[Catholic and Conservative]

The only debate between the doctors is whether she has a small amount of isolated living tissue in her cerebral cortex or whether she has no living tissue in her cerebral cortex.

Liar. According to neurologist William Hammesfahr, who examined her:

Terri's 1996 brain scan shows 75% normal brain tissue; not scar tissue. It is not all fluid. That report is bogus. Her cortex is not missing; not at all. Some areas are thinned, probably due to hydrocephalus, with the fluid pushing against her brain. She is functioning. That is what is important. I have seen people a lot worse than her, and they are talking. A brain scan taken two years ago showed improvement.

http://www.ginzell.net/hammesfahr_interview_startling_revelations.html

[Hildy]

One Dr. says it and everyone else is wrong.

[Trinity_Tx]

No one's a "liar". You can still have 75% of *brain tissue* when only a small amount of your *cerebral cortex* remains.

Read every quote Hammesfher makes very carefully... he got creamed on the witness stand.

[Hennible Cobb]

Here's a small mystery to me. My mother fed my little sister for several years with a feeding tube. It's not fun, but it's not nuclear physics. I'd like to hear why Terri's parents can't do the same.

By the way, who's paying for Terri's care?

This, from Harvard's Quack Watch, doesn't say much for the credentials of Dr. Hammesfahr.

Conclusion
The theoretical basis for Hammesfahr's vasodilation treatment for stroke clashes with current knowledge about stroke physiology. In fact, the prevailing current belief is that such treatments should worsen stroke outcome, not improve it. I believe that vasodilation treatment for stroke patients should be done only as part of an approved peer-reviewed protocol that includes informed consent about the treatment's experimental status and possible risks. Because of the potential risk, I doubt that an institutional review board would permit such a study unless animal studies can demonstrate that the treatment is safe and potentially useful.

Reference
1. 93886, 93888: Transcranial Doppler studies. The Florida Medicare B Update, Nov/Dec 1999.

_____________________

Dr. Novella, a member of Quackwatch's advisory board, is Assistant Professor of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine and president of the The New England Skeptical Society.