And because this is the "real" news on the matter -

[kyburg]

The Teri Schiavo autopsy results are in.

And her husband did his duty by her.

And the so-called "pro-life" activists? *waves red flag of personal opinion*

They have a long way to go before they can convince me that their "activism" isn't smoke from another fire - it appears to have little to do with "life" or dealing with the hard realities of end-of-life issues. There are worse things than being alive, if you truly believe in any kind of afterlife.

This was one of them. Thank God it's over.

Comments

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

At least no causes that we can detect. Conduction abnormalities, long Q-T syndrome, there are reasons, but they don't show up on autopsy, especially 15 years after the fact.

Perhaps it was over-identification. I went to nursing school partly to care for Charlie. I know how tough nursing school is. That made me very leery of "He did this to her, that's why he wants her to die." I also have firsthand knowledge of patients in PVS. An amazingly small percentage of the brain needs to survive to keep the machinery running.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Leery, hell. That's above and beyond, in my opinion.

[unclejimbo.livejournal.com]

I pulled up the actual report, PDF.

The report noted the gross atrophy in the area of the brain that handle cognitive function. The brain itself was 615 g, or about 1 1/2 pounds. The big thing for me was that they pulled out 678 g of cerebral spinal fluid.

There really has been no evidence he was an abusive husband, in fact, the parents were very happy to have Michael as custodian so long as he continued to work toward Terry's recovery. He reportedly became a nurse/anesthesist in part to learn what was needed to care for her. I am certain as he gained more knowledge, he realized she had no chance for recovery. The fact that there was not one mention of any bedsores is remarkable. If he really wanted her dead, all he had to do was to let her get one and have it become infected. (That was what killed Christopher Reeves in the end.)

The fractures that Terry's parents pointed to were from the severe osteoporosis that she encurred from being bedridden for 15 years.

The story is a tragic one. I hope for all concerned it can now be laid to rest.

[http://users.livejournal.com/little_e_/]

where did you find the pdf?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Here. Adobe Reader required.

[http://users.livejournal.com/little_e_/]

thank you