“I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office,” he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli.”
From the article:
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought to keep their daughter alive, saying she could have been rehabilitated. They also claimed she was responsive to them. However, Thogmartin said that at the time of her death, she was blind.
The Schindlers also alleged that their daughter suffered abuse at the hands of husband Michael Schiavo -- a claim he has always denied. Today, Thogmartin said there was no evidence of strangulation at the time of her collapse in 1990, and fractures to her spine were consistent with osteoporosis, common in paralysis patients. He said her bones were "palpably soft."
As for what caused Schiavo to collapse at the age of 26, leading to her vegetative state, Thogmartin said his results did not support the initial diagnosis of an eating disorder.