Posted on 10/26/2003 2:04:02 PM PST by Normally a Lurker
Behind the story of the fight over whether Terri Schiavo should live is another story.
This one is about how she came to exist in this terrible twilight, not fully dead but not really alive.
Terri Schiavo apparently had an eating disorder.
Even some of her family members have said they think so.
Eleven years ago, when she was 26, Schiavo collapsed with the disease of the middle aged, the old, the overweight.
The St. Petersburg woman had a heart attack when her body ran low on potassium, the chemical needed to make the muscles work. No muscle matters more than the heart. This is the way women with eating disorders usually go. Whatever the cause, they die at rates 12 times higher than women who eat normally.
Potassium is why sweaty athletes guzzle Gatorade. It contains potassium. You also find it in bananas, potatoes, oranges. They are ordinary foods, to ordinary eaters. But women who suffer from anorexia -- who starve themselves -- or from bulimia -- who vomit what they eat -- regard even a Ritz cracker as a threat.
Family members have said Terri Schiavo put herself on a liquid diet in high school because she was overweight and dateless. She was a size 12 when she married three years later, but that wasn't enough. She kept dieting so she could finally wear a bikini at the beach. She lived afraid of what all dieters fear, that the pounds will return.
Schiavo had other red flags signaling the possibility of an eating disorder, said Susan Mullins, who counsels women with eating disorders at Tampa's Hyde Park Counseling Center.
Schiavo suffered abdominal pains before the heart attack. They occur when you throw up a lot or your stomach, so used to no food, finally gets some.
Her period was intermittent. If you don't eat enough, your body doesn't produce what's necessary to create the uterine lining that is shed every month in menstruation.
And if you don't have a uterine lining, there's no place for a fertilized egg to attach itself. Terri Schiavo wanted to get pregnant, but couldn't.
Schiavo's family didn't see her problem before her heart attack. Her husband has insisted he saw nothing wrong at all. That's also common.
"We've had women in treatment who were married for 15 years, and their spouses have not known," said Mullins. "There's a lot of hiding, a lot of secrecy, shame, embarrassment associated with eating disorders."
Not even Schiavo's doctors knew her problem. This is also typical. They don't know what to look for.
"Medical ignorance is pretty widespread," said Robin Piper, who runs the Turning Point of Tampa, another clinic that treats women with eating disorders.
Eating disorders are another stop in that crazy house of distorted perceptions called addiction. Women can't stop using food to hurt themselves the way drunks and junkies can't stop using liquor or crack to hurt themselves. Yet this thing that has a woman out of control is, to her, about being in control.
"If I can't control what happens to me or my family, I can control what I eat. You can't make me eat," Piper said.
We live in a culture where zero is a dress size and a status symbol. That's why I tell you all this. It might save a life. The appeals may go from the Pinellas circuit courts to the U.S. Supreme Court again, but it's almost certainly too late for Terri Schiavo.
Her parents and the growing circle of strangers around the country who call themselves her advocates say they are fighting for what Terri Schiavo would want. They are so sure they know. But if you understand that she had an eating disorder, what she would want is a disturbing, tantalizing question.
Said Robin Piper: "She spent all her life fighting whether to eat, and now people are fighting over whether to feed her or not. What would she think if she knew?"
In any case, this seems to be a more likely and logical explanation for her current condition than the purely wild speculation ongoing here that her husband strangled her.
As to your saying "I have seen no one argue that she is the victim of some chronic issue," I have to agree. Much of the "arguments" present gere later have little to do with facts. Rather, more of those "arguing" try to avoid the facts.
Micheal Baden, a world renowned forensic pathologist, stated on Greta Van Sustern that the records show no heart damage. Take it from me, when you have a heart attack, you have heart muscle damage. That is the definition of a heart attack.
So, how come the records indicate she has a healthy heart? Is that aquestion that should be answered?
Thank you for the advise, but I'm not "trying" anything. I simply posted a factual article. If you want me to "try" to convence you of something, I think I'd prefer to not waste my time on a fruitless effort.
Surely you jest. How would I have access to Terri Schiavos medical records when her parents can't even access them?
I'm just curious as to why the doctors that were sued for malpractice because they didn't find the potassium imbalance before Terri's collapse haven't appealed the verdict.
Dunno.
If there is new evidence against Michael Schiavo that vindicates these doctors, why aren't they suing him?
Dunno, the insurance company should sue him however. It appears as though he perjured himeslf at that trial when he testifeid that the enitre award woul be used to care for and rehabilitate his wife. As of this writing, more than half the money has been siphoned off by attorneys trying to remove her g-tube.
He also stated that he would spend the rest of life caring for Terri until she died. He never mentioned that he was going to advocate for the removal of her g-tube.
DO you think these are actionable by the insurance company who paid the money?
I have read elsewhere that when she was much younger that she was very much overweight (don't recall a figure, but was left with the impression that it was 40-50 pounds heavier than the 120 when the incident occurred).
So, how come the records indicate she has a healthy heart? Is that aquestion that should be answered?
I have not seen her records, so I don't know if this is true or just more wild speculation.
However, I've had two heart attacks myself (the first a major one where I was in a "code blue" condition and had a "near death" experience - the second was somewhat less severe). I had "about 5% heart damage from the first one and and undetermined amount of damage from the second one).
However, my EKG's show a "normal heart function". According to your comments, Dr. Baden, looking only at my EKG results might argue that I never had a heart attack. I can assure you that he'd be quite wrong in that assessment.
You should read the article first. It was printed by the St. Petersburg Times, published May 3, 2001. That's almost two and a half years ago, which would have been some long-range "feeding" - and by her family, no less. Having read the article you would have also known that it was based on her family member comments, going back to the time she was 12 years old, and that Michael had said he hadn't even known she'd had such a disorder. That means that no "leaks" came from his side in this 5-3-01 article.
Interesting article, NaL, I'd never read anything about this.
The author of this article can not know any of those answers and neither can anybody else because MS will not release her medical records.
Like you, I've been cathed numerous times. I am also pretty conversant in the anatomy of the heart, though I am not a Doctor or a nurse, because I have spent my career installing, repairing and instucting cardiologists and technicinas on there proper use and abuse.
It's obvious that her heart stopped beating for from 6-8 minutes because she suffered a lot of brain damage. I'd be interested in why it stopped beating. I'd be even more interested in why MS did not call 911.
Your logic escapes me.
As to the info conveniently showing up (implied as now), you might want to take another look at the date of the article. Also, I'd remind you again that the info apparently came from her family - not from her husband.
You apparently want to demonize him so much that you are ignoring the source of the info in this article - AGAIN, it wasn't him.
From articles I've read it appears that he call two family members first, but it appears that he did call 911 in time to get medical attention for her within 6-8 minutes.
When I had my first heart attack, my wife called a relative (who's an MD) before taking me to the ER and never did call 911. However, I would say that my wife strangled me because of these actions.
Well, tell your wife to call 911 from now on, time is of the essence.
When Terri Schindlers brother arrived, he was the first on the scene, he has stated numerous times that he found his sister lying face down with MS doing nothing.
MS did not call an MD as his first call, he called Terri's Dad who then called her brother. The bone scan of Terri indicates bone trauma according to Michale Baden who read that specific report.
Don't you think that there seem to be a lot of questions unansered here?
There's no way of knowing right just now how much improvement regular high-quality therapy might achieve. It's a shame she hasn't been receiving it for years, or we could have some data to go by. But from videos, she's obviously not a total mindless vegetable, and her family are more than willing to take care of her the rest of her life. Given her family's support, couldn't Michael just leave her to them?
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