Posted on 03/30/2005 8:26:42 AM PST by jdhljc169
A Few Good Men
I'm getting tired of hearing what neurologists have to say about Terri Schiavo's CT of the brain. Real Tired. The Florida Sun Sentinel had a gang of neurologists analyze one of Terri's CT's of the brain. Here's what they said:
About 70 percent to 90 percent of Schiavo's upper brain is gone, and there's also damage to her lower brain that controls instinctive functions such as breathing and swallowing, said three Florida neurologists who viewed 12 of her CT "computed tomography" X-ray scans Tuesday and Wednesday.
"This is as severe brain damage as I've ever seen," said Dr. Leon Prockop, a professor and former chairman of neurology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, upon viewing the scans.
Then there's the infamous Dr. Ronald Cranford, who has the double-whammy credentials of neurologist AND bioethicist (have you had enough of bioethicists for a while? Why is it they all have the same opinion and they all start out their spiels by saying "this is a tragic case for everyone involved...") who also defined Terri's CT of the brain as being as bad as he's seen.
So What Have You Seen?
I've watched a steady stream of neurologists, bioethicists, and neurologist/bioethicists from Columbia, Cornell, and NYU interviewed all week on Fox and CNN and MSNBC. They all said about the same thing, that Terri's CT scan was "the worst they'd ever seen"or "as bad as they've ever seen."
Here's the problem with these experts: THEY DON'T INTERPRET CT SCANS OF THE BRAIN. RADIOLOGISTS DO.
*Oh*
(Excerpt) Read more at codeblueblog.blogs.com ...
Blogs are not news. They are blogs. I see that the mods have moved this thread to the place it should have been posted in the first place.
Dr. Ron Cranford, a neurologist at the University of Minnesota, assessed Schiavo's brain function in 2001 as part of a court-ordered assessment. He was quoted in Florida Today as saying "[Schiavo] has no electrical activity in her cerebral cortex on an EEG (electroencephalogram), and a CT (computerized tomography) scan showed massive atrophy in that region."
Source.
Three Florida neurologists viewed 12 of Schiavo's CT scans on March 22 [10] (http://www.miami.edu/ethics/schiavo/CT%20scan.png). After viewing the scans, Dr. Leon Prockop (a professor and former chairman of the neurology department at the University of South Florida's College of Medicine) was quoted by the Sun-Sentinel as saying that Schiavo's scan exhibits the "most severe brain damage as I've ever seen." Dr. Walter Bradley, the chairman of neurology at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, said that he "doubts there's any activity going on in the higher levels of her brain."
Source.
In 2002, a trial was held to determine whether or not any new therapy treatments would help Schiavo restore any cognitive function. A new computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan) was done, and showed severe cerebral atrophy. An EEG showed no measurable brain activity.
Sorry, I haven't posted but 3 or 4 times.
Over here...
It's true- radiologists do the first readings of scans. At the same time- I expect a neurologist to be well-versed in interpreting and understanding BRAIN scans. This is, after all, their field.
I just dropped a post on that thread!
ROFL- timing is everything, eh? :)
:-)
Fascinating information. Add to that that other exams are said to be more definitive.
I know that when I had a pulmonary embolism, the CT scan showed nothing. It was the nuclear scan that correctly diagnosed the problem and perhaps saved my life. Probably isn't pertinent to Terri's case, but I do know that plenty of doctors have recommended different technology be used to diagnose Terri.
This is the video that should be shown on the news everynight - it is even more powerful than the balloon video.
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/ccb/videos/Terri_Big_Eyes.rm
This is not reflex action - she heard the doctor, she opened her eyes as wide as she could to impress him.
Even Fox news has ignored this clip.
Interesting information -quite hard to ignore.
Yes, but the underlying assumption is that somehow by using inexact science and accepting the notion that some life is not worth living we can draw a line in the sand that allows us to kill off people deemed hopeless. Sometimes I hear some saying that the issue is whether or not she can recover, and I wonder recover to what. What would satisfy this demand? No way she can return to being 25 years old. That's for sure.
Agree ... The big eye video has got to be the most telling of evidense ... TERRI was absolutely without a doubt showing everyone that she heard and understood the dr. and was begging him to take note of how wide she was trying to open her eyes ... A thought ...to follow
If someone were to be unplugged from a ventilator ....that allowed them to breath and be kept alive ,would it be okay if they went ahead and put a pillow over their face to expedite the death?
