Awareness and cognition

Dr. William Hammesfahr, once described by the Florida Dept of Health as "the first physician to restore deficits caused by stroke," examined Terri Schiavo for ten hours during her lifetime. After the autopsy, publication of the results, which were converted by the media into a vindication of Michael Schiavo's description of Terri, Dr. Hammesfahr issued a statement.

"... I have had a chance to look at Dr. Nelson's analysis of the brain tissue, and essentially, as a clinician, these are my thoughts.

"The autopsy results confirmed my opinion and Dr. Maxfield's opinions, that the frontal areas of the brain, the areas that deal with awareness and cognition were relatively intact. To use Dr. Nelson's words, 'relatively preserved'. In fact, the relay areas from the frontal and front temporal areas of the brain, to the spinal cord and the brain stem, by way of the basal ganglia, were preserved, thus the evident responses which she was able to express to her family and to the clinicians seeing her or viewing her videotape. The Spect scan confirmed these areas were functional and not scar tissue, and that was apparently also confirmed on Dr. Nelson's review of the slides. Dr. Maxfield's estimates of retained brain weight were apparently accurate, although there may have been some loss of brain weight due to the last two weeks of dehydration."