At Michael Schiavo pleads case on CNN --- posted at FR on Oct. 28, 2003, by JohnHuang2 ---
Reply 9 ---
"In last night's interview, Schiavo addressed the strangulation testimony by asking why her neck was not bruised and her trachea damaged."
Michael Schiavo assumes "the hands on approach," when that is not required.
In addition, a "rigid neck" that is considered in Terri's case, as a sign of "strangulation," can instead be caused by various other methods of attempting to cut off a person's airways.
For example, a hypothetical couple "having a domestic dispute" ---
A husband "getting carried away" during their argument(s) into the night and early morning hours, enough to "forget himself" ...He, a large heavy man, sits quickly on the upper back of his relatively smaller, lighter wife, who herself had been sitting on the floor and bent over some, exhausted and crying.
He forces her to the floor face down and causes her to hyperextend her neck as she struggles to raise her head, break free, and get air --- there is a dislocation of certain areas of her neck's connective tissues, the resulting strains and pinching of nerves leading to a severely "rigid neck."
With the immediate presence of his body heat in addition to her diminishing oxygen supply, she goes into shock.
She is forced into unconciousness; then some minutes more pass, of insufficient oxygen (not necessarily a denial of all blood) flow to her brain; her heart beat might be undetectable.
Things go from bad to worse with the time that the husband remains upon her.
The husband regains some semblance of reason and senses her change of state, as well as what may befall him. He gets himself off of her, paces around, then he returns to her and checks, but cannot detect, her pulse ... he calls for help.
Her injuries would be revealed, over a year later in bone scans of the head, neck, torso, and lower body. Her injuries include a compression fracture of the wife's L1 vertebra, which literally plays a pivotal role in support of the upper back.
No heart attack.
Just trauma to tell the tale, in her bones.