In Terri's case ,the court has ruled that she has her feeding tube removed... A person who is not brain dead ...reacts to family members ,performs maneuvers that a neurologist has testified to ...I myself have seen the video where they ask her to open her eyes on command ..terri not only opened her eyes ,but raised her eyebrows so high ..LETTING us all KNOW ..HEY I am IN HERE ..please know it !
This is devastating...
My point about the pillow ,goes along with the medical order's to expedite terri's dehydration ..explicit instructions are to :
Dress her in turtle neck sweater, couderoy legging's ,2 blankets wraped tightly! Scoplamine ( ANTIHISTAMINE to futher dehydrate her ... swab her mouth regularly to get rid of any saliva... ( MY GOD) !
Now if you haven't seen the rest of the medical instructions for her death ...save yourself ..and just try not to read about it ..grusome!
A thought to think hard about ..IF Terri's condition was caused by a miocardial infarction due to her bullemia and the bullemia cause a severe electrolyte imbalance and thus a drop in potassium so signifigant that she went into cardiac arrest because of a heart rythum irregularity caused again by lack of potassium .......... And WA LAH ..this happened OVERNIGHT! WHY in the HELL has she not gone into CARDIAC ARREST RIGHT NOW or int he last 11 days with no food or water or the previous times they tried to kill her this way!
The medical literature states that it is an EXTREMELY rare occurence for someone to suffer cardiac arrest due to aonerexia and even rarer for BULLEMIA ,because anerexic's starve themselves and bullemic's merely eat and drink large quantitie's and then purge ..and not everything goes...Some is saved ,especially fluids which act the the kidney's at a faster rate then digested substance's!
I do not beleive for one minute her condition was caused by her bullemic state ...and no medical records have shown Terri suffered a heart attack all test for that were negative ..troponi will tell you if someone has had a heart attack and I am sure that test was done immediately and it was negative ...furthermore ..the heart muscle will be damaged to a signifigant degree if it lacked blood supply long enough ...now supposedly she lacked blood supply so long that her brain is dead now ,but her heart which was without oxygenated blood for that time period as well, still functions normally ???? The heart is a muscle ,if it lacks oxygenated blood for a signifigant period of time, the muscle will die and it will show signs of death by decreased ejection fraction ...you can see this muscle on an echocardiogram very clearly ....people who even have blocked coronary arterie's and they aren't even 100% blocked will show damage to the muscle and terri has no muscle damage ...but severe brain damage? PLEASE!
A cat scan of the brain was performed on Terri early on ...which is about as good as an xray for diagnosing disc problems in the neck or back ..MRI'S are needed for many reasons in this case ..why hasn't one been ordered and demanded to be done ..
If michael gets away with this ...as it looks like he will it will all have been witness to public murder
and all LEGAL.... Now if that's not progress for the system ,I don't know what is.
Very well stated.
My position is that whatever Terri's 'condition' she is human and as such her life should be accorded the full respect, dignity and value of any others. There is a big difference between permitting death and procuring death and starving someone to death is not warranted for any reason.
You've tied a lot of loose strings together, very well.
That's a very interesting and moving clip. I would like to see the next 15 minutes or so. It ends right when she responds and in the middle of the therapist's sentence.
If Michael ever has to serve prison time for this crime, they ought to get all the videos like this together and make him watch it for hours every day. If he refuses, then they should refuse him food and water until he changes his mind...
I don't want to get involved in a medical ethics debate here, but I had to respond to this statement. THIS IS TOTAL NONSENSE. Radiologists certainly do review CTs, but so to Neurogists, Surgeons and many, many other specialists. A neurologist is perfectly qualified to interpret a CT of the brain, just as an Orthopedic Surgeon reviews MRIs of the knee, FPs review x-rays of the chest, etc. etc. etc.
Yes you are correct , however ,you must also realise that RADIOLOGIST do this as a specialty ...they see thousands of xray's , cat scan's and Mri's on a monthly basis ...Physcians as a rule never question a radilogist report and do not go back and second guess unless OTHER factor's are present (ie) patinet symptoms which would question a radilogist's origanla report or findings .
I PROMISE you that PHYSICAN'S DEPEND on radiologist's for their expertise ..and their final diagnosis is based on not their OWN interp of the scan/xray/ or other ,but that of the radiologist'
I do medical imaging for Doctor's ... ( Many know so little it would blow your socks off and leave you with very little faith in the med community ... so guess what WE ALL work together and this usually makes for a proper diagnosis .
"I KNOW THIS " and let me tell you this much ..DOCTOR'S do NOT have the training RADIOLOGIST'S DO ..point blank!
Well republican MD ..you already knew this ,didn't you
"Wink"
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