You had to go to the docs to obtain advice and treatment. I don't. I stand on an equal intellectual basis with them. I can teach them new things, make them new devices and understand and evaluate anything they say. It may take more time, because I'm just a chicken farmer, but in my clashes with them best of them I have not been in err.
"Thankfully, we had VERY PROGRESSIVE Doctors in town at the time."
Progressive means nothing. You hired a more capable practitioner, a better scientist iows.
I AM RESPONDING: "The two Doctors I am referring to were shockingly different from ANY other Doctors I had ever known or gone to---they didn't think of themselves as GODS, not wanting to be questioned and almost expecting patients to bow down to them.
They tried new techniques, e.g. OXYGEN and a RESPIRATOR AT HOME, with ROUND-THE-CLOCK NURSING. It enabled us to stay at home with our daughter and use the respirator to stimulate her small chest wall to grow by using positive pressure to push her lungs out against the chest wall. It took three years, but IT WORKED!!! Having all that stuff at home blew the minds of the local GOD-Doctors.
Unfortuntately, the "politics" at the backwards Children's Hospital proved too much for them and they moved up north.
Thankfully, they took the attitude of SAVING LIFE and TRYING THINGS WHICH MIGHT WORK WHEN THERE ISN'T ANYTHING ELSE TO TRY. They saved HUNDREDS of kids' lives in their short time here and all of us are FOREVER THANKFUL and INDEBTED to them.
It is INEXCUSIBLE that the JUDGES and "Doctors" involved in Terri's case are erring on the side of DEATH, instead of erring on the side of LIFE! Especially when the PARENTS and FAMILY WILLINGLY WANT to take care of her.