Here's to the human spirit ascendant over nazis, euthanazis, and plain old wife-killers.
Just in: Judge George W. Greer has admitted to being legally blind. Effective tomorrow at 1:00 PM Eastern his feeding tube will be removed.
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/)
I believe that in the United States (as opposed to Canada), the block dive depth must be six feet or more. A 50-meter pool in Long Beach, California, originally built for Olympic trials in the 70s, can no longer be used for long-course races because it is only 3 feet deep at one end. Instead, races are only short course (25 yards) held in the deep end (a 17-foot dive well). All of the pools where I have seen competition swimming have been six feet deep or deeper.
Did Mrs. Schiavo break her "C1, C2, C3 and a bone called [her] odontoid"?
Terri is not dying from anything, except as of now, court ordered starvation and dehydration.
She is not "terminally ill" in any way, other than the fact she is a living human being and humans all eventually die.
She is extremely mentally disabled, but does not require medical assistance to live, save for a feeding tube, which can be tended to at home.
She is disabled but is not dying of her disabilty, any less or more than any non-disabled person is actively engaged in dying from normal age progression.
Why has she been in a Hospice for years?
This is NOT a "right to die naturally, and with dignity" case.
This is the murdering of a disabled person case.
Thanks, Finny.
Terri's situation is horrible. She must be scared, and I am horrified that our system would allow her to be killed in such a cruel, slow way.
Dear God in heaven, please help this woman!
Terri was walking with help and eating with help until her husband stopped treatment.
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
bttt
poing
Thanks for posting his amazing story Dog!
How sad that Michael has done everything he could to make Terri's existance miserable and would allow her money to be spent on rehabilitation.
His name must not have been Michael.
Do you have a link? I find it hard to believe that the judge, and several medical experts, would declare that Schiavo is in a persistent vegitative state if there is clear evidence that she was walking and talking with assistance. There must be more to the story.
I'll see if I can find it. Glenn Beck was talking about it just today.
Thank you both for this thread.
I don't count my blessing enough. Nor give thanks enough to the Lord.
5.56mm
I believe in Terri based upon the experiences I have had in the past with people who had Cerebral Palsy,(children and adults), and from my work in hospice care and my experiences with my own Grandfather as he lie dying and all the way to death.
The simple question is why can't someone go into Terri's room and ask her what she wants.
She has a strong life force- we all can see she is alive. And those with experience know there are ways to communicate with people like Terri.
I won't give up Expat. God bless you.
"-I find it hard to believe that the judge, and several medical experts, would declare that Schiavo is in a persistent vegitative state-"
17 MEDICAL AFFIDAVITS AFFIRM
TERRI SCHIAVO NOT PVS
Florida's Sixth Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer agreed Friday to hear new motions seeking new medical testing in the ongoing right-to-life case of Terri Schindler Schiavo, the brain injured woman whom he has ordered to death on March 18.
At a status conference concerning pending motions in the case, Greer said he would conduct hearings on the request of Mary and Robert Schindler Sr., Terri's parents, for new testing based on new medical technology regarding the brain injured.
For more than 10 years, Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers have been locked in a contentious court battle---the estranged husband trying to end his wife's life by judicial homicide while her parents seek to save her life and care for her.
David Gibbs III, attorney for the Schindlers submitted 17 new affidavits to the court from medical experts from around the country who have studied videos and other medical evidence regarding the woman. Each have opined that the woman is not in a persistent vegetative state as Greer has ruled but rather exhibits cognitive behavior and is aware of and stimulated by her environment.
The affidavits support the Schindlers' motion asking Judge Greer to let medical evaluations be performed on Terri in light of recent advances in medical technologies. The affidavits urge that Terri be evaluated based on the fact that new evaluation and therapeutic technologies can significantly impact brain damaged and disabled persons. Many of them have stated that there is strong likelihood that Terri is in a minimally conscious state.
More affidavits are expected to be filed next week in support of the Schindler's motion.
________________________________________
Affidavit of Dr. Ralph Ankenman, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Pamela Hyikn, SLP
Affidavit of Dr. Beatrice Engstrand, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Jill Joyce, Phd
Affidavit of Dr. Alyse Eytan, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Philip Kennedy, MD, Phd
Affidavit of Dr. Harry Sawyer Goldsmith, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Kyle Lakas, MS, CCC, SLP
Affidavit of Dr. Jacob Green, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Richard Neubauer, MD, PA
Affidavit of Dr. Carolyn Heron, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Ricardo Senno, MD, MS, FAAPMR
Affidavit of Dr. David Hopper, PhD
Affidavit of Dr. Stanley Terman, MD, Phd
Affidavit of Dr. Lawrence Huntoon, MD
Affidavit of Dr. J. Michael Uszler, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Richard Weidman, MD
Greer has also agreed to conduct a hearing on the reversible error motion filed by the Schindlers that Greer's 2000 death order must be vacated and a new trial ordered because "critical evidence was discounted by the court".
The Schindlers contend that Greer lacked the clear and convincing evidence needed when he issued the Feb. 11, 2000, death order and made a "clear mistake: when he discounted testimony by one of Terri Schiavo's best friends, Diane Christine Meyer. http://www.theempirejournal.com/93040563_schindler_attorney_says.htm
In other developments in the case Friday, the attorney for Michael Schiavo has filed a motion trying to avoid giving a deposition in the case in response to the Schindlers' pending motion to remove Schiavo as Terri's guardian.
George Felos, Schiavo's attorney, also filed a motion to dismiss Schindler's petition to remove Schiavo as guardian. Felos said Schindlers' petition contained "scandalous and prejudicial remarks concerning Michael Schiavo". He said that the motion was legally insufficient as the reasons cited for removal were inadequate. He said that Greer's death order of Feb. 25 ordering Schiavo to remove Terri's feeding tube at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 18 renders the guardianship petition moot.
Felos contends that even if Schiavo were removed as guardian, any new guardian appointed would be required to comply with the death order of Greer
________________________________________
Affidavit of Dr. Ralph Ankenman, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Pamela Hyikn, SLP
Affidavit of Dr. Beatrice Engstrand, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Jill Joyce, Phd
Affidavit of Dr. Alyse Eytan, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Philip Kennedy, MD, Phd
Affidavit of Dr. Harry Sawyer Goldsmith, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Kyle Lakas, MS, CCC, SLP
Affidavit of Dr. Jacob Green, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Richard Neubauer, MD, PA
Affidavit of Dr. Carolyn Heron, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Ricardo Senno, MD, MS, FAAPMR
Affidavit of Dr. David Hopper, PhD
Affidavit of Dr. Stanley Terman, MD, Phd
Affidavit of Dr. Lawrence Huntoon, MD
Affidavit of Dr. J. Michael Uszler, MD
Affidavit of Dr. Richard Weidman, MD
The affidavits can be read at www.terrisfight.org
Here's to the human spirit ascendant over nazis, euthanazis, and plain old wife-killers.
Just in: Judge George W. Greer has admitted to being legally blind. Effective tomorrow at 1:00 PM Eastern his feeding tube will be removed.
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