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/)
Back in the spring of 1970,a close buddy broke C3 real bad and cracked C5,he wasn't OK but he could talk and move his extremities. I recall how creepy it was that the insurance company rep didn't get there for many days and the surgery was 50/50 so my friend opted to let it alone,...we brought him stuff to help the healing that he couldn't get from the hospital,...he's OK! Pray for Terri
Exactly. You would go to jail for doing to a dog what they are doing to her.
To some people the definition of being human and worthwhile consists in another persons' ability to give. If we do not sense giving (or interaction) then "it" must not be human.
Shame on us to think that way. This account from expat is another example of the incredible nature of creation; of being a person created in the image of God. We think infants are "stupid" because they cannot "understand" the way we more experienced creatures do. Shame on us. Arrogant bastards we tend to be, thinking worthiness and life depends on our own perception and senses. Faithless we are, not to recognize there is more to life than what we perceive.
Thank you so much for posting this. It serves as a keen reminder that we are not as smart as we think we are, and also as encouragement for those times when loved ones seem to be leaving us forever without giving us a thought.
That is a beautiful testimony to the powers of miracles.. unfortunately it won't sway the likes of Hildy, Contrary Mary, Howlin, and the whole Freeper death crowd.. they have no hearts and very little in the way of a soul..
A chance, the one thing this wicked Judge has prevented from happening.
expatguy's story is truly incredible and I'd say inspirational.
I'm in for $100. The guy is a turd - I just wish he'd take the money and go.
Unsolicited reference: See http://www.glennbeck.com for info.
expatguy's story is FABULOUS. I don't know what is taught in some teaching hospitals nowadays but when I was doing my RN training we were ABSOLUTELY told to watch what we said around comatose patients. They can HEAR everything. In the case of Terri, she is awake, she is responsive, she has been SEVERELY NEGLECTED but she IS ABLE TO BE REHABILITATED. I don't know how many other people in her situation could have been shut in a room with little light, little interaction with people, no radio, no sounds, no therapy, probably had to listen to HORRENDOUS things said about her like "Isn't the BITCH DEAD YET?", still she continued to survive. She smiles and cries. She loves, She tries to talk. THIS IS A TRAVESTY. These men (??) that can't figure out WHAT TO DO, are what the Bible calls "Being wise in their own eyes, they became fools". They are MERCILESS KILLERS pure and simple. I give NONE of the Government officials a pass. They are without EXCUSE. They can and SHOULD take control of this situation NOW. Otherwise the payback should be swift and FURIOUS.
He WON'T take it. Says he's been offered TEN MILLION DOLLARS and refused it. He wants her dead because she IS THE EVIDENCE against what really happened to her. The evidence leads straight to him. Any wonder she's been held PRISONER and GUARDED? Hard to believe this could happen in the USA.
bttt
Thank you for sharing this experience. I tried reading though the thread. The first several posts were compassionate rational responses. Somewhere around 30 posts down it got to be too hateful. I've been exposed to enough evil today to last me a lifetime, so I'm not going to read the rest of the thread. I know that means I'll miss some really good posts, but it also means I won't have to look evil in the eye. Until the next thread.
No. Her husband broke them. (Note to any lawyers - just kidding)
Thanks for a great post.
--Boot Hill
It is not good to be in one of those situations where the doctors are dumbfounded and surprised you are still alive.
My doctor then Dr. Roland Jackson told me later that he had never seen or heard about anyone that survived breaking the same bones I did. I should have died instantly.
Wow!
That's all I can think of. Wow!
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