Posted on 03/29/2005 9:45:05 PM PST by flixxx
TRANSCRIPT Updated: 4:04 p.m. ET March 29, 2005 The overwhelming majority in the medical community say Terri Schiavo has close to no brain activity and has no chance of regaining awareness. Dr. Ronald Cranford, who actually examined Terri Schiavo in 2002 and testified to her condition, joined "The Abrams Report" on Monday. Cranford is the assistant chief of neurology at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis as well as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics. Below is the transcript of their conversation.
DAN ABRAMS, HOST: You're one of the few people who has actually examined Terri Schiavo and you're hearing all of these people who are coming on from the sidelines saying, "She's has been misdiagnosed," et cetera. How confident are you in your diagnosis and why?
DR. RONALD CRANFORD, UNIV. OF MN NEUROLOGIST: I'm extremely confident. I think at the time of the trial in 2002 there had been eight neurologists who examined her. And of those eight neurologists total, seven of them said beyond any doubt whatsoever Terri is in a vegetative state. Her CT scan shows severe atrophy or shrinkage of the brain. Her EEG is flat and there's absolutely no doubt that she's been in a permanent vegetative state ever since 1990. There's no doubt whatsoever, Dan.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Honors go to Peach who turned me on to this info. There's more, when I get around to it.
Just read your homepage. Very nice tribute to your dad.
I am not a doctor. Didn't claim to be.
Are you unable to see the scan?
No I didn't read your links and I don't plan to. Why in the world would I waste more time with stuff that has already been posted and discredited?
"The scan is there in front of you."
The scan only proves that this must be a severely disabled persion. Medicine has no definitive study to prove that there is absolutley no consciousness left based on this scan. In recent years they have learned that the brain is organized like a hologram. This means that each function is not confined to just a small area. It is spread over the entire brain. When the parents and some of her nurses, as well as some doctors, see her responding to them we must keep an open mind to this possibility, especially where a life is concerned.
Dr. Ronald Cranford is a world renowned expert on....EUTHANASIA. He is one of the cornerstones in the so called "right to die" movement.
The CAT scanb technology used on Terri in 2002 is totally outmoded and unreliable by todays i.e. 2005 standards and technology. The fact that this was done without availing the courts of the latest technological data speaks volumes in itself.
An autopsy should be performed by an objective, outside panel. Someone who has experience in strangulation and abuse should be part of the forensic panel.
Bring in Jordan Cavenaugh. Barring that, Dr. Cyril Wecht,forensic pathologist would be a great choice.
LOL!
"One has the religion of truth. The other has a father of lies."
You wouldn't know the truth if it slapped you upside your face.
>>...I thought that it would be of interest to those FreeRepublic patrons who would like the opinon of a respected neurologist...
When you find one, let us know - Cranstron is NOT one. He is on record that people like Terri HAVE NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS - and they are no more than animals.
I had a friend with a nephew who had literally half a brain. One entire half of his brain was completely missing. Not there. Just water.
They said he would never live, that he would never walk, that he would never do a lot of things. He did.
See also the scan of a moderately-disabled person posted above.
Sorry, but I trust more the word of a Nobel-prize nominated neurologist.
Sure. And I have listened to neurologists who have examined the scans say that they have had patients with similar scans who were functioning, productive human beings.
In other words, that CAT scan is NOT evidence of a "persistent vegatative state". It is evidence of brain damage, to be sure, but so what? Or are you in favor of executing the brain damaged?
Nope. Felos picked the guy. I'll post it again:
Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the medical examiner chosen by Felos/Schiavo to perform the autopsy, was appointed to his current position by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2000 for a three year term and reappointed in 2003. He reports to the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners, the same commission of which Greer was a commissioner prior to assuming judicial office.
Actually, the behavior of the people who are trying to kill Terri would make no sense if everything were really on the up-and-up and she were PVS as claimed, but it would make a lot of sense if those trying to kill her were lying about her condition.
If Michael, Felos, and Greer had wanted to reduce by 90% the level of protests in this case, they could have done so very easily. Simply have Greer order that the parents should be allowed to make such efforts as they see fit to feed Terri by mouth when the feeding tube is removed. If the facts truly support dehydrating Terri, nobody would be harmed by such a gesture, and such a gesture would clearly benefit the legitimate interests of Michael, Felos, and Greer.
Of course, such a gesture would run the risk of having the parents succeed in feeding/hydrating Terri. Although the only way such an attempt could succeed would be if starvation/dehydration was never legal in the first place, Michael, Felos, and Greer would nonetheless perceive it as a major defeat. Thus, they can't risk it.
If you think I'm just a 'conspiracy theorist', perhaps you can offer some legitimate motive for the prohibition against oral feeding/hydration. Even if it only had a 1% chance of success, I see no legitimate reason to deny Terri that 1% chance. Perhaps you can enlighten me?
"Sorry, but I trust more the word of a Nobel-prize nominated neurologist."
You better check your facts. See for example Post #46
In other words, she's living with a disability. How severe, there is a dispute. But we simply do not kill people because they are disabled: severely retarded children are allowed to live, for the moment, for example. Furthermore, where there is life, there is hope - it may very well be that adult stem cell therapy could restore some of her brain cell function, for example. But now we'll never know, and what is worse, "Dasein Ohne Leben", existence without life, has become an excuse for killing someone, something which even the Nazis practiced, but out of shame which Judge Greer apparently does not possess didn't enshrine it in law.
Regards, Ivan
"If you think I'm just a 'conspiracy theorist', perhaps you can offer some legitimate motive for the prohibition against oral feeding/hydration."
How about because her doctors (experts) didn't think it was a worthwhile endeavor and because it didn't even have a 1% chance of working. The judge is not in the position to just let people experiment on a person if they aren't doctors.
"If you think I'm just a 'conspiracy theorist', perhaps you can offer some legitimate motive for the prohibition against oral feeding/hydration."
How about because her doctors (experts) didn't think it was a worthwhile endeavor and because it didn't even have a 1% chance of working. The judge is not in the position to just let people experiment on a person if they aren't doctors.
I've read a lot of his court testimony and a few interviews but I haven't seen that quote. Where was it from?
You're bitter because I disagree with you and support Terri's right to life? Why would you hate that poor woman so?
Why would you believe a major pro-death doctor about anything? Why look at something in a picture and assume it's real? (because we have no idea it's even Terri's brain scan)
Do you believe everything you read on the net? Are you that naive?
I'm not a doctor either, but I have a fairly decent education and a lot of exposure. It is quite clear to me as well that these scans are of different planes, with Terri's being near the top of the skull and the other scan more nearly mid brain.
By the way, I make this judgement in part on the basis of a set of MRI scans of my own brain I have in my posession.
That is called euthanasia. That is what is wrong and immoral to what is happening to her.
To put it in context, when I was growing up I knew a family who had an older son who was born without a brain, that is without any cortex, which is being discussed here. As my Mom said, he was in a state of being a perpetual infant in the body of an adolescent. He had to be feed by his family for nourishment. Would they have had the right to starve him to death?
Terri is probably in a very similar state, i.e. of now being mentally a perpetual infant. I would argue that her inalienable right to life is protected by the Constitution. And this regardless of her "awareness" - a spiritual reality that cannot be measured by the medical sciences.
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