John Kerry's Magic Cellphone [Kerry Heard From Reeve On Saturday. Reeve Went Into Coma Thursday.]

Wizbang ^ | Oct. 12, 2004 | Kevin Aylward

[conservativecorner]

It's sort of like his lucky CIA hat...

SANTA FE, United States (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry hailed Christopher Reeve as "America's hero" and vowed to drive on the dead Superman actor's crusade for stem-cell research.

...Kerry said the last time he heard from Reeve was on Saturday, when the actor left a message on his cellphone, enthused by the Massachusetts senator's decision to raise stem-cell research in Friday's second presidential debate.

Oh really? WHO TV (Des Moines) October 11th, 2004 - According to sources close to the actor, Reeve died Sunday. The actor fell into a coma on Thursday after going into cardiac arrest at his New York home. It's true - Kerry will say ANYTHING to get elected...

Update: WHO Des Moines appears to be the only one reporting he went into a coma on Thursday. ABC, CNN, and others are reporting that he had a heart attack at his Pound Ridge, New York, home on Saturday during treatment for an infected bedsore wound. He fell into a coma and never regained consciousness. CNN puts it this way:

Kerry's cellphone is a little less magical, now it's just a bit suspect...

[GOPJ]

Best comment:

Looks like Kerry has been caught "Up a river in Cambodia" again!

[eno_]

So Reeve could have placed the call on Friday or Saturday.

By ALL accounts he was too ill for this to be plausible. Read that link on severe infections.

[Fatalis]

Read the posts from 151 to 200 on this thread. This blog story is very flawed.

[eno_]

Very flawed only if you believe he went from "enthusiastic" to dead in a short time.

What he died of takes time. Reeve was almost certainly in bad shape for several days.

[mattdono]

Ok, I am not going to dispute when Chris Reeves did or did not slip into a coma (nor when he suffered cardiac arrest).

I thought Chris Reeves was a good actor and I admired his fighting to the end. I disagreed with his aggressive position on the stem-cell issue and his criticisms of the Bush administration for not doing more when...

1. the President did more for stem-cell research than any other president, ever
2. there has been $250 million in private funding that has been invested in private stem cell research and made some progress, and
3. given that we recently watched a private endeavor reach sub-orbital space, I don't want to hear that the private sector doesn't cut it when it comes to advances in science or technology

BUT...

What I do have is screen captures of the INITIAL WHOTV report and the REVISED WHOTV report.

Here's the initial web page report:

Here's the revised web page report:

To capture the screens, I used a product called Snag-It (v7.1) made by TechSmith (Product Link). I captured the entire page (scrolling) so you can see any and all notations, in context. There are no qualifications that state "This page was updated" or "Updated, please refer here [with "here"] being a link] to view original".

Also, in the auditing interests, you can download a video of my screens (with 1 Firefox tab with the initial report and 1 Firefox tab with the revised report). Right-click here to download.

AND...

...I will only add one small quip. Please note the copyright notification at the bottom of each screen

All content © Copyright 2001 - 2004 WorldNow and WHO-TV, a division of NYT Broadcast Holdings, LLC.

And, who has the New York Times endorsed and supported throughout this political season?

Guess they can't embarass their candidate.

[f zero]

I wonder if this conversation was seared into his memory too?

[proud American in Canada]

great find!

Yep... they changed history to fit Kerry's story, when they realized he'd goofed.

[f zero]

Great catch! I saw the second page this AM and was searching for the reference to Thursday. Now I know why I could not find it.

[Fatalis]

By ALL accounts he was too ill for this to be plausible. Read that link on severe infections.

Are you Reeve's attending physician? I'm not. Maybe Reeve was too ill to make the call. The problem is this story started out saying he was in a coma on Thursday which would mean Kerry lied about a call on Saturday. We now know Thursday is wrong so a call on Friday or Saturday is possible. People can will themselves to do implausible things when they are gravely ill and by all accounts Christopher Reeve did that many times since his accident. The fact is there is a window of time when Reeve could have made that call to Kerry. People can hope otherwise but this story is weak and will probably only embarrass anyone pushing it unless Reeve's wife denies a phone call was made or someone comes up with some cell phone records for Kerry that shows he didn't recieve a call from Reeve.

[conservativecorner]

This from a wizbang thread from a caregiver in reply to someone's question regarding bed sores and infections:

I work and volunteer in end-of-life care for the elderly and disabled. I have seen some pretty severe pressure sores, but none of them were to the extent that a patient had ever developed an infection from them [I'm assuming the caregiver is talking about a bloodstream infection such as staph]. I can't even imagine it, Reeves must've had an iron will to have had a system-wide infection and still be alive.

That's what raises a giant red flag for me. Before passing away in June, I took extensive care of treating, alleviating, and preventing bed sores for someone. He had fairly mild pressure sores (medically speaking, his life wasn't in danger but he had discomfort), and would not admit to his family he was in pain, only to the staff. The pressure sores were so painful he was given 1/4 of a mL of morphine sulfate, every 15 minutes, all the way up until the moment of death. He drifted in and out of lucidity, as most pain medications that relieve pressure sore discomfort are quite potent.

As you can imagine, that man didn't really care about politics, or current events, or even close friends, but just wanted to be with his wife and children, and priest. So I find it incredulous that Reeve called up an old friend to say "Way to go!"

[Fatalis]

Ok, I am not going to dispute when Chris Reeves did or did not slip into a coma (nor when he suffered cardiac arrest).

But that's the whole point of this blog story, that Reeve was in a coma when Kerry said he got the call.

And, who has the New York Times endorsed and supported throughout this political season?

Guess they can't embarass their candidate.

Sorry that's too much tinfoil look at the links I posted at #155. There are no other sources that put Reeve in a coma on Thursday and almost 900 that do on Saturday. Does the New York Times own all 900?

