This is from Wiki
Lisa McPherson (February 10, 1959 – December 5, 1995) was a member of the Church of Scientology who died of a pulmonary embolism while under the care of the Flag Service Organization (FSO), a branch of the Church of Scientology. Following her death, the Church of Scientology was indicted on two felony charges, "abuse and/or neglect of a disabled adult" and "practicing medicine without a license."
The charges against the Church of Scientology were dropped after the state's medical examiner changed the cause of death from "undetermined" to an "accident" on June 13, 2000. A civil suit brought by her family against the Church was settled on May 28, 2004.
Background
In 1994, Lisa McPherson, who became a Scientology adherent at age 18,[2] moved from Dallas, Texas, to Clearwater, Florida, with her employer, AMC Publishing, at that time owned by Bennetta Slaughter and operated and staffed primarily by Scientologists. During June 1995, the church placed Lisa in an Introspection Rundown due to perceived mental instability. Lisa completed the rundown, and she attested to the state of Clear in September.
On November 18 McPherson was involved in a minor car accident. Paramedics initially left her alone because she was ambulatory, but after she began to remove her clothes, the paramedics decided to take her to the hospital. At one point she remarked that she had taken off her clothes in hopes of obtaining counseling. Hospital staff agreed that she was unharmed, but recommended keeping her overnight for observation. Following intervention by fellow Scientologists, McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital and checked herself out after a short evaluation.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada concluded:
Lisa McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital; she expressly stated her desire to receive the religious care and assistance from her fellow congregants that she and they wanted her to have.
McPherson was then taken to the Flag Land Base for "rest and relaxation" according to the Church of Scientology,but sworn statements demonstrate that McPherson was brought there for another Introspection Rundown.
Mark McGarry, an attorney with the Florida Office of the State Attorney, characterized Lisa's stay at the FSO as an "isolation watch"
My understanding now is, from talking to many, many witnesses, the purpose of her being there in the Church, correct me if I'm wrong, she was experiencing some mental problems, and you guys were going to stabilize her through an isolation watch. And after that watch occurred, there was going to be a procedure run on her, and the procedure was an Introspection Rundown.
The church accommodated McPherson in a cabana and kept a "24 hours watch" over her. Detailed logs were kept on McPherson’s day-to-day care. These logs were handwritten on plain white paper. Most of these logs were kept but the logs for the last three days were summarized from the originals and the originals shredded. Brian J. Anderson, the then Commanding Officer of the Church's Office of Special Affairs(OSA) in Clearwater, said in his sworn statement:
I saw the handwritten notes, gave a cursory look to see if the summary -- see if they matched and matched, and I threw the handwritten reports in my shred basket, and I had the report, kept the report.
McPherson’s "care logs" narrate the last 17 days of her life: McPherson was incoherent and sometimes violent, her nails were cut so she wouldn’t scratch herself or the staff, she bruised her fists and feet while hitting the wall. She had trouble sleeping and was being given natural supplements and the drug chloral hydrate to help her sleep. She looked sick and developed sores; "She looked ill like measles or chicken pox on her face." On repeated occasions she refused food and protein shakes that the staff offered. On the 26th, 30th, 3rd and 4th the staff attempted to force feed her, noting that she spat the food out. She was noted to be very weak, not standing up nor on some days moving at all. Scientologists who questioned this handling were told to "butt out".
On December 5, 1995, the Church staffers contacted David Minkoff, a Scientologist medical doctor who twice prescribed drugs (Valium and chloral hydrate) for McPherson without seeing her. They requested for him to prescribe an antibiotic to McPherson because she seemed to have an infection. Minkoff refused and stated that McPherson should be taken to a hospital and he needed to see her before prescribing anything. They objected, expressing fear that McPherson would be put under psychiatric care. Janice Johnson stated that Lisa had been gasping and had labored breathing while en route. However they passed a total of four hospitals along the way to their ultimate destination. When they arrived at Minkoff's hospital 45 minutes north of Clearwater McPherson arrived without vital signs. They worked on her for about 20 minutes trying to resuscitate her, giving her CPR and antibiotics, but to no avail. She was then declared dead.
Scientologists called McPherson’s family to say that she’d died of meningitis or a blood clot on December 5, 1995 while at Fort Murray for “rest and relaxation”. A suspicious death investigation began the next day and an autopsy was performed. A year later, in response to a Clearwater Police Department website request for information on her death, Clearwater media began speculating about the causes of McPherson’s death.
The controversy included regular pickets outside Scientology offices on or around the anniversary of her death.
First coroner's report
On December 5, 1995 McPherson’s autopsy was accomplish by assistant medical examiner Robert Davis. Davis never completed McPherson’s autopsy report because he was asked to resign from his position. The autopsy report was completed by his supervisor medical examiner Joan Wood.
The report identified the cause of death of Lisa McPherson as a Thrombo-embolism on the left pulmonary artery caused by "bed rest and severe dehydration" and the manner of death as "undetermined". The report also identified multiple hematomas (bruises), an abrasion on the nose and lesions consistent with "insect/animal bites" in the right lower arm just above the wrist.
