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/)
My hair has receeded and I have two visible scars on my temples from where I had a halo brace. I prefer people to ask rather than stare.
I can't turn my head all the way to the side like you can. I cannot touch my chin to my shoulder.
I can get bad headaches at times and I have a very high tolerance to any opiates.
I thought that the way to help bring people out of comas was to interact with them? Several months ago, in California, a man came out of an 18 year coma--I'm pretty sure his wife and daughter visited him regularly. And now he can see the daughter he never saw before. (Some people are lucky and don't marry spouses who are ghouls.)
I've had a surgical scar on my face since I was 14--that was 30 years ago--and I have yet to have anyone ask about it. Do people actually ask you?
Do you know if it's true that he doesn't want an autopsy and he wants her cremated? It would be hard to prove anything in court if that's the case.
If you are talking to me face to face you will see two small round scars one on each of my temples.
The scars are unique and Im self-conscious about them I suppose.
Thank you very much for posting this story. I don't know what Terri is going through, but I feel very strongly that it isn't my place, or anyone else's, to decide whether her life is worth living, even if she never makes any further medical progress. If she had left written instructions that she wanted to be starved to death, and there was evidence that she understood what that entails, then I could support Mr. Schiavo's position. However, in the light of his considerable conflicts of interest and the lack of any evidence that Terri wanted to die this way, I think it is outrageous that the courts have been willing to accept his recollection as evidence of her wishes. As an attorney, I know that a convicted death row inmate can't give up his appeals and let his sentence be carried out until a court first determines that he is mentally competent to make that decision. There has to be evidence that the inmate understands that he is going to die, that the state is going to kill him, and the reason he is being punished. Surely our courts should require some similar guarantees of trustworthiness before we allow those who are unable to speak for themselves to be denied life-sustaining food and water.
Ummm. My point should be obvious. 3 feet seems to be an unsafe depth to dive into. The unfortunate results of which are enumerated in the article at the top of this thread. See. Simple.
*shrug* When it's not your time, it's not your time.
I would be tempted to believe God wasn't done with you yet...
Thank you to Expatguy for allowing you to post his Incredible Story. He clearly states the horrible experience he went thru and how he could hear everything and how he wanted to live and in his case treasures every second of his life. If we could all pass this story onto Our Elected and Judicial Officials. Terri is stuck in a corrupt system and we don't know how many other people are stuck in that same fate.Its not only Michael Schiavo that wants her dead,there are many others it appears. Terri wants to live as Expat points out so clearly. God Bless Terri and save her from her killers.
God bless you for sharing this with all of us.
There's probably a dozen or so Freepers who would have had you killed at that time.
and that really surprises me, this preoccupation with killing the defenseless.
Dog & Expatguy:
Thank you so much for acting on my request to post this on a thread of it's own.
I see that it has been viewed by over 1,500 people. This has to be a real eye-opener and blessing for many of them.
I note that Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, and many others have had similar stories come to them, and I religiously believe that all these stories of truth are having an effect on the consciousness of our nation. Terri's outrageous ordeal may well be the type of horror which has to take place for our country to come back to a respect for life, but it is extremely important for stories like this to become widely known. It is critical that the "alleged" reaction of Terri when Weller told her she had to cry out to be saved be known, even if there might be some doubt - clearly it is important that doubt be honored.
There have been many stories moving through this land during the past several years that are giving America a chance to respond with a renewed respect for life, at just the time we have a Congress and President who could effectively express this country's attitude about this forevermore.
I pray that the courts uphold their attempts to do so.
ping
bttt
It does seem stupid but it is not unsual for the starting blocks to be at the shallow end of the pool. I swam competitively for 10 years and don't remember a pool where the setup was different.
Thanks for sharing this.
What an amazing story!
bttt
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