US: A Florida coroner yesterday reported that Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman who died on March 31st amid national controversy after her feeding tube was removed, suffered from an irreversible brain-injury and would not have recovered as her parents and supporters insisted.
Dr Jon Thogmartin, medical examiner for Florida's Pinellas-Pasco County, also found that Ms Sciavo was blind and deaf, indicating that her apparent response to people in videos released by the family was without thought or consciousness.
The coroner's report discounts rumours her husband Michael Schiavo brought about her persistent vegetative state through strangulation or drugs. "No evidence of strangulation was found and no evidence of trauma whatsoever," the coroner told a press conference in Largo, Florida.
After examining 72 external and 116 internal photographs, he concluded that, at time of death, Ms Schiavo's brain was "profoundly atrophied". It weighed 615g (1.35lb), half the expected weight of a human brain.
"This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," he said.
The coroner was accompanied by Dr Stephen Nelson, who described Ms Schiavo's condition as "very consistent with a persistent vegetative state". This concurs with court conclusions over 13 years in favour of Mr Schiavo's requests to have her feeding tube removed to allow her die. The video of Ms Schiavo appearing to smile at a Mickey Mouse balloon and look up at visitors caused many of the parents' supporters to believe she could recover.
State senator Daniel Webster of Florida argued at the time, "Here we have a woman who can smile, who can respond to her mom, who can follow a balloon around the room." Her father, Bob Schindler, said in March: "We have close to 15 doctors ... stating Terri is not in a persistent vegetative state. We have bona fide information from professional neurologists that Terri can recover. She can swallow."
The coroner said she could not swallow and, if she was given food orally she would choke to death. The video, shown over and over on cable television, also prompted US Congress to rush through a law, signed by President Bush, requiring the Florida courts to review the case.
Federal courts refused to intervene and Ms Schiavo (41) died nearly two weeks after her feeding tube was removed. The family tragedy became a very public and bitter feud that divided the country.
Mr Schiavo was accused by some of the parents' more outspoken supporters, like anti-abortion campaigner Randall Terry, of "murder" through starvation. Ms Schiavo died not from starvation but from "marked dehydration", Mr Thogmartin said. The coroner could not, however, determine what caused her collapse 15 years previously.
The autopsy found no proof that she had an eating disorder like bulimia that could have caused a severe chemical imbalance and heart attack. The potassium level in Ms Schiavo's body was 2.0 where the normal is 3.5 to 5.0, said the coroner, but this could have been caused by treatment after her collapse.
Terri's parents always maintained that she did not have an eating disorder and accused Mr Schiavo of abuse, which he vehemently denies.
Mr Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, accused the Schindlers of continuing to engage in a "smear campaign against Michael to deflect the real issues in the case, which were Terri's wishes and her medical condition".
Mr Schiavo always maintained his wife never would have wanted to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. During the controversy, the Roman Catholic Church said the removal of the feeding tube violated fundamental religious tenets.