therapy akin to what a respirator would need to provide in order that it would be continued, there is again no ambiguity:
He said that after her feeding tube was removed, 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.
He went on to say that "The balance of the brain consisted of . . . scar tissue."
Attorney Felos said of the blindness:
"The public sees a picture and has an impression," he said. "But it's a hard fact . . . that Terri Schiavo was blind. She couldn't see her mother and obviously couldn't react to the sight of her mother."
UPDATE: Senator Frist has acknowledged that she was in PVS. Meaning the treatment was futile. He says that he only wanted to be certain of that. No word on what he thinks could possibly have been done to be more certain than everyone already was. But it is important that he didn't continue to maintain that she should have been kept afloat in PVS forever.
STILL MORE UPDATE: The family disputes the autopsy findings. And Michael Schiavo plans (perhaps illegally) to release some of the photos of the brain to the general public. The best news account to date of the post-mortem post-mortem is here.
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...page 15 of the autopsy report couldn't be clearer:
"The neuropathologic findings, oropharyngeal anatomic findings, and medical records indicate that Mrs. Schiavo would not have been able to consume sustenance safely and in sufficient quantity by mouth. In fact, the records and findings are such that oral feedings in quantities sufficient to sustain life would have certainly resulted in aspiration...."
"....according to medical records, she had been treated in the past for aspiration pneumonia...."
"....Claims from caregivers of oral feedings are remarkable, and based on the autopsy findings and medical records, these feedings were potentially harmful or, at least, extremely dangerous to Mrs. Schiavo's health and welfare."
"Remarkable" indeed.
Surely this should close the previous debate on this blog about whether Mrs. Schiavo could have been fed by mouth.
- by And since we're on the subject on Jun 15, 2005 at 9:16 PM | link