Posted on 03/22/2005 6:15:47 PM PST by FR_addict
First segments.... (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a medical case as high profile as Terri Schiavo, you would think the medical experts would have all the answers. But just by listening to them and reviewing statements they gave to the court, it's easy to see why a final answer is so complicated.
DR. WILLIAM HAMMESFAHR, NEUROLOGIST: I spent about 10 hours across about three months and the woman is very aware of her surroundings. She's very aware. She's alert. She's not in a coma. She's not in PVS. ...
DR. RONALD CRANFORD, NEUROLOGIST: A vegetative state is a scary diagnosis. Unless you know what you're looking for, it looks like the patient is interacting. But Terri is not interacting.
GUPTA: Both of them are neurologists and their conclusions are based on diagnostic tests that are supposed to be objective. Yet, they tell different tales.
HAMMESFAHR: Her CAT scan has maybe 75 percent of the brain tissue still left. CRANFORD: I've seen her. There's no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, she's in a permanent vegetative state. Her CAT scan shows extremely severe atrophy to the brain. And her EEG is flat. It doesn't show any electrical activity at all.
GUPTA: And, most importantly, their opinions about a possible recovery?
HAMMESFAHR: With proper therapy, she will have a tremendous improvement. I think, personally, that she'll be able to walk, eventually, and she will be able to use at least one of her arms.
CRANFORD: There's no way. That's totally bogus. ...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(Excerpt) Read more at transcripts.cnn.com ...
The EEG report didn't say it was flat overall - if it had been, she'd be brain dead. It said there was no cerebral activity. (flat in terms of thoughts)
Bambakadis said he disagreed with the radiologists terminology, preferred severely abnormal, but typical of PVS. Even when they inflicted pain or opened her eyes.
Most of the Drs agreed with you that the stuff shown on the scans were just gliotic tissue, or if if there were living neurons, they were too isolated to communicate.
I don't like putting too much emphasis on the scans tho - to me, the clinical is most important.
BTW - all this talk about her not having a PET scan - it was her parents' radiologist who preferred SPECT to PET for her case. Made sense to me. Wish they had been able to do an fMRI tho.
Oh yeah? Sure. "Just like Terri"
What a load of Democrap.
This isn't a matter of cutting out a lobe. There wasn't any lobe to cut out!
>>After the segment above, Daryn turns to Gupta and says. the "EEG was flat what does that mean?"
>>Dr. Gupta: He said that and I was a little surprised that he said that. I mean that is a very clinical thing when you say someone's EEG is flat that means they are brain dead. That's a really inmportant term for transplant surgeons before they take someone's organs. Terri is not brain dead. I think just about anybody that looks at her can tell that. What exact state she is in. I don't know. I've never examined her but the video along shows that she is not brain dead.
>>Third, Dr. Cranford is the neurologist that examined her and whose testimony was used to determine that Terri was in PVS. Yet he states above that Terri's EEG is flat, which is impossible.
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