TAMPA, Fla. — In a victory for Michael Schiavo, a coroner who performed an autopsy on Terri Schiavo reported Wednesday that she suffered from an irreversible brain injury and would not have recovered as her parents insisted was possible. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.
“Her brain was profoundly atrophied,” Jon Thogmartin, medical examiner for Florida’s Pinellas-Pasco County, told a press conference. “There was massive neuronal loss, or death. This was irreversible and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.”
I can hear the fundies now. “But, but, but… Jesus could have fixed it!” Yeah, that’s it. Deny her wishes and deny her husband’s marital vows to keep the body alive eagerly awaiting the Savior.
“The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain,” he added.
Thogmartin was joined by Dr. Stephen Nelson, who described her condition as “very consistent with a persistent vegetative state,” which is what Michael Schiavo and most doctors had contended was the case.
Thogmartin added that Terri Schiavo had been blinded by the injury and that all evidence indicated that she could not have survived without a feeding tube.
In addition, the report said no evidence existed that Michael Schiavo tried to hasten his wife’s death via drugs or other substances as her parents had alleged.
I doubt Michael Schiavo is waiting by the phone for the apologies he’s due from various spectators, commentators, pundits, and politicos who alleged his nefarious agenda to drug, batter, and murder his wife.
