Neurologist discredits Schiavo autopsy report, says she

Neurologist discredits Schiavo autopsy report,
says she died `horrific' death

Chicago, Jun. 27, 2005 (CNA) - A neurology expert has discredited
several aspects of Terri Schiavo's autopsy report, released earlier
this month, saying that the main cause of death listed in the report
is inaccurate.

Dr. Thomas Zabiega, MD, has said the medical examiners' claims that
Schiavo died from anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy are wrong.

"She died of starvation and dehydration, plain and simple, although
many of the ischemic and anoxic changes may have resulted from the
chemical abnormalities caused by the starvation and dehydration," he
wrote.

The 41-year-old physically disabled and brain-damaged Florida woman
died March 31, almost two weeks after her feeding tube was removed.
She had fallen into this state after she suffered a heart attack in
1990 that left her without oxygen to her brain for several minutes.
Her husband won a years-long court battle to remove her feeding
tube, sparking an international right-to-life debate in the process.

"She did not die from the injuries that caused her to have brain
damage, rather from the enforced starvation and dehydration," said
Zabiega. "The examiner only notes she died from dehydration in one
of the last sentences of the report, but does not list it as the
main cause of death."

The neurologist and vice president for legislative affairs of the
Chicago Physicians' Guild questioned whether medical examiners were
making this claim in order to exonerate the issue of how she died.

"If I have lung cancer and someone gives me cyanide, I died from
the cyanide, not the lung cancer," he said.

The neurologist added that osteoporosis, joint degeneration, and
muscle atrophy that medical examiners found in Schiavo were not the
result of anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy either, but "a direct
result of lack of physical therapy and lack of activity that Terri
Schiavo was not allowed to have due to her husband's orders."

The report also indicated that Schiavo's heart, lungs, kidneys,
liver, and gastrointestinal tract were "normal except for changes
secondary to the dehydration/starvation process," Zabiega noted.

He concluded, therefore, that Schiavo "would have probably lived for
many more years without any major health problems" had she received
proper food and hydration.

The autopsy report stated that Schiavo had no memory — because her
hippocampus was damaged — and no cognitive ability. But Zabiega
noted the "relative preservation" of the frontal and temporal lobes.

"Complex cognition and executive decisions as well as emotional
output are often associated with the frontal lobe, while the
temporal lobes are often associated with memory, as well as
hearing," he explained.

"Therefore Terri Schiavo's ability to think, react with appropriate
emotions, memory, and hearing could have all be intact at the time
the feeding tube was removed," he stated. The same may have been
true about her memory since damage to the hippocampus could have
been caused by the dehydration and starvation, he added.

Schiavo may have been cortically blind, but there was no way of
saying if the preserved occipital lobe had taken over and whether
there was macular sparing, allowing her to see up close, the
neurologist said. This would make it possible that Schiavo could
indeed see her mother and react to her.

What Zabiega says is "most horrific" is that Schiavo had only
acetaminophen (Tylenol) found in her blood. This means that she was
not receiving appropriate amounts of morphine after her feeding tube
was removed and that "she died a horrific, painful, excruciating
death that would be worse than any form of execution used in modern
times," he said.