You don’t find it disgusting to call a living breathing person who is fully capable of communicating and tracking things with her eyes ‘meat on a slab’?

Apparently not, but I am fully entitled to my opinion, that’s what this blog is for–MY OPINION. So sod off, swampy~

You called me disgusting in your first response, which, last I checked, was not a compliment.

As far as my argument getting flimsy, I stand by my original statement. Read the autopsy (if you’re capable of it).

Terri’s death is just one of many, many deaths of debilitated people. Hers was well publicized by a manipulative family, media and government to their own ends rather than out of any concern over Terri. Just like what you’re doing.

And show me where Terry said that she wanted to die. All reports indicate that she wanted to live, including the fact that she lived a full 13 days after they pulled her feeding tube.

If she wanted to die, I’m sure she wouldn’t have fought to live…and would have succumbed far earlier. Perhaps even after her husband had that experimental device planted into her brain.

You surely don’t expect me to believe the hogwash that you’re saying now, do you? Particularly when it’s not backed up by links such as those that I have so considerately provided to back up my statements? Considering all the documentation there is to the contrary?

It seems as though your argument is getting more and more flimsy by the minute, and you can’t see that. If that’s a perceived insult, then so be it; you’re not seeing that which is put right in front of you. That’s what I call blind moonbattery!:razz::razz::razz::razz::razz:

Yes, the autopsy raises more questions than it answers!

The autopsy speaks for itself. Whether or not a host of other people wanted her alive, Terri did not want that.

I say good day!!!

NBC’s Mark Potter reported:

“Terri Schiavo’s autopsy shows she was severely and irreversibly brain-damaged, and found no evidence that she was strangled or abused before she collapsed.”

(Quote source: Schiavo autopsy shows irreversible brain damage) [bold emphasis added]

Autopsy Results: No Surprise to Michael Schiavo’s Attorneys

Terri’s autopsy report came as no surprise to Michael Schiavo’s attorneys because they informed the public of the autopsy results months before it was completed:

His lawyers have said an autopsy will show that Terri did not retain enough brain matter to be conscious of her surroundings and that there are no indications that she was ever physically abused. [bold emphasis added]

(Quote source: On Law: Caution in a post-Schiavo World)

I don’t suppose you find that even a tiny bit suspicious?

Physician Who Examined Schiavo for Over 10 Hours–Critical of Autopsy Report 6/20/05

We have seen a lot on the autopsy of Terri Schindler Schiavo in recent days, that I feel needs to be addressed. To ignore these comments will allow future “Terri Schiavo’s” to die needlessly after the wishes of clinicians and family are ignored.

Considering that there were so many physicians and therapists who were willing to step forward to treat Terri Schiavo, from university based practitioners to those in private practice, it clearly shows that the mainstream medical community across the board, those involved in treating patients, knew that they could help Terri.

The record must be set straight. As we noted in the press, there was no heart attack, or evident reason for this to have happened (and certainly not of Terri’s making).

Unlike the constant drumbeat from the husband, his attorneys, and his doctors, the brain tissue was not dissolved, with a head of just spinal fluid. In fact, large areas were “relatively preserved.”

The purpose of the therapies offered by so many, from major universities, brain injury centers, and from private practice physicians, is to improve and restore quality of life, and function, which the mainstream medical community clearly tried to get to her.

I have had a chance to look at Dr. Nelson’s analysis of the brain tissue, and essentially, as a clinician, these are my thoughts.

The autopsy results confirmed my opinion and Dr. Maxfield’s opinions, that the frontal areas of the brains, the areas that deal with awareness and cognition were relatively intact. To use Dr. Nelson’s words, “relatively preserved.” In fact, the relay areas from the frontal and front temporal regions of the brain, to the spinal cord and the brain stem, by way of the basal ganglia, were preserved, thus the evident responses which she was able to express to her family and to the clinicians seeing her or viewing her videotape. The Spect scan confirmed these areas were functional and not scar tissue, and that was apparently also confirmed on Dr. Nelson’s review of the slides. Dr. Maxfield’s estimates of retained brain weight were apparently accurate, although there may have been some loss of brain weight due to the last two weeks of dehydration.

Dr. Maxfield and myself both emphasized that she was a woman trapped in her body, similar to a child with cerebral palsy, and that was born out by the autopsy, showing greater injury in the motor and visual centers of the brain. Obviously, the pathologists comments that she could not see were not borne out by reality, and thus his assessment must represent sampling error. The videotapes clearly showed her seeing, and even Dr. Cranfoed, for the husband, commented to her that, when she could see the balloon, she could follow it with her eyes as per his request.

That she could not swallow was obviously not borne out by the reality that she was swallowing her saliva, about 1.5 liters per day of liquid, and the clinical swallowing tests done by Dr. Young and Dr. Carpenter. Thus, there appears to be some limitations to the clinical accuracy of an autopsy in evaluating function.

With respect to the issue of trauma, that certainly does not appear to be answered adequately. Some of the types of trauma that are suspected were not adequately evaluated in this assessment. Interestingly, both myself and at least one neurologist for the husband testified to the presence of neck injuries. The issue of a forensic evaluation for trauma, is highly specialized. Hence the wish of the family to have observers which was refused by the examiner.

Ultimately, based on the clinical evidence and the autopsy results, an aware woman was killed.

Dr. W. Hammesfahr

Dr. Hammesfahr’s prior report on Terri Schiavo can be found here.

There are many people who dispute the veracity of the autopsy results. So please. Don’t make me laugh at your incoherent ramblings.