On January 21, 1997, Wood went public on the TV show Inside Edition and stated that the autopsy showed McPherson had deteriorated slowly, going without fluids for five to 10 days, was underweight, had cockroach bites and was comatose from 24 to 48 hours before she died.
The Church of Scientology legal team proceeded to sue Carol Wood to gain access to Wood's files; including tissue, organ and blood samples from McPherson's body. The lawsuit argued that Wood waived any right to keep her records on the case closed when she spoke openly about the case with news reporters. The Church alleged that the records were needed to start their legal defense. These records were previously denied to the Church because they were part of an on going criminal investigation.
Independent opinion
The St. Petersburg Times contacted five medical experts for their opinions about the report, and they confirmed it. The Church of Scientology responded that the five doctors should have been given the entire autopsy report, not just the vitreous fluid tests, which pathologists use to determine the composition of blood at the time before death.
The Church hires forensic pathologists
The Church hired its own team to oppose Wood’s findings, including two nationally known forensic pathologists: Dr. Michael Baden, a former Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York, and Dr. Cyril Wecht, a county coroner from Pittsburgh. Dr's. Baden and Wecht concluded that McPherson, 36, died suddenly and unpredictably of a blood clot in her left lung that originated from a knee bruise she suffered in a minor automobile accident 17 days earlier.
This scientific evidence was then sent to Joan Wood for review The scientific evidence sent to Wood included:
Research on compounds known as ketones, which people produce when they are dehydrated, starving or even fasting. Tests of McPherson's bodily fluids showed no ketones.
Findings from a body measurement expert hired by the church. The expert compared autopsy photos of McPherson with those taken in happier times, shortly before the accident. The expert concluded from the photographs there was "no appreciable weight loss," countering the prosecution's view that McPherson lost 20 to 40 pounds while in Scientology's care.
A report by a Morton Plant Hospital doctor who saw McPherson just before she entered Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel, McPherson already was thin with protruding cheek bones.
A report by Robert D. Davis, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy for Wood's office, concluded McPherson's body was of average nutritional status.
Medical literature and sworn testimony that it says proves the eye fluid samples were improperly handled by Wood's office, incompetently tested at an independent lab and ultimately contaminated.
Also notable was that Wood did not do McPherson's autopsy personally but assigned it to Robert Davis, an employee who later was asked to resign and was a witness for the defendant (Scientology). He disputed Wood's conclusions and testified that she did not speak to him about her findings before signing his autopsy after he had resigned.
The plaintiff's response was that that the chain of custody of evidence was not broken (also corroborated by Crow's memo
They simply argue that the McPherson postmortem test results of fluid,... cannot be relied upon.... They apparently ignore the testimony of Robert Davis, M.D., Joan Wood, M.D., David Minkoff, M.D., Janice Johnson, M.D., attendant staffer Rita Boykin, attendant staffer Heather Hof Petzold, the ER personnel, and the two autopsy technicians, Stodgell and Daerr.
Due to the vitreous fluid tests, they maintained that she was dehydrated. Chemical pathologists Calvin Bandt and Spitz concurred with the initial coroner's report in their affidavits. Referring to Dr. Minkoff's affirmative testimony of McPherson described with "hollowed-out eyes ... thin skin ... and did she look dehydrated, yes", plaintiff said even still the abovementioned Scientology experts "opine Lisa McPherson was not dehydrated in appearance and therefore it is error to look at the post mortem chemistries." Plaintiff witness Dr. Alan Wu also testified that ketones need not be present for dehydration in a special case like McPherson where she was fed proteins and therefore didn't create measurable ketones. The plaintiffs maintained that Lisa did lose water weight to result in 108 lbs with respect to the vitreous fluid.
Final coroner's report
After the review Wood changed the cause of death from "undetermined" to an "accident". Wood traced McPherson's pulmonary embolism to her psychosis and a minor auto accident as major factors. This garnered controversy as described in Assistant State Attorney Douglas Crow's memo in which he recommends dropping the criminal case.
They and the plaintiffs stated:
Even after changing her opinion, Dr. Wood states she is ambivalent as to whether Lisa's death is medical neglect or homicide. (Appendix "2", p35 of June 1, 2000 sworn interview to the state attorney)."and that Woods initially changed [the death certificate] to read the death was an "accident" not caused by dehydration, Crow said. She then reconsidered, he said, deciding to re-insert dehydration as a cause of death and list the death as a homicide. The next morning, she changed her mind once again and finalized the changes.
Crow's memo and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement alleged she had been under constant surveillance of private investigators and that "several factors may have impacted the quality of her judgment...citing Wood's vulnerability to litigation in the case and a suggestion by Scientology that it could reveal information extremely damaging to Wood's office and her career." Wood also resigned that year due to prosecutors and defense attorneys attacking her credibility based on this report and the handling of the case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_McPherson
