Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- An attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, is disputing the findings of an autopsy report released yesterday claiming Terri had significant brain damage, was essentially blind, and was likely not physically abused before her collapse.

The Schindlers say their daughter tried to speak with them and always noticed when they entered her hospice room. They also point to videos taken with Terri interacting with doctors and following a balloon over her head with her eyes.

Schindler family attorney David Gibbs indicated the Schindlers want to have medical experts further analyze the autopsy report and they may take some sort of legal action afterwards.

"Future legal action, we are at this point just examining every option and no decision has been made," Gibbs told the Associated Press. "I've encouraged the family to just let time settle a little bit."

Gibbs pointed to part of the autopsy results showing that Terri's heart was strong and she could have lived another decade or longer had she not been starved and dehydrated to death.

"It demonstrated she had a strong will to live," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said the family "recognizes that Terri was greatly disabled" an added that if Terri couldn't see, her sense of hearing was acute enough to know when her family entered her room.

Terri's brother said her family knew all along that the collapse caused her mental disabilities, but they wanted to help her regardless of her physical or psychological condition.

"We knew all along that Terri was profoundly brain damaged," said Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler. "We simply wanted to bring her home and care for her. It all goes back to this quality of life."

George Felos, the euthanasia advocate who is the lead attorney for Terri's estranged husband Michael, told AP that the autopsy confirms the claims Michael made about Terri's condition for "years and years."

He added that Michael plans to release the photos of Terri's shrunken brain, though Florida law says such photos can't be obtained by the general public.

"He feels that it is extremely important for everyone to see what is so apparent from those photos: the profound atrophy," Felos said.

The autopsy indicated Terri's brain had shrunk to half the size of a normal human brain, revealing significant mental disabilities.

Though the autopsy was not able to confirm that Michael's possible physical abuse of Terri caused her collapse, Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the county medical examiner, also threw significant doubt on his and the media's theory that an eating disorder or significant drinking of iced tea caused the collapse.

"I was looking for everything I could," Thogmartin said. "And it just wasn't there. I was grasping at straws."

Gibbs said questions still remain, including why Michael did not call 911 about Terri's collapse at 4:30 AM until more than an hour later - at 5:40 AM.

The autopsy findings also did not shed any further light on whether Terri was in a persistant vegetative state. Thogmartin admitted diagnosing that is very subjective and nothing in the autopsy could say for sure.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the autopsy did nothing to change President Bush's view that he was right to sign a bill asking courts to stop Terri's painful starvation and dehydration death and to review the lawsuit the Schindlers filed.

"The president is always going to stand on the side of protecting and defending life," McClellan told reporters.

Related web sites:
Terri Schiavo's parents - http://www.terrisfight.org