The results of an exhaustive autopsy on Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who was at the center of a right to die debate, confirm she was in a persistent vegetative state, but shed no light on exactly caused the collapse that led to the damage.

Medical examiner Jon Thogmartin concluded that there was no evidence of strangulation or other trauma leading to the Florida woman's 1990 collapse, which left her virtually comatose and dependent on a feeding tube for survival.

He also said she did not appear to have suffered a heart attack.

She did, however, suffer massive brain damage.

Her brain was “profoundly atrophied,” he said, and weighed about half of what a normal brain weighs.

The damage was irreversible, he said, and “no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.”

The vision centers of Schiavo’s brain were dead, Thogmartin said, and she was blind.

What the autopsy did not answer was what caused Schiavo to collapse in the first place.

Testimony in a 1992 civil trial indicated that Schiavo probably was suffering from an eating disorder that led to a severe chemical imbalance and a heart attack, but Thogmartin said it was
unlikely her low potassium level was caused by an eating disorder.

Asked whether the exact cause of her 1990 collapse will ever be known, Thogmartin replied: "I don't know."

“Her brain suffered damage from lack of blood flow and oxygen, the cause of which cannot be determined with reasonable medical certainty,” he said.

He said there was no evidence of abuse or neglect.

Schiavo died on March 31, 13 days after the feeding tube that had kept her alive for 15 years was removed, but Thogmartin said starvation was not the cause.

“She did not starve to death, she died of dehydration,” he said.

The legal battle over the removal of the feeding tube pitted Schiavo’s husband against her parents, who believed she was aware of their presence and did not want the tube removed.