Posted on 03/23/2005 2:19:08 PM PST by ambrose
Schiavo Videotape Misleading, Experts Say
Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:06 PM GMT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The videotape that runs endlessly on television stations around the world shows an apparently smiling Terri Schiavo being caressed by her mother's loving hand.
She seems to look deeply, even lovingly, into the off-camera eyes of her mother.
Schiavo's parents and their supporters, including doctors in Congress, have used the tape as evidence the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman is at least occasionally aware of her surroundings and might even be revived from her condition.
They are fighting to get her feeding tube reinserted against the wishes of her husband and legal guardian who says Schiavo would not want to be kept alive in that condition.
But many experts agree the tape is a cruelly misleading trick of biology.
"Pictures do lie," said Dr. Lawrence Schneiderman, a physician and bioethicist at the University of California, San Diego.
"Every time they have done a videotaped neurological examination, the courts have reviewed them and said, 'Yes this woman is unconscious.' Those movements of her eyeballs are reflexive and have nothing to do with recognition."
Studies of people whose cerebral cortices are damaged in the way Schiavo's is show that their eyes will respond to stimuli such as movement or a human face, but there is no way for them to be conscious of what they are seeing.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has been part of the fight to prolong Schiavo's life, said on Wednesday a review of Schiavo's medical records by a neurologist for Florida's Adult Protective Services indicated she may have been misdiagnosed and was more likely in a state of minimal consciousness rather than in a persistent vegetative state.
Such a condition, in which a patient slips in and out of consciousness, was sometimes mistaken for a persistent vegetative state, said Dr. Joseph Fins of New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. But Schiavo was not in that state, Fins said.
"I think now it can be argued that with the advent of minimally conscious state (as a diagnosis), that permanent vegetative state as a diagnosis becomes much more certain," Fins said in a telephone interview.
It is almost certain that when someone suffers brain damage from a lack of oxygen, they are permanently vegetative, Fins said. Schiavo's brain was starved of oxygen after her heart stopped 15 years ago and most doctors who have examined her say there is no chance of recovery.
'UNNERVING PHENOMENON'
Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and bioethicist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said reflexes can fool nonspecialists.
"To the families and loved ones, and to inexperienced health care professionals, PVS (permanent vegetative state) patients often look fairly 'normal,"' Cranford said in a statement.
"Their eyes are open and moving about during the periods of wakefulness that alternate with periods of sleep; there may be spontaneous movements of the arms and legs, and at times these patients appear to smile, grimace, laugh, utter guttural sounds, groan and moan, and manifest other facial expressions and sounds that appear to reflect cognitive functions and emotions, especially in the eyes of the family."
Dr. Timothy Quill of the Center for Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics at the University of Rochester in New York, said reporting about the case had confused people.
"Distortion by interest groups, media hyperbole, and manipulative use of videotape have characterized this case and demonstrate what can happen when a patient becomes more a precedent-setting symbol than a unique human being," Quill wrote in a commentary published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Anybody who been around patients in a persistent vegetative state knows that it is an unnerving phenomenon because they are alternate between sleep and wakefulness but that have no ability to interact," Quill said in a telephone interview.
"It is difficult for families because it is very difficult to discern that."
If this is a legitimate affidavit, from a neurologist who apparently has examined Terri Schiavo within the last few weeks, it's time for Governor Bush to send in the state troopers, or for President Bush and his Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to send in the federal Marshals, accompanied by this doctor and doctors from the Public Health Service or from the military (perhaps from the Florida National Guard).
yada yada yada
I opted to hold her during the euthanasia, so she would not die alone or with strangers. I am still not over that, no matter how justified the decision. It's just not as simple as an "up-or-down vote" -it's the infinite value of life that reaches inside of you, even if it's a pet. I wouldn't want to bear the weight of ending the life of a human without the full wieght of all that is holy backing me up.
There is something unholy taking place here, and I won't acquiesce to "experts" who don't seem troubled by the same issues.
I have seen what a nearly-but-not-quite-fatal stroke has done to my mother's life for the past 8 years. It is a constant source of pain for a lot of people, most of all, for her. She wishes she would have died and so do I. She is now stuck with a pretty healthy mind but in a body that has robbed her of independence. Having your kids wiping your rear end is humiliating, no matter what assurances she receives from us.
As I said, this should be a private matter.
Gene Roddenberry predicted at least one aspect of the future correctly (although he was off a bit on the dates). We are nearly guaranteed to have a Eugenics War. It appears to be inevitable.
We have lost two cats in the past few months. It is very painful. I'm sorry for your loss.
"I'm doing everything within my power to make sure that Terri is afforded at least the same rights that criminals convicted of heinous crimes take for granted," Bush said."
"If a prisoner comes forward with new DNA evidence 20 years after his conviction that suggests his innocence, there is no doubt the courts in our state and all across the country, for that matter, will immediately review their case. We should do no less for Terri Schiavo," Bush said.
"Along with the petition alleging abuse, the Bush administration has filed with the Pinellas Circuit Judge George W. Greer an affidavit from Jacksonville neurologist William Polk Cheshire, Jr., who concluded from examining videotape of Schiavo that the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman may not be in a persistent vegetative state."
Are you going to answer my question:
What LAW are these courts using to justify removing of her feeding tube.
Do you me the ENDS of saving an innocent life?
It is. Between each person and God. Who does not tell us that we will not suffer humiliation, dependency, utter unfairness. We are not here for the sake of convenience. We are indeed made in G-d's image, and if we can't trust in him to bring us through, then each and every apostle died a fool.
As I posted earlier, I have a friend completely crippled and pretty much dead weight from MS. But she has spirit and joy and wants to enjoy what she can. Her family took her on the "Pirates of the Carribean" ride at Disneyland. There were many patronizing looks, "Poor thing". She had a blast!
Ping to post 116
Every single "bio-ethicist" I've seen commenting on TV on the Terri Schiavo case has been a pro-death ghoul.
"I saw a video where someone asked her to open her eyes and she opened them really wide. It wasn't a reflex. So what if her life is similar to that of a baby. That doesn't mean she should die."
If her wish was to die rather than be in a reduced state tied to a medical device for life sustanance, then she should die. If she wanted to be kept alive at all costs prior to the accident than thats what should be done. The court decisions boil down to that.
I was stunned when I found that passage on Monday. Up to that point the book only sort of hinted at it. It was one of those great Koontz moments.
The book is quite good, by the way. One of his best.
I am still amazed at that picture. Can't get over it. Hope others look at this picture and realize that this is a picture of Terri after the brain injury several years back when she was getting some decent treatment. She has regressed more each year due to lack of care and therapy. Unbelievable in a country like America.
So do houseplants.
Yes, we are. Starving someone to death is inhumane, despicable.
P.S. I am also a Navy Vet Kid
only if fed and watered.
Right, so we're in agreement.
title should have read experts are complete morans I wouldn't cross the street to spit on if they were on fire.
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