What if There Is Something Going On in There? - (Terri Shiavo - erring to the side of caution)

New York Times Magazine ^ | 9/28/03 | CARL ZIMMER

[KosmicKitty]

Daniel Rios is 24 years old, with wavy black hair, a thick mustache and a glassy stare that seems to look both at you and through you. One day almost four years ago, while he was taking a shower, a blood vessel ruptured in his brain, and he collapsed on the bathroom floor. After emergency surgery, he lay in a coma for three weeks. When he finally opened his eyes, he could not speak or move his body; his head simply lolled. In the months that followed, the doctors monitoring him at the Center for Head Injuries at the J.F.K. Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, N.J., saw few signs that he had any meaningful mental life. Sometimes he looked as if he were crying. Other times his eyes would follow a mirror passed before his face. On his best days he was able to close his eyes on command. But those days were rare. For the most part he lay unresponsive, adrift in a neurological twilight.

One morning just over a year after his accident, Rios was taken to the Sloan Kettering Institute on Manhattan's East Side. There, in a dim room, a group of researchers placed a mask over his eyes, fixed headphones over his ears and guided his head into the bore of an M.R.I. machine. A 40-second loop of a recording made by Rios's sister Maria played through the headphones: she told him that she was there with him, that she loved him. As the sound entered his ears, the M.R.I. machine scanned his brain, mapping changes in activity. Several hours afterward, two researchers, Nicholas D. Schiff and Joy Hirsch, took a look at the images from the scan. They hadn't been sure what to expect -- Rios was among the first people in his condition to have his brain activity measured in this way -- but they certainly weren't expecting what they saw. ''We just stared at these images,'' recalls Schiff, an expert in consciousness disorders at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. ''There didn't seem to be anything missing.''

As the tape of his sister's voice played, several distinct clusters of neurons in Rios's brain had fired in a manner virtually identical to that of a healthy subject. Some clusters that became active were those known to help process spoken language, others to recall memories. Was Rios recognizing his sister's voice, remembering her? ''You couldn't tell the difference between these parts of his brain and the brain of one of my graduate students,'' says Hirsch, an expert in brain imaging at Columbia University. Even the visual centers of Rios's brain had come alive, despite the fact that his eyes were covered. It was as if his sister's words awakened his mind's eye.

[KosmicKitty]

No matter where one stands one the Terri Shiavo case, I found this article to be compelling evidence that she may have much more brain function than many of the "experts" have stated. I feel that we have no choice than to err to the side of life because none of us really know what she would have preferred or what she really understands at this point.

Please go easy on me if this has been posted before, (I did search and didn't find it), or if I have in someway posted incorrectly. This is only my 3rd time!

[Steelerfan]

Outstanding (first) post. I hope Ms. Shiavo's parents are aware of this research, it sounds like some of the techniques they describe could benefit her.

[Softballmom]

Mike Siegal, a local talk show host here in the Seattle area, discussed Terri's case this morning. One caller made this same point. What if she's normal on the "inside" but just can't communicate it to anyone? We may never know, but there are enough facts to err on the side of caution. Thank God for Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature!

[najida]

Or what if she is like a small child or baby on the inside (having suffered some damage).

We don't know what is going on in there, just that something "is". That is why we should always err on the side of caution.

[Steelerfan]

I know you have been following this closely, will Ms. Shiavo's parents or guardian be able to overule her husband and get her access to the types of tratments discussed in this article?

[slimer]

Good job!

[ET(end tyranny)]

Her HINO no longer has control over her lack of care.

[Miss Marple]

What an interesting article! Thank you so much for posting it!

I am glad someone is doing studies like this, rather than giving up on these people.

[Eastbound]

Ditto!

[TomSmedley]

A couple of Reader's Digest articles come to mind: The Butterfly in the Diving Bell was "written" by a stroke victim who could only blink his eyes to communicate. The Long Sleep of Gene Tipps dealt with a guy who suddenly awoke from a 20-year state of diminished consciousness.

Robin Williams starred in a movie, I think the title was Sleepers, about people who were able to come for brief periods "into the sunlight," yet who remembered the kindness of family members during their times in the shadows.

As a Christian, I wonder how people in such a condition process the awareness of God's presence.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Why is this excerpted? Has the NYT been added to the must-excerpt list? This is fascinating, and worth saving in its entirety.

[cgk]

Bump! Fascinating read! From NYT, no less.

[cgk]

It looks like it's excerpted because it's 6 pages long.

[KosmicKitty]

Why is this excerpted? Has the NYT been added to the must-excerpt list? This is fascinating, and worth saving in its entirety.

Sorry, I wasn't sure if the NYT was on excerpt list. So, I erred to the side of caution :-)

Mea Culpa!

[Graymatter]

>>Her HINO no longer has control over her lack of care.

I just saw an interview with Terri's dad this morning. Not old footage, but actually done this morning. He says Terri still does not have a guardian ad litem, and the family is still not allowed to see her or access any information.

I'm afraid Michael Schiavo still has control over her care, and lack of it.

[cgk]

The final quote of the article says it all:

''He was pushing us to go to a higher level,'' Fins said. ''He's aware of himself, he's happy, but it took a lot of skill to see it. If he ended up in a nursing home and started doing things like this, no one would have noticed.''

[Coleus]

`

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[AFPhys]

Last night, praying after I left FR, I was mulling over the information slant which has been given this story by the media. I believe that we in the pro-life (from any perspective) movement ought to be grateful for this case no matter the outcome. The most useful outcome from our perspective, though, is that, after all of this, Terri is able to undergo sufficient therapy and recovers enough to communicate somehow... in any way. If that miracle occurs, we can then look back on this, and point to the skepticism of so many of the world's (Satan's?) agents expressed, and have them be condemned by their own words and stories.

Let them have their little party now, using words like "comatose" and "brain dead" and even worse. Now that Terri is going to be given a true Law Guardian to do some real fact finding, I am confident the truth will come out. I honestly don't know what that truth will be, but IF IT IS that she can recover at all, this could be a real turning point case for the whole pro-life movement, and everything which they are saying now will be weapons turned against them.

I, obviously, am praying that God see fit to grant this miracle.

I also, am asking Blessed Mother Theresa, who was pro-life above all, to pray and petition He whose side she is now at for this special boon.

[Calpernia]

ping!