Jun 15, 2005 / 22:00 pm
A much-anticipated autopsy report confirmed yesterday that Terri Schiavo died of dehydration. Medical examiners said they were surprised by the extent of her dehydration.
The 41-year-old disabled Florida woman was the focus of a heated national right-to-life debate earlier this year. She died March 31, after a court granted her husband the right to have her feeding tube removed.
Schiavo had been in what her doctors described as a “vegetative state” for 15 years. Yet, her parents had argued that her condition could have improved with consistent therapy.
Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin of Florida's Pinellas-Pasco County countered her parents’ longheld view in his autopsy report. He said Schiavo's brain was severely atrophied, weighing 615 grams — about half the size of a normal brain — at the time of her death.