Legal Defense Foundation decries the mischaracterizations rampant in the secular media in the wake of the release of a June 13th, 2005, autopsy report by Pinellas County Medical Examiner John R. Thogmartin. Major media outlets are eager to represent Thogmartin's report as completely vindicating those who opted to kill Terri Schiavo. In fact, it does no such thing.
Published reports too numerous to list have stated that Thogmartin supports allegations of Terri Schiavo's being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). ABC radio news has even said the report shows Terri to have been "essentially brain dead." Yet Thogmartin himself points out that a diagnosis of PVS can only be made of a living patient (page 8).
Thogmortin merely verifies that Terri suffered from severe brain damage -- something that was already known and admitted by all parties. This does not make Terri "brain dead" or a "vegetable." The mass media are woefully irresponsible when they say that it does.
The most newsworthy finding in Thogmartin's report was that the Schiavo/Felos account of Terri's initial brain injury is unsupported by the evidence. The diagnosis of bulimia nervosa, says Thogmartin, is suspect (page 3) -- but this is exactly the premise upon which Michael Schiavo based the malpractice suit that made him a wealthy man, with funds sufficient to employ George Felos.
The cause of Terri's collapse remains a mystery. Thogmartin not only stated this point (page 2) but emphasized it at his press conference. Since Michael Schiavo was the only person present at the time of this collapse, only he knows what happened. Why isn't he telling?
Life Legal maintains that Terri Schiavo was an innocent person and that her brain damage did not constitute just cause to murder her by dehydration.
Currently, Life Legal is having a medical doctor review the report in the hope that further insights may be provided.
Source: Life Legal Press Release
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