Posted on 03/20/2005 6:06:29 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Randjuke, note that this is the bone scan report. This is the one other Freeper physicians have looked at and so far as I know, this is all that's accessible. Terri's actual radiographs, if that's the right word, have not been released to my knowledge. It is at least possible they would become available if Michael Schiavo's legal guardianship over his wife is ended. He has used his guardianship to keep her medical records locked up.
ZOT.
Yes, and I'm also a big poopy head.
Congress is now saying that you have the fundamental right to care no matter how dire the situation, no matter your ability to pay for it.
In other words, we just got an endorsement for universal health coverage from congress.
Question to those who support this law. If Terri Schiavo was a single adult waitress who was orphaned and in this condition, would you be willing to pay millions of dollars to keep her alive?
Wait a minute, the "kill Terri" crowd all talk about how she won't suffer from the starvation, yet she is somehow suffering by having the feeding tube?
What is this lady smokin'? If she needed a health-care advocate, Michael Schiavo would be her first choice? Dear Lord, help us all.
I have a sister in law who's a big poopy head.
If you have something to say to me, say it...you can FREEPMAIL me if you want.
Not to mention the health industry taking every penny you had.
As soon as any article that doesn't condmen him to hell is posted, people start trashing him and there is effectivly NO DISCUSSION.
If you dare to ask a question, you're called a murderer, or told to go back to DU (Yes, a million people have called me a troll and told me to get over to DU).
And if you are interested in the legal proceedings and ask questions about it, someone will come along and jump you and call you a euthansia lover.
I remember when conservatives use to be for the rule of law; I remember when conservatives use to be for the sanctity of marriage; I remember when conservatives use to be opposed to activist judges.
And I remember when people on FR could voice their opinions without being repeatedly drummed off threads; my Freepmail box is FULL of pages and pages of emails from people who are AFRAID to post on these threads to voice their opinions because of the vicousness of the attacks, just like I was on this very thread.
I am of the opinion that this is a BAD bill, if it gets past the USSC; it opens the door to anybody that you know butting into your life.
And I remember when conservatives thought the government should get out of our lives.
Howlin, I just wanted again say I appreciate your point of view. You carefully crafted and worded an accurate observation.
It is always my hope that we all can treat each other respect and dignity even when we disagree. The lines are drawn and I wonder if folks will use this issue to define who they will and will not debate with on future news items?
No, it wouldn't.
#570 Darn, looks like I missed a good one.
The Congress was established to pass laws for the people.
Not for one person.
The Congress was not established to review cases. They are a legislative body, not the Supreme Court. Congressmembers should be evaluating and considering laws for PEOPLE, not one person.
And re: passing laws...
I don't want Congress passing a law to keep one person alive anymore than I want Congress passing a law to keep one person dead.
Medical choices are individual and family considerations, not to be 'considered' or evaluated by the legislative body. If the legislative body was so concerned, why didn't they get involved in this matter months BEFORE the feeding tube was removed?
Thanks for the link. Looks like some good material to read. There are many point of views, aren't there?
Fifteen years is a long time....
I have been puzzled by the 'conservative' response as well.
As Christian and a military man, I am puzzled by the viciousness expressed by those who 'choose life' towards those who have other reasoning that could at least be respected.
My wife and I pray for the families and the people and the judges and the courts involved.
The rift is sad, and the involvement of the legislative body is frightening.
"The rift is sad, and the involvement of the legislative body is frightening."
Does the involvement of the judiciary (i.e. Greer) trouble you in the least?
They were waiting for the legal system at the state level to work. You are missing the big picture here. The Executive Branch and the Congress have ganged up on the Judiciary. A positive development. The blood of Terri is on the Judiciary. I think this is just a parting shot across the bow. The Judiciary is going down.
OK, the bone scan. As another poster pointed out, the actual images are not available, all there is is the radiologist's interpretation, so what I am doing is giving an opinion of an opinion so to speak. All a bone scan really tells you is if there is inflammation of the bone or surrounding tissues. It doesn't tell you why the inflammation is there, although as the radiologist tries to do, you can make an educated guess.
The first question is why the scan was ordered: "evaluate for trauma". The doc who ordered it had some reason to suspect trauma - why I don't know, maybe somebody can fill in this part. It's dated 3/91 which is over a year after she was incapacitated. I have real trouble extrapolating anything on this scan back to 2/90, if that's what people are thinking. The radiologists I work with are generally able to discriminate between old and recent injuries - this radiologist makes it sound like these are recent - he desribes the radionuclide uptake as "intense". As a bone heals up the bone scan would show less activity, I would think a year-old fracture would be described as an "old" or "healing" fracture, if it even showed up at all.
Nonetheless this bone scan is really abnormal, and there are two areas especially that would seem to me to be likely traumatic. One is the ribs, the other is the right femur. She could have had broken ribs from CPR but still have inflammation a year later? That would be odd. Did she get CPR? The most likely explanation of inflammation here would be an injury - as the radiologist says it could be metastatic cancer but we know she didn't have that. Here plain X-rays would be very helpful but they're not provided.
The vertebral compression fractures may or may not be traumatic, you can injure them in traffic accidents, falls, etc but I would think a strong possibility is that after a year she had probably developed osteoporosis and had some spontaneous fractures. These hurt quite a bit, I think I had read that she seemed in pain at this point but I'm going by memory here.
The areas of the sacroiliac joints, knees and ankles seem unlikely to be traumatic but more likely some other kind of inflammation, like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc. I haven't seen any reports that Terri has those problems. I have seen these areas described as fractures on some pro-Terri websites but think that would be very unlikely. Here again plain X-rays would show a fracture a lot better. So I would say I don't have an explanation for the inflammation in those areas but doubt trauma.
The other odd thing is that several pro-Terri websites are saying this shows evidence of head injury, when the scan doesn't mention the head at all. I have also read much discussion of neck injury - this scan doesn't mention the neck at all.
So overall the scan poses more questions than it solves, it's confusing. To read it you'd think the radiologist is blaming all of this on trauma - he says "the patient has a history of trauma" which he doesn't elaborate on. Did he know she had trauma before he read the scan or is this his conclusion? It's a little sloppy but I'm sure when he read it he didn't think millions of people would dissect his report.
A much better opinion could be given with access to all of the X-rays, CTs, physical exams,histories, etc. but unfortunately they aren't available to us. If you want my opinion it's that there are things on the scan that are almost certainly traumatic, but other things that are almost certainly not. Sorry it's not much of an answer.
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