Woman's Sustaining Care Resumed- But Experts Say No Hope Exists For Her Recovery

The Washington Post ^ | October 23, 2003 | Rob Stein

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Life support for Terri Schiavo was resumed yesterday in a Florida hospital room, but many experts said there is virtually no hope that she will ever recover, despite her parents' desperate hopes.

"If it's over a year, she's not ever going to get up," said Fred Plum, a professor emeritus at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. "You just don't see it. It just doesn't happen."

Schiavo, 39, has been in a persistent vegetative state since her heart stopped for unknown reasons in 1990. A feeding tube in her stomach was removed Oct. 15 after her husband, Michael, who said his wife had told him she would not want to be kept alive under such circumstances, won a long series of court battles to have life-sustaining nourishment withdrawn so she could die.

[najida]

You brought up a good point.

Do you think that Michael Schiavo is acting out of love?

And are her parents?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

She did what she would have done the whole time had she not been given the "you should do it because he is a vegetable" opinion by the attending neurologist.

What I find interesting is to compare this to Schiavo. Could it be that he is guilty of the same mistaken judgement? Does a mistake make him evil?

[TheDon]

"If it's over a year, she's not ever going to get up," said Fred Plum, a professor emeritus at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. "You just don't see it. It just doesn't happen."

Oh really?

Girl emerges from coma during Bryan Adams concert

Last Updated: 2003-03-12 14:00:21 -0400 (Reuters Health)

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters Health) - A young woman left in a coma for six years after she collapsed at school has started to respond to the world around her after her mother took her to see her pop star hero Bryan Adams perform live.

Christiane Kittel, now 24, was left in a vegetative state after her collapse on 12 June 1997. Doctors believe her condition was caused by a combination of hot weather, a hereditary haemophilia condition and side-effects of the contraceptive pill.

She had to be resuscitated three times, once at school and twice at the University Clinic in Regensburg, where she underwent surgery before being attached to life-support machines in the intensive care unit.

Later she was moved to the intensive care unit at the Clinic for Neurologic Rehabilitation in Regensburg, where her parents Karl-Gunther and Adelheide Kittel have kept a 15-hour watch by her bedside every day.

Her father, now 55, told Reuters Health: "We did not want her to be alone so we have spent every day by her bedside. We take it in turns, my wife does six hours than I take over for about six hours, there is usually someone there constantly between 5 AM and 8 PM."

"We have never given up hope of seeing our beloved daughter again," he said.

"Bryan Adams was always her biggest hero and she loved his music before she fell into a coma," said his wife Adelheid, 53. "When we heard about the concert in Regensburg we knew straight away that we had to take her there."

A local paper paid for the tickets and doctors arranged special help to get Christiane to the concert, her mother said.

During the concert, Christiane started to move in the wheelchair and was fascinated by the music and the singer.

"I will never forget it, I could have hugged the whole world. When we got back to the clinic she was still animated, and three times she called my name, she said Mama."

Head of the clinic Dr. Gerhard Weber, who has worked with Christiane for six years, confirmed that the concert had been a big leap forward for the young woman, but warned there was still a long way to go.

"I think there had been signs that she was starting to respond to the treatment she was getting before the concert and was no longer in a full vegetative state, but the concert certainly represented a big improvement," he told Reuters Health.

"There is a long way to go but I am very happy with the results of our experiment. It was the first time she had been out of the hospital apart from a single brief trip to her home. What she needs now is for the various therapies to continue and a lot of emotional stimulation including more trips home, for example.

"It's wrong to say it is a great miracle what happened here," Weber added. "But we have taken small steps and we are on the way to our goal."

But father Karl-Gunther takes another view: "I have no doubt that it was the concert that marked the turning point. She seemed to come alive when she was there, and clearly called out her mother's name. We now believe she is finally coming home to us."

[editor-surveyor]

" No respect for people who just want OTHER people to die."

Yes, isn't it interesting how it is always someone else who has this purported "right to die."

[TheDon]

I think the differences in the two cases are self-evident.

[shhrubbery!]

Gong! Gong! NOT TRUE.

Patti White Bull awoke after 16 years in a vegetative state. (ABCNEWS.com)

ABCnews.com: Woman Out of ‘Vegetative State’ After 16 Years   

Dr. Plum (emeritus) clearly hasn't been keeping up with the latest developments in the understanding of 'vegetative state.'

Dr. Plum and everyone else who thinks these patients are just 'empty shells,' need to read this:

NY Times magazine: What if There Is Something Going On in There? (inside the minds of PVS patients)

[ASA Vet]

She says words ("help me")

?? First time I've seen that, can you point me to a source?

[thulldud]

Your story about yer Mrs.'s cousin resembles the one about my wife. She lived "on the street" for several years in the Purple Decades, drugging and rebelling with the local hippies, until the day came when a Christian lady finally brought her to hear the Gospel and she trusted Christ. The next day, she awoke to total paralysis.

