The results are in: "Schiavo Autopsy Shows Massive Brain Damage." The autopsy of Terri Schiavo showed that her brain had shrunk to about half the normal size for a woman her age and that it bore signs of severe damage. (Full details are available here.)
"This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," said Pinellas-Pasco County Medical Examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin, who led the autopsy team. He also said she was blind, because the "vision centers of her brain were dead."
Bill "I'm a doctor!" Frist ignored the proof that Schiavo was blind, and is still defending his indefensible grandstanding. On the Today Show, he stated: " "I never, never, on the floor of the Senate, made a diagnosis, nor would I ever do that," "I never, never, on the floor of the Senate, made a diagnosis, nor would I ever do that." Contrast that deference to his persistence on 17 March:
Frist questioned her "persistent vegetative state" diagnosis "based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."
I guess it all depends on what his definition of "diagnosis" is.
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