A fair linear summary of the events that leaves out much of the information. What I posted was not gossip dunder drawers, it was based on the medical opinions of the attending ER Dr.
Now from medical testimony~~~
Consider the testimony of Dr. Hammesfahr regarding Terri's neck injury from Oct. 11, 2002.
A. Anoxic and hypoxic encephalopathies are characterized by multiple small strokes. So depending upon where that stroke is, is where your deficiency is. In your average stroke, the entire side of the body is affected. But in a hypoxic or anoxic episodes, or cerebral palsy, you will see lots of different areas affected. And there may be another injury, a neck injury with her also, which compounds her examination.
Q. Compounds what, her condition?
A. Her condition, yes. There is a neck injury. There may be a spinal cord injury, also.
Q. How were you able to determine a neck injury?
A. By physical examination. On physical examination, she has several characteristics that are not typical of a stroke. First, she has very severe neck spasms. That's typical of the body's response, splinting the area to prevent injury to that area.
Q. Splinting the area?
A. Yeah. If you injure your arm, you will move it. Your muscles will contract around it to keep that area moving. Her muscles around the neck area are heavily contracted to help prevent movement around that area. Later on in the videotape, we actually show that it's almost impossible for her to bend her neck. You can pick her entire body up off the bed just by putting pressure on the back of the neck area, which is not typical in brain injury patients but in neck injury patients. In addition, her sensory examination is nothing like a typical stroke patient or typical anoxic encephalopathy.
Q. Are you experienced in treatment of patients with spinal cord injury?
A. Yes, I am.
Q. You said that you had never felt a neck like that except for one other patient, right?
A. Correct.
Q. What was the cause of injury in the other patient?
A. The person had an anoxic encephalous due to attempted strangulation.
Thogmartin has listed the cause of death as "complications of Anoxic encephalopathy"---failure of oxygen to be delivered to the brain resulting in brain dysfunction. Thogmartin says that the anoxic brain injury sustained by Terri Schiavo on Feb. 25, 1990, was caused by lack of blood flow and oxygen to her brain but that the cause of that condition could not be detected and was undetermined. He did not rule out that the injuries could have been caused by smothering.