Occam's razor says that WHO got it wrong and has corrected their error. They should acknowledge it though.

[kabar]

People can hope otherwise but this story is weak and will probably only embarrass anyone pushing it unless Reeve's wife denies a phone call was made or someone comes up with some cell phone records for Kerry that shows he didn't recieve a call from Reeve.

If verification depends on Reeve's wife, then she will go with the Kerry story. There should be medical records verifying exactly when Kerry was admitted to the hospital and the approximate time of his heart attack and coma. They should also detail his worsening condition in the days leading up to his death. Obviously, Reeve's could not make the telephone call himself. He always had a medical attendant near him at all times and especially as his infection worsened during the week. Someone placed the call for him.

We do need facts to arrive at sound conclusions, however the changing news stories and lack of detail do raise legitimate questions, which need to be answered. If Kerry made this story up, then it becomes an issue. I see nothing wrong with asking these questions. Unfortunately, I don't see the MSM pursuing it.

It still remains my contention that Kerry was aware of Reeve's worsening condition and probable prognosis prior to the debate and used Reeve's name as an opportunity to advance his political agenda. He will now use the death and funeral as a further opportunity to do likewise. Kerry is the guy who went to Vietnam to film his exploits and build a resume. He knew the obscure three PH rule and used it to bug out after 4 months manufacturing PHs to take advantage of it. Kerry is a calculating opportunist who leaves nothing to chance.

[conservativecorner]

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/13720166?source=PA

Reeve was being treated at the hospital for a pressure wound, a common complication for people living with paralysis.

In the past week the wound had caused a serious systemic infection. His heart failure is understood to have been a direct result of the infection.

[mattdono]

Occam's razor says that WHO got it wrong and has corrected their error. They should acknowledge it though.

I agree with you sentiments and you should note that I drew specific attention to that in my post. In fact, my post (and graphics) was to point that WHOTV is changing the stories without the acknowledgement of an error.

My point about the NYT has nothing to do with the other 900 sources, just the WHOTV source, which as you (and I) have noted does not acknowledge the change they made.

As far as when Chris Reeves slipped into a coma, I'm only reading what I am reading and it appears that Saturday was when he either had the cardiac arrest or slipped into a coma (whichever was first). But, like others, I find it hard to believe that Chris Reeves was "enthused" (John Kerry's words) when he, reportedly, has a systemic (which I think means whole body, not just an isolated area) infection. But, I'm not a doctor, so I don't know.

But, you know what...

...we shouldn't be talking about any of this.

• John Kerry is the one that is injecting his commentary into Chris Reeves' death.
• It was John Kerry that, less than an hour after the initial announcement of Mr. Reeves' death, was in front of cameras touting how enthused Chris Reeves was that John Kerry was "fighting for him" and the stem-cell research issue
• And, it is the Kerry campaign that is now accusing Republicans of somehow making this a political issue

The guy should have said, "Look, I knew him. I'm sad he's gone. I don't want to make a political statement on his death". To me, that would have (rightfully) earned him some (not much, but some) respect.

But, as most of us have stated several times now, that Senator Kerry can't even let a man pass on without making political hay out of it.

[UsnDadof8]

Looks like Kerry has been caught "Up a river in Cambodia" again!

LOL I bet the memory of the conversation was "seared" into his memory" !

[Dave S]

Debunked by whom?

A thread here that ran last night. He fell into coma on Saturday night after having a heart attack. That speaks of something that came on quickly.

[conservativecorner]

So let me get this straight. Reeve was suffering from a serious blood infection brought on by bed sores that ultimately caused the heart attack at his home. He never regained consciousness at the hospital after arriving there, and Kerry says he had a long cell phone call with Reeve's either Friday night after 10:30 P.M. or sometime Saturday before this serious infection caused cardiac arrest. Ya, that makes perfect sense to me. HEAVY SARCASM!!


Reeve publicist Wesley Combs told reporters the American actor, 52, died in a New York hospital on Sunday.

He said in a statement Reeve went into a coma on Saturday after suffering a heart attack at his home during treatment for a pressure wound.

"The wound had become severely infected...Reeve was admitted to Northern Westchester Hospital on Saturday evening and never regained consciousness," the statement said on Monday.

Reeve has been confined to a wheelchair after suffering multiple injuries, including two shattered neck vertebrae, when he was thrown from his horse at an equestrian event in 1995.

[Dave S]

So let me get this straight. Reeve was suffering from a serious blood infection brought on by bed sores that ultimately caused the heart attack at his home

Doesnt mean that they all occured at the same time. It doesnt say when he got the bed sores which got infected. The infection then got into his blood which allowed his heart to get infected, causing a form of heart failure. Once the heart was damaged it didnt make any difference whether he still had an infection or not. The infection could have been cured months ago. Once he had heart failure he was more prone to heart attack. BTW, I have had infections in the past with fever of over 102 and I was able to pick up a telephone and make calls. I was even able to go to the drugstore and wait in line for antibiotics. I think you are too invested in finding a scandal where none may exist.

Also, Kerry said he heard the message on Saturday. That doesnt mean the call was left Saturday. You got to believe that someone like Kerry receives a lot of calls and that he doesnt always return them immediately. Dont run off to the media and be looked at as a conspiracy kook.

[BykrBayb]

Let's see if I got this right. On Friday 10/8/2004 kerry said that Reeves had called him on Saturday 10/2/2004. Reeves slipped into a coma on Thursday 10/7/2004, and died on Sunday 10/10/2004. Where is the discrepency? Surely kerry didn't say "Reeves called me tomorrow, Saturday 10/9/2004." Do I just have the dates all screwy?

[television is just wrong]

does coma sound familiar to you???