The post-mortem

Autopsy of Schiavo says her brain damage was 'irreversible' and treatment or therapy could not have helped

BY ANDREW METZ | STAFF WRITER

June 16, 2005

When Terri Schiavo died, she was blind, massively brain-damaged, unable to eat or drink, and beyond medical redemption, according to the autopsy performed on the Florida woman who ignited a national end-of-life debate.

The post-mortem, released yesterday, bolstered the claims of Schiavo's husband, who fought in court for seven years to disconnect his incapacitated wife's feeding tube over objections by her parents and conservative supporters who included abortion foes, congressional Republicans and President George W. Bush.

Schiavo's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, hoped the exam would prove their daughter was responsive and could have recovered. Instead, it showed a 41-year-old woman with a brain so debilitated it was half the normal weight.

"This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," said Jon Thogmartin, the Pinellas-Pasco, Fla., medical examiner who led the autopsy.

Stephen Nelson, a neuropathologist and consultant on the exam, said the findings were also consistent with the diagnosis that Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state, a condition the Schindlers refused to accept.

The report, however, did not explain why Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago and raised doubts about the long-standing suspicion it was because of an eating disorder. The theory had helped her husband, Michael, win a $1 million malpractice suit that lighted intense intrafamily enmity.

Thogmartin said the underlying cause of Schiavo's collapse may never be known but there was no evidence she was abused, as the family had alleged. He said Schiavo ultimately died of dehydration, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

George Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer, said his client was relieved at the results. "Mr. Schiavo has received so much criticism throughout this case that I'm certain there's a part of him that was pleased to hear these results and the hard science behind them," Felos said.

The new medical findings, however, did little to divert the family and their allies from a fight that engrossed the nation and prompted extraordinary intervention by Congress and the president.

"We knew all along that Terri was profoundly brain-damaged. We simply wanted to bring her home and care for her," her brother, Bobby Schindler, told The Associated Press yesterday.

David Gibbs, the parents' attorney, yesterday still insisted Schiavo "demonstrated a will to live" before she died March 31. He said the family is reviewing the autopsy and considering legal options.

The autopsy report revealed intimate details about Terri Schiavo's anatomy and end of life. It included 274 external and internal pictures, some of which Felos said will be made public, and it said she was brought into the exam at 112 pounds, clad in a pink and white gown, accompanied by three pillows and a blanket.

It also was a reminder of the supercharged political debate that grew around one family's intractable dispute. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who helped engineer legislation seeking to restore the feeding tube, insisted at the time Schiavo "is as alive as you or I." Yesterday, spokesmen for DeLay and Bush, who signed the law, were less outspoken and said their prayers remained with the Schindlers.

Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, described the autopsy as "a dagger into the heart" of the campaign to keep Schiavo alive.

"It shows that when you want to see something, you can make yourself believe it," he said. "Or if you come with a big ideological bias, then you are willing to go around saying anything."

But more than two months after demonstrators decamped from Schiavo's hospice, their convictions were undimmed. "To say that she was not interacting is ludicrous," said Randall Terry, the anti-abortion activist who has served as a family spokesman. "It would mean that every family member and every friend that came out of that room lied to us.

"Our contention all along is you err on the side of life."

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The post-mortem

Autopsy of Schiavo says her brain damage was 'irreversible' and treatment or therapy could not have helped

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