The legal dispute over Schiavo's death took seven years, starting with the filing of a petition in 1998 with the Pinellas County Circuit Court for permission to remove her feeding tube and ending with her death in 2005. Following her death, autopsy showed her brain to have half the normal mass for a woman her age and confirmed the extensive damage shown on CAT scan. | The legal dispute over Schiavo's death took seven years, starting with the filing of a petition in 1998 with the Pinellas County Circuit Court for permission to remove her feeding tube and ending with her death in 2005. Following her death, autopsy showed her brain to have half the normal mass for a woman her age and confirmed the extensive damage shown on CAT scan. |