For the record, a medical article on the effects of positional asphyxia -- like Michael getting on Terri's back and she couldn't breathe. (The injury is associated with police restraints, but having a very big man on your back is worse.) 1) Cardiac arrest. Terri went into cardiac arrest. 2) Metabolic acidosis. Terri's blood showed metabolic acidosis, surely as strange a test result as the one-time low potassium reading (which is also associated with violence). Acidosis occurs in extreme exertion (such as fighting for life and breath). Terri, so far as anyone can imagine, was asleep when Michael got home -- no exertion at all. She went from healthy to nearly dead soon after he got home late that Saturday night.
Metabolic Acidosis in Restraint-associated Cardiac Arrest
Further to the above. Somebody stretched medical logic to, or beyond, the breaking point, in order to get a theory of "bulimia" as the cause of Terri's acute hypokalemia. I don't believe a single case has ever been reported the way they
said it happened. (Actually, it wasn't a doctor who did the stretching, it was a trial lawyer.)
The answer is a lot simpler. Trauma causes hypokalemia. Trauma also causes other symptoms that Terri suffered. Trauma causes cardiac arrest. Trauma was observed in Terri's bone scan. Domestic violence is the #1 cause of death and injury in young women.
Hypokalemia following trauma.