Posted on 03/18/2005 3:16:04 PM PST by Dog
Back in 1978 I was a swimmer on my High School swim team at South Houston High.
Each morning I would wake up at 5am to get ready for swimming practice before school. At the time I admired Mark Spitz and wanted to be the 1980 olympics.
I did the butterfly stroke and anyone that is familiar with swimming knows that you start off the starting blocks and shallow dive in the pool. The starting blocks are on the shallow end of the pool where the water is only 3ft deep.
On 14 November 1978, I was practicing and as I dove off the starting blocks my foot slipped and I went in headfirst in 3ft of water. I felt something wrong, my head hurt, there was a lot of blood and could not move. I didn't remember much at this time but I was taken out of the pool on a backboard by my team mates.
My next memories were being at the nearby hospital and feeling cold. I was naked on a stretcher and remember wanting to be covered. I could hear people and see people but I could not speak or move.
I remember a doctor saying "Really? Is he still alive?!" and someone else saying that there was nothing they could do for me that I was supposed to be dead.
I had broken my C1, C2, C3 and a bone called my odontoid.
The pain was terrible and apparently I could not stay conscious for long. I think they used a term "in and out" later to describe my condition. Saying that my body is shutting off and I won't live.
The next memories I had was of wind and for a moment or so I thought I was going to heaven. I was in fact being transported on Houston's LifeFlight helicopter to Hermann Hospital.
It was there that I remember hearing my mother and father's voices and hearing my father cry after being told that I was alive but would not make it. I was hurt so bad and was trying to move or say something and I just couldn't.
My mother had begged to see me and asked the doctor if I could hear them. He said "no". I remember him telling them that honestly I had no chance for survival through the day. He explained that the extent of my injuries were just too severe and that it was a miracle that I was even alive at the moment.
I remember my mother asking the doctor if I was in pain. He answered her and both my father and mother broke down sobbing in tears. They didn't want my passing to be painful.
I tried everything. I tried to move and couldn't. I tried to speak and couldn't. I remember at one point noticing the heart monitor and trying to see if I could somehow control my heart rate so that someone would notice me. I wanted to fight. I wanted to live and I felt completely helpless. I felt that people were giving up on me.
Even as I type this, the memories bring back such a deep sadness and loneliness that I simply have no words to describe. I didn't want to be left alone and people were talking as if I was not there anymore as if I was already dead. I had to fight back.
The days, weeks and months afterwards are much of a blur, morphine does that to you I suppose. It took two weeks for me to communicate and when I did I was so drugged that people wondered whether I was brain damaged. I vividly remember hearing a doctor explain that no one should have much hope that I would be like a vegtable and paralyzed from the neck down at best. I lost all track of time.
It would be almost a year before I could walk around. Everyone smiled. It was all a miracle, there was no other explanation.
To this day I have two scars on my temples where I had a halo brace and I can't turn my head all the way to my shoulder, but Im alive and well and Im grateful that no one gave up on me.
Like most of you, I don't know Terri Schiavo, but there is a small part of me that can empathize with her. I know how it feels to be alone and I know all too well that dark sad place where she is now. She is alive and she is fighting. The simple fact that she is alive is all the evidence one needs to understand that Terri has not given up. Please don't give up on Terri.
What Terri needs is people who love her, care for her and those who won't give up up her. Terri may never come back from that place where she is at now, but she needs to be given the chance.
1,406 posted on 03/18/2005 4:33:45 PM EST by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
Thanks for posting this Dog.
expatguy, God Bless You. Thank you for sharing your story that someone's eyes might be opened.
The story you tell about being comotose and being able to hear everything going on around you is similar to a friend of ours who suffered a massive stroke. He wasn't given much of a chance to live. The family (large) stood beside his bed and discussed removing life support. He heard it all. Today he lives a relatively normal life, but cannot speak with clarity. His motor skills are gone and he cannot write his thoughts, altho his mind appears quite clear. The family asks questions and he says yes or no and prods them to ask additional questions so he can make his points in family discussions.
BTTT
Hannity had a woman on his radio program today (which I caught while in my car).
She had almost exactly the same experience. She was "trapped" (by a stroke, IIRC) and could hear doctors telling her husband it was hopeless. Fortunately her husband fought for her survival.
Hannity was impressed and may have her on again.
Miracles do happen and even if one doesn't believe in God, then stuff happens.
Even if Terri never regains anymore than she has now, I believe she has a presence. There's a part of her there no matter how brain damaged she may be.
I've watched the video's and read the reports. Regardless of what Greer and Felos say, there's a presence there. She doesn't appear to be in any pain and she responds to some stimuli. I don't see someone who would choose to die, I see someone who interacts.
I'm saying this badly. Even if it's not the Terri of old, there's still a human who has awareness and can interact with people at times. She may be like you were, expatguy and she may be there wanting to be let out. Therapy would help her come out. She deserves to live and to not be put down, especially in a lesser manner than we do to our pets or to condemned criminals.
What an incredible story! Expatguy, thank you for sharing it. You're an inspiration!
I meant to add, it is my opinion that depth wouldn't be safe.
And your point is what?
What does this have to do with Terri? It goes without saying that some people recover from comas. What isn't up for debate is that no one has ever recovered from a persistent vegitative state (very severe brain damage), which is very well what Terri may be in now. Sure, I've seen her groan in response to stimuli, but what on earth does this prove? Plants respond to stimuli, too! Besides, the issue here is that her husband claims she wanted to die if ever left in this state, so who are you to question that? If you think he abused her, prove it in court.
To a loving caregiver, it does not matter if the patient knows who they (the caregivers) are, or if the patient is aware. Erring on the side of life is the best one can do in defending the defenseless. All those poor people who can't communicate, need caregivers like that. How awful to be able to hear people give up on you, and not be able to refute them.
It goes back to the question of how people would treat each other, if they knew their behaviour wouldn't be exposed to the light of day. Some will love their neighbors as themselves, while others would plunder, rape, and kill.
Thank you for posting this this.
bump
This case stinks. One person, her husband, wants her dead. A normal innocent man would let the parents take custody, liquidate his marriage and get on with his life.
I have a suspicion he could be another, smarter, Scott Peterson.
Absolutely!
The "life" issue, aside......think what kind of precedent this case
sets..........is your spouse getting on your nerves? Don't kill him/her,
just incapacitate them, and get a judge to let you kill them later.
The mind boggles.
THANKS MUCH.
MUCH AGREE.
God's best to him!
and to Terri.
Dog, thanks for re-posting this. I appreciate that expatguy
wouldn't vanity this post, but it goes far beyond the average vanity.
expatguy, please tell us about your condition now. You sure have some incredible strength.
Nam Vet
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