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Terri Schiavo Autopsy

Jeff Johnson of CNS News has written a well-balanced article on Pinellas county medical examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin’s autopsy report of Terri Schiavo. Among several topics, Johnson summarizes two opposing and speculative explanations for Terri’s collapse which Thogmartin discredits.

First, it has been commonly reported that an eating disorder induced low potassium levels and heart failure causing Terri to collapse. However, Thogmartin believes, based on the evidence provided to him, that this view is not supported by the data. Johnson reports:Terri Schiavo collapsed under unknown circumstances in 1990. Michael Schiavo was awarded nearly $2 million in judgments and settlements in a medical malpractice lawsuit claiming that the collapse was caused by a heart attack triggered by a potassium imbalance, caused by an undiagnosed eating disorder, bulimia nervosa. Thogmartin challenged that determination.

Thogmartin dismissed the theory that the oxygen depravation to Terri's brain might have been the result of a myocardial infarction, the medical term for a "heart attack," or death of heart muscle from coronary artery disease.

A number of competing theories exist that speculate an assault involving a possible strangulation led to Terri’s condition. As Johnson reports, Thogmartin clearly rejects these on the basis of the data available to him:

In response to the allegations that Terri's collapse was the result of a physical assault, Thogmartin noted that she received nearly 30 X-rays, CAT scans and ultrasound examinations during the medical examination that followed her collapse.

"Any fractures - including rib fractures, leg fractures, ankle fractures, skull fractures, spine fractures - that occurred concurrent with her initial collapse would almost certainly have been diagnosed in 1990, especially with the number of physical exams, radiographs and other evaluations she received during her initial hospitalization," Thogmartin said. "No fractures or trauma were reported or recorded."

With most media reports have centered on this portion of the autopsy report, even headlining "No trauma before Schiavo collapse", Michelle Malkin notes,

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."

Finally, Johnson quotes Pamela Hennessy, spokeswoman for the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation and Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler as complimenting the autopsy report with the following qualifcation:

"However, it does seem that the conclusions of his report leave as many unanswered questions as there were previously," Hennessy said. "For instance, if Terri did not suffer bulimia and she had as healthy a heart as Dr. Thogmartin proclaimed, what caused her collapse?

"It doesn't really bring much in the way of closure to [the Schindlers] as far as what happened to their daughter, why this happened in the first place and what could have been done for her," Hennessy concluded.

HT: WriteWingBlog

Posted by tim at June 16, 2005 11:33 PM

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