Things that make you go "Hmmm..."
Hmmm... is right. That's exactly the statement that jumped out at me.
"Interestingly, I have seen this pattern of mixed brain (cerebral) and spinal cord findings in a patient once before, a patient who was asphyxiated."
This website below explains how different parts of the brain can be "dead" yet there are responses. Although it addresses strokes specifically, it holds equally true when the brain or parts of it are oxygen starved as in Terri's case.
The differences of reaction on the body from the two brain areas are kind of like, the lights are on, but nobody's home. (Kinda crude I know, but it's easiest understood?
I found another similar site that speaks more to the differences between comotose and PVS but it hasn't been up for two days.)
http://www.deathonline.net/what_happens/body/brain_death.cfm