Posted on 11/17/2003 11:02:14 AM PST by cyn
Edited on 04/21/2004 9:00:47 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Daughter's recovery after six months adds layer to debate over sustaining a patient's life. To look into your daughter's vacant eyes. To hold her indifferent hand. To wonder if she knows when you leave the room. For six months, Debbie Lord tried to raise her daughter Evelyn from what doctors described as a persistent vegetative state. Some of those doctors said Evelyn would never recover. They encouraged Lord to let the girl die.
(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonville.com ...
THE SCHINDLERS WILL BE ON HANNITY AND COLMES TONIGHT
-30 minutes and counting-
THEY ARE ADVERTISING IT BIG TIME!
PRAISE GOD!!!
Please help spread the news!!!
Because we've learned to be oh so TOLERANT of DIVERSE ideas.
"The publicly debated question is whether Schiavo truly is incapable of feeling or responding. The consensus medical opinion, validated by the courts, is that she cannot feel or respond, and will never regain those functions. Her parents, the Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush dispute both findings.-- which isn't his opinion, it is statement of where things are for Terri are right now. I do wish that phrase about disputing the findings said "and other medical authorities, including a local neurologist." -- maybe he did, and it got cut; I'll see if I can ask. But overall, I thought the reporter did well in the space and within the topic assigned him.
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Local Doctor Plays Part in Schiavo Case
By Jackie Barnard
First Coast News
10/16/03
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- It was video of a moment between a daughter and mother that made up Dr. Jacob Green's mind.
"She turned to her mom, responded to mom in the room, there was no doubt this woman had minimal but definite cognizant function, she was not in a vegetative state," says Dr. Green.
Green is a neurologist. Studying the brain is what he does everyday.
About a year ago, he was asked by Terri Schiavo's parents for his opinion on whether or not their daughter was brain dead.
"She's alive....there's no question in my mind she is not brain dead."
Green sent his decision to the courts. He says he is shocked the courts have ruled there is no hope for Schiavo and allowed the only thing needed to keep her alive, her food tube, to be removed.
"I'll call it murder because what they're doing is taking away any chance," says Green.
For some, they say this is a chance to make sure it doesn't happen to them.
Or in Terri Schiavo's case, Dr. Green says, "This woman is not on a respirator, this woman has function, cutting her off is wrong, without question, it is the wrong thing to do."
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"She's alive....there's no question in my mind she is not brain dead."
Doctors who have testified in the case say the noises and facial expressions Schiavo makes are reflexes and not a sign she has the capability to communicate.
Green sent his decision to the courts. He says he is shocked the courts have ruled there is no hope for Schiavo and allowed the only thing needed to keep her alive, her food tube, to be removed.
"I'll call it murder because what they're doing is taking away any chance," says Green.
For some, they say this is a chance to make sure it doesn't happen to them.
James Perkins is healthy, but the story of Terri Schiavo, has him thinking about a living will. "I don't want to be a pain to my family or nothing like that, I wouldn't want to suffer or nothing like that."
A living will is basically a piece of paper that telling your family, the doctors, the hospital you do not want your life prolonged artificially.
"I think it's critical," says attorney Rebecca Berg. Most of her clients have a living will. Berg says, "It gives the person who signed the document, gives the family and the medical team more options."
It's pretty easy to get too. All you have to do is talk to your attorney or better yet just go on the internet. The forms are only a couple of bucks, some are even free.
It could be the difference in you getting what you want.
Or in Terri Schiavo's case, Dr. Green says, "This woman is not on a respirator, this woman has function, cutting her off is wrong, without question, it is the wrong thing to do."
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"She's alive....there's no question in my mind she is not brain dead. I'll call it murder because what they're doing is taking away any chance," says Green. "This woman is not on a respirator, this woman has function, cutting her off is wrong, without question, it is the wrong thing to do."
Thank you, God, for people who speak the truth, YOUR truth, so clearly and plainly. Please work in the hearts and minds of those who have the power to do good for Terri but haven't done so yet -- please speak to them in ways they can no longer ignore, as ONLY YOU can. May hard hearts be softened, may closed minds be opened. May those with evil intents be thwarted and prevented from doing any harm to this innocent woman -- it is a great evil!
Please strengthen those working to do good for Terri -- help them work hard and well together, with singleness of mind, to accomplish Terri's freedom as soon as possible. Help them to have the rest, peace, and comfort in every way that they need for this very intensive battle. If it is Your will, Father -- may Terri be able to spend the holidays with her family as Michael spend the holidays with his. Thank You for Your goodness and mercy. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
This was the best presentation I've seen them able to do. It's the first interview I've seen where the Schindlers weren't rushed by the hosts and interrupted before they could say much of anything.
Complicating all of this is the nature of a persistent vegetative state, which is defined as the loss of thought and awareness but not basic function. A person in a vegetative state does not require aggressive medical intervention to stay alive -- they just need to be fed through a tube. On the other hand, a person in a vegetative state does not want to stay alive. By definition, they do not want anything.
Some have compared such a state to death, or at least the death of the person inside the body. But there is at least one critical difference. Sometimes, people in persistent vegetative states begin to recover.
and
Terri Schiavo is unlikely to make a similar recovery. While some patients remain in a vegetative state for years -- one man died after 37 years in a persistent vegetative state -- the odds of recovering any degree of function dwindle to nothing as the years pass. Schiavo's condition has not changed appreciably in 13 years.
"The only debate between the doctors was whether she had a small amount of isolated living tissue in her cerebral cortex or whether she had no living tissue in her cerebral cortex," the 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in its June 6 opinion. In other words, at most, she could have a little bit of function.
He is accepting the full definition of PVS. (The implication is that she should not feel pain if the feeding tube is removed.) He is accepting the courts' determination that Terri is in a PVS. (He's not giving the Schindlers' position and their doctors statements equal weight.) And he is accepting that Terri is unlikely to improve. (He makes no mention of the fact that Michael ended therapy, once the jury award came through.)
His article is either biased or badly researched.
I'm thinking of the woman (supposedly in a PVS) whose tube was removed and all she could think of is drinking orange Gatorade. It's easier for the writer to uncritically accept the medical establishment's description of a persistent vegetative state, although some of this stuff is just plain mystery.
And we don't want to OFFEND anybody!
(Pardon me, I'm getting steamed just thinking about all this injustice.)
The guardianship case dates from November, 2002, but Greer set it for more than two weeks after Terri's GT was supposed to be removed. She would have been dead by that date, if Jeb, etc., had not intervened. So, Greer has made this move before.
I knew that the guardianship case was in limbo, but this is news to me that Greer is up to his old tricks.
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