An autopsy on the body of Terry Schiavo has indicated her husband was correct in his contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, was severely and irreversibly brain-damaged, and was blind.
The report, released yesterday, also found no evidence that Ms Schiavo, who died last March after feeding was withdrawn from her following a right-to-die battle, was strangled or otherwise abused before she collapsed.
But medical examiners could not say for certain what caused her sudden 1990 collapse, long thought to have been brought on by an eating disorder.
The findings vindicated Michael Schiavo in his long and bitter battle with his in-laws, who insisted her condition was not hopeless and suggested their daughter was the victim of violence by their son-in-law.
In its report, the medical examiner's office cast doubt on both the abuse and eating disorder theory.
The autopsy results were made public more than two months after Ms Schiavo died of dehydration on March 31st following the removal of her feeding tube 13 days earlier.
The autopsy showed that Ms Schiavo's brain had shrunk to about half the normal size for a woman her age and that it bore signs of severe damage.
"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".
George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, said the findings back up their contentions made "for years and years" that Terri Schiavo had no hope of recovery. He said Michael Schiavo plans to release autopsy photographs of her shrunken brain.
Nevertheless, attorney David Gibbs III said Ms Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, continue to believe she was not in a vegetative state and questioned the conclusion that she was blind.
AP