Doctors examined her, and told her family she would never walk or talk again. She was unable to respond to anything, but she saw and heard all of this, including the doctors' pronouncements that she was in a vegetative state. After several months, she began to recover mobility and speech. All this happened before I met her. (We've been married for 25 years.)

Last year, our younger daughter collapsed in a seizure in the middle of the night at her school. The hospital put her on a respirator and more IV drips than I have ever seen in a single room. The EEG, we were told, showed only "minimal", "terminal" brain activity. There was some (albeit mild) pressure to "accept the situation" that she would not recover. We asked for 48 hours on life support, and got it. Near the end of that time, she awoke. Five days later, she walked out of the hospital. It would have been two days, but we had to wait through the weekend and Labor Day (when the doctors whose signoff we needed to leave were out sunnin' and funnin'.)

If the culture of death is allowed to grow any further, that mild pressure we experienced, pressure to "pull the plug", will become stronger every day.

"When in doubt, choose life."

[exmarine]

Yes, I see, we should respect the right to die, but not the right to live!! Don't the deathists have it backwards?

[GovernmentShrinker]

No, we all have a "right to die", but to prevent abuses, the law requires us to put it in writing while we still can. That didn't happen here AND there is no evidence to suggest that Terri is actually suffering.

[HELLRAISER II]

If her wishes are to live and she communicates this to anyone, then she deserves every chance to live and recover. I hope living is what she wants, because it's exactly what's happened.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

A young woman left in a coma for six years after she collapsed at school has started to respond to the world around her after her mother took her to see her pop star hero Bryan Adams perform live. Christiane Kittel, now 24, was left in a vegetative state after her collapse on 12 June 1997. Doctors believe her condition was caused by a combination of hot weather, a hereditary haemophilia condition and side-effects of the contraceptive pill.

As Freepers always point out on Terri threads, a coma is not a vegetative state... which is the true assessment of her what her condition was?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I don't invision Michael Schiavo as being that sophisticated. I wonder if he believes what the hospice workers tell him, or if it is rather that they are telling him what he wants to hear. Who is manipulating whom?

[HELLRAISER II]

I think that the husband is acting out of greed while the parents are acting out of love. Unfortunately I think both are being selfish, wanting what they want instead of what she might want. I think that there needs to be someone else with a clear, unbiased opinion to make the decison for Terri, period!

[shhrubbery!]

We have a cultural fear of death that is so strong that we have people who are terminally ill and either suffering or total unable to respond to or interact with the outside world, and were keep them alive for a few days, weeks or years just so their heart keeps beating. We don't do it for them.

Speak for yourself, please. Don't indulge in this 'we' stuff. You do not speak for me or many others on this forum.

As for whom 'we' are doing this for, before you write this smug platitude again, please read the New York Times magazine article linked in post 66.

It will be a revelation to you.

[LADY J]

" then what service are we doing to her soul by preventing her from entering the next phase of her journey?"

When the Lord is ready for her to come home - nothing we do can change that. In the meantime - we must be merciful to another human being.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, isn't it interesting how it is always someone else who has this purported "right to die."

The reasoning seems to go, "Anyone who's not as good as ME, by whatever criteria I choose, has the 'right to die'"

And then, "Therefore, I have the right to KILL anyone who's not as good as ME."

Until George Felos goes home to his Master, anybody who wants to live in FL needs to be packing.

[exmarine]

Dr. James Dobson pointed this out in an interview with ABC News. You should be able to find info on this on the website family.org. I don't think this man would say that unless it were true as he has more integrity in his little finger than the media does in their entire wretched system. I have heard it from other sources as well (talk radio I think). Onlookers have heard her say help me hundreds of times. She also has said "Pay" during her menses - they think she is trying to say "pain".

[Pan_Yans Wife]

A new GAL will be appointed soon, from my understanding.

[PleaseNoMore]

He may be mistaken but, an honest person, one who truly cares about his or her loved one would, presumably err on the side of life. Especially when their is conflicting opinions before them. MS does not have the best interests of Terri involved. Regarding his dispute with her family, knowing that she loves them and they love her, he would not bar them from being with her in life or death. His behavior indicates that he is one who relishes his power, as Terri's guardian, to keep them away. He has been very punitive towards Terri's family in many aspects in his position of guardian. He could have simply said, "let's keep the legal wrangling in the courts and outside of the courts let's be with Terri in whatever capacity we can". Or he could have said, "I believ ethat Terri wishes to die but I understand that you desire her to live. Regardless, she is your daughter and I want her to be happy and comfortable. Having you at her side makes her both of these and I accept that". You know, something amicable along those lines. It could have been done had he ALLOWED it.