Save Terri bump!!!!
Wow, great find stan. Everyone should read the entire article and comments. Lots of interesting questions raised.
Yes, I ran across this website last night after asking an adamant "Let Terri Die" person on this board if he had personally seen a scan.
Miami Ethics website he referred to
Justice for Terri Schiavo link
I haven't had a chance to read these sites yet, and since I didn't know how to interpret the scan myself, I didn't comment on it last night. All new info for me. Bumping for Terri.
He tried to testify for her and was ignored.(William M. Hammesfahr, M.D.) It is basically his final conclusion of Terri's condition. I have left out parts because it is lengthy but I think you can get the jest.
Impression:
The patient is not in coma.
She is alert and responsive to her environment. She responds to specific people best.
She tries to please others by doing activities for which she gets verbal praise.
She responds negatively to poor tone of voice. She responds to music. She differentiates sounds from voices.
She differentiates specific people's voices from others.
She differentiates music from stray sound.
She attempts to verbalize.(!!!!!)
She has voluntary control over multiple extremities
She can swallow.(!!!!)
She is partially blind
She is probably aphasic and has a degree of receptive aphasia.
She can feel pain.
On this last point, it is interesting to observe that the records from Hospice show frequent medication administered for pain by staff.
With respect to specifics and specific recommendations in order to carry out the instructions of the Second District Court of Appeal:
From a neurological standpoint: The patient appears to be partially blind.
She needs a full opthamological (eye) evaluation and visual evoked potentials done to flash and checkerboard patters. The opthamological examination is to evaluate her retina and her ophthalmic nerve to try to determine the cause of her visual limitations and if any treatment exists. The evoked potentials looks at the nerve between the eye and the visual centers in the brain, to see if there is treatable damage and the type of damage, if any in these areas.
This is important, as for individuals to interact with her...
*snip*
Communication: She can communicate. She needs a Speech Therapist, Speech Pathologist, and a communications expert to evaluate how to best communicate with her and to allow her to communicate and for others to communicate with her.
Also, a treatment plan for how to develop better communication needs to be done.
*snip*
ENT: The patient can clearly swallow, and is able to swallow approximately 2 liters of water per day (the daily amount of saliva generated). Water is one of the most difficult things for people to swallow. It is unlikely that she currently needs the feeding tube.(!!!!!) She should be evaluated by an Ear Nose and Throat specialist, and have a new swallowing exam.
*snip*
Her physical exam and videotapes also suggest a spinal cord injury is also present, as she has much better control over he face, head, and neck, than over her arms and legs.
This reminds one of a person with a spinal cord injury who has good facial control, but poor use of arms and legs. It is possible that a correctable spinal abnormality such as a herniated disk may be found that could be treated and result in better neurological functioning. This should be looked for, as may be treatable.
Thus, there may be an injured disk or spinal cord; the disk injury is more treatable, the spinal cord injury, if present without a disk injury, may be more difficult to treat.
A person with a spinal cord injury and hypoxic encephalopathy will need different treatment and rehab recommendations than one who just has a hypoxic encephalopathic.
Interestingly, I have seen this pattern of mixed brain (cerebral) and spinal cord findings in a patient once before, a patient who was asphyxiated.
*snip*
____________________________ William M. Hammesfahr, M.D.
Here's a nice picture of a random autonomic smile for you. ;^)
Where there is cortex there is hope!
They've already decided they want her dead. It seems no amount of info has the power to stop this, because so many people think that if a person is inconvenient they should be done away with.
Why hasn't she had an MRI and/or a PET scan, anyone know?
BUMP!
The CT scan looks bad, if this in fact it's hers. Can anyone confirm it's her HCT?
So, I've been wondering...
If Terri's original brain injury was actually inflicted by something Michael did to her, I'd really like to know how and why his original story has withstood scrutiny all these years? Or has it?
If he is totally innocent of wrong-doing, then why the nagging doubts about him? Is there a reason his innocence or guilt has not been proven one way or the other? When I first heard about Terri a few years ago, I remember feeling uneasy about Michael's behavior. I remember I "didn't like his face", and I still don't, but last time I checked, looking smarmy wasn't a crime.
That shining object is the tip of a shunt. A shunt is a tube inserted into the brain to reduce pressure caused by build-up of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain. That big black butterfly in the middle of Terri's brain is her ventricular system, which holds the CSF and in Terri's case, it is enlarged (dilated).
Now...why was Terri being shunted in 1996? First, if Terri's brain damage was due to oxygen deprivation, her enlarged ventricles would be by a passive mechanism -- which is not amenable to shunting -- not by obstruction of the egress of CSF.
To me, the presence of a shunt indicates obstruction to the flow of CSF that needs to be circumvented. Obstruction to flow is hard to postulate given the mechanism of Terri's brain injury (oxygen deprivation).
It would NOT be hard to postulate, however, if she had BLOOD in her head at some point in the past. So did she? Was there a history of trauma? I would like to see the BONE SCAN taken of Terri that purportedly showed evidence of traumatic type osseous uptake!
Evidence of trauma was brought up by a neurologist and the pathologist that reviewed the bone scan. She also had a neck vertebral injury.
Can't the state look at this stuff and investigate this as "foul play"?
Very interesting. From other reports I had seen discussing Terri's cerebral cortex I didn't think she had any hope of recovery, but this might change things substantially.
The judge is delaying hoping to make a decsion moot.
Excellent. Thanks.
Thanks, SS and MM!
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
Wow!