(Also read Yahoo posts: Shopping Michael Schiavo, and Florida Governor Seeks Probe of Terri’s Collapse, Ron Panzer’s Report on Autopsy of Terri Schiavo)

Scientology – The Secret Force Behind Terri Schiavo’s Murder? by Zen Garcia 5/20/05

The Truth About Getting Justice For Terri 4/28/05

Scientology’s Already Dead Doctrine: Michael Schiavo said Terri Died 15 Years Ago 4/18/05

George Felos Recast the Holocaust and Terri’s Death in a Positive Light 4/13/05
Everett Rice Awards Scientologists During Terri’s Death Process

You do not need a medical examiner’s license to see that the report raises many more questions than it answers, though from the (once again) misleading media coverage, we are led to believe that the matters of Terri’s life and murder are resolved. They are not.

Here’s a typical example from an article headlined, “No trauma before Schiavo collapse:”

An autopsy report on a brain-damaged woman at the centre of a long legal battle in the US has shown that she suffered no trauma before her collapse.

But on page 4 of the M.E.’s summary, what the report actually says with regard to possible strangulation is this:

Autopsy examination of her neck structures 15 years after her initial collapse did not detect any signs of remote trauma, but, with such a delay, the exam was unlikely to show any residual neck findings.”

Michael Schiavo and his supporters and doctors have long maintained that Terri suffered from an eating disorder. In interviews with Larry King, in countless newspaper articles over the past 15 years, and during his successful malpractice trial against Terri’s primary care physician, Michael Schiavo stressed his wife’s bulimia-related low potassium level as the cause of her initial collapse. Schiavo won $1 million in damages on the grounds that Schiavo’s obstetrician had failed to diagnose bulimia.

Unquestioning journalists ran dozens of stories echoing the claim: “Eating disorder is real issue in Schiavo case,” “Terri’s life a lesson in dangers of bulimia,” “The lost lesson of Schiavo case: the dangers of eating disorders,” etc.

The autopsy report spends three-and-a-half pages debunking Schiavo’s claim, as well as the related claim that she had a heart attack (or, more medically precise, myocardial infarction). But if mentioned at all, the news reports I have seen have downplayed and buried these astonishing revelations (revelations which bear directly on Schiavo’s credibility regarding his claim that Terri would have wanted to die).

In Michael Schiavo’s favor, the autopsy report also casts doubt on the Schindler family’s long-held view that a 1991 bone scan indicated traumatic injury. The report notes that Terri had severe osteoporosis and that the bone scan findings might have also reflected “the aftermath of remote intense CPR, infection, bone turnover, artifact or intense physical therapy. In summary, any rib fractures, leg fractures, skull fractures or spine fractures that occurred concurrent with Mrs. Schiavo’s original collapse would almost certainly ahve been diagnosed in February 1990 especially with the number of phsyical exams, radiographs, and other evaluations she received in the early evolution of her care…”

However, the report notes this caveat: “Without the orginal bone scan and radiographs from that period, no other conclusions can [be] reasonably made.”

With regard to Terri’s alleged persistent vegetative state, most news articles inaccurately portray the report as supporting that diagnosis. But the disability rights group Not Dead Yet has it right:

[C]ontrary to articles stating the autopsy report “supported” the diagnosis of “persistent vegetative state (PVS),” a neuropathology expert today was careful to say that PVS is a clinical diagnosis rather than a pathological one. He added that nothing in the autopsy was “inconsistent” with a PVS diagnosis.

The real elephant in the living room, of course, is whether or not we can really know how conscious anyone labeled “PVS” really is. Several studies have revealed high misdiagnosis rates, with conscious people being mistakenly regarded as totally and irrevocably unaware.

The autopsy also documented significant brain atrophy, and the medical panel called the damage “irreversible.”

This is not the same as saying she had no cognitive ability.

“It’s always seemed to us that PVS isn’t really a diagnosis; it’s a value judgment masquerading as a diagnosis,” said Stephen Drake, research analyst for Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group that filed three amicus briefs in the case. “When it comes to the hard science, no qualified pathologist went on the record saying she couldn’t think or couldn’t experience her own death through dehydration.”

Diane Coleman, president and founder of Not Dead Yet, agreed. “The core issues remain the same. Protection of the life and dignity of people under guardianship, and a high standard of proof in removing food and water from a person who can not express their own wishes. These are issues of great concern to the disability community – evidenced by the 26 national disability groups that spoke out in favor of saving Terri Schiavo’s life over the past few years.”

It is not clear to me from the neuropathology report when and over what period the much-talked-about brain shrinkage occurred. I have also noticed that some are already mocking the claim that Terri recognized visitors (note that the report also does not appear to indicate when and over what period that loss of sight occurred).

For God’s sake.

Terri Schiavo, a profoundly disabled woman who was not terminally ill and who had an army of family members ready to care for her for the rest of her natural life, succumbed to forced dehydration at the hands of her spouse-in-name-only.

Finally, here’s the last paragraph of the medical examiner’s report:

It is the policy of this office that no case is ever closed and that all determinations are to be reconsidered upon receipt of credible, new information. In addition to fading memories, the 15-year survival of Mrs. Schiavo after her collapse resulted in the creation of a voluminous number of documents many of which were lost or discarded over the years. Receipt of additional information that clarifies outstanding issues may or shall cause an amendment of her cause and manner of death.

In other words, the medical examiner has pledged to keep something rare in this still unresolved tragedy: an open mind.