Posted on 04/06/2005 5:03:58 AM PDT by johnny7
I spent much of last Thursday trying to sort out my feelings about the death of Terri Schiavo. Had I been her mother I would have done my utmost to preserve my daughter's life, just as Mary Schindler did. I would have fought the doctors and the courts and Terri's husband, Michael. I would have railed and screamed and prayed. To watch your precious daughter die by starvation is far more painful than accepting your own mortality: this is a child you have nurtured and played with and shepherded through the turbulence of teenhood and dressed in a wedding gown.
Had I been her husband, Michael, I would have found it equally painful to watch my beautiful wife descend into a form of torpor and to remain in this state for 15 years. Michael has been vilified for starting a relationship with another woman and having children with her. But for the first years of Terri's hospitalization he did his utmost to seek special therapies for her; he bought her comfortable, stylish clothing so she would look her best; he enrolled in nursing school so he could understand the complexities of her medical care. I can't judge him for entering another relationship. He was a young man; he wanted children. Why he didn't divorce Terri, I don't know. Clearly he still felt responsible for her.
The reasons for Terri's death, however, go beyond the removal of a feeding tube and family and court battles. They go beyond medical ethics and religion. Terri suffered from an eating disorder that led to dangerously low potassium levels that led to cardiac arrest. Her brain was not fed with enough oxygen and this led to severe damage to her cerebral cortex, the seat of reason and emotion. She lapsed into a vegetative state. Her brain could make her heart beat but it couldn't make her sensible to her surroundings. Terri had been an overweight teenager, at one point weighing 250 pounds. Didn't her loving parents worry when they saw their daughter shrink to 110 pounds? Didn't her husband notice she ate very little and purged after meals? Did her family or her friends question her extreme eating habits?
It is likely Terri was complimented by how terrific she looked and this would have encouraged her to continue to deprive her body of food. It is true the bloated features in her high school class picture had been transformed; the bulimia had allowed her to become a delicate beauty. She resembled the young Elizabeth Taylor. Her weight loss was validated, at a horrible cost. Terri Schiavo's case, like that of singer Karen Carpenter who died of anorexia, is an excruciating reminder to parents to be vigilant about their children's eating habits -- even if those children are young adults and tell us to mind our own business. We need to persist in helping them. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, "anorexia and bulimia affect nearly 10 million women and 1 million men (primarily teens and young adults)." That is a huge number of our children.
If Terri's parents or her husband or her family doctor had stopped for a moment and wondered about her swanlike transformation, maybe she never would have suffered that cardiac arrest and lapsed into catatonia. But our society admires thinness -- the Rubenesque Marilyn Monroe likely would be considered too plump these days -- and so some of our children, in the quest to look attractive, may starve themselves. Even to their death. That is what Terri Schiavo's story has communicated so clearly.
Her high school yearbook picture, as well as pictures with her friends and family. I've seen it on the net. I'm surprised you haven't, since I've seen you on the Terri threads so often.
Unless he's a bus driver or a truck driver.
Yes, I had to have an interview. But NOT because I was male. I agree entirely that Schiavo should have had an interview. I just don't buy into your "because he was male" bit.
"Anorexic/bulimics are more likely to die."
Maybe. But as I said, the U.S. statistics on these cases are cooked.
The bulimic story came about because she had a low potassium level when she was admitted to the hospital. Maybe she just didn't like bananas.
Please, please give me your evidence that she had bulimia.
You mean you posed a trick question for me? Lawsy sakes.
Every time Jane gets dumped by a man, America pays. Daddy treats her bad so she makes stupid French pictures that are foisted on the public; Roger Vadim teaches her Existentialism then dumps her and she takes up with Tom Hayden - and we all know where that led. Tom Hayden dumps her and she takes up with Ted Turner. He, in turn, dumps her and suddenly she's giving large amounts of money to Harvard for nutty gender studies, touring the country with "The Vagina Monologues," and I kid you not - redesigning a room in her house to resemble a vagina.
Do us a favor, Jane, stay single!
Wrong.
This is not the fault of people around Terri. There is only so much one can do. I have had family members who had bulimia and only person who made them stop was themselves. I also know a girl from my high school (I am friends with her doctor brother) who dies because of an eating disorder because her heart gave out.
" Please, please give me your evidence that she had bulimia. "
We should check with Alan Colmes. He stated on his radio show the other night-
" We know she purged."
We do ?
The pain reaction could be reflexive....
Third page....on 3/15/90....more sensory test...slight increse in some areas.....goes on to describe vocal and touch test.
Results could be the result of a time change. Old test at 8am new at 4pm....she'd been awake longer.
Did some test on her eye nerve....very sluggish response to light....abnormal response to tracking and blinking.
Response score increased from 19-23 but remains at a (your guess is as good as mine LOL) probably Rancho levelII.
See....
Level II: Generalized Response to Stimulation: Total Assistance
http://www.birf.info/artman/publish/article_ranchoscale.shtml
Indication for a stimulation program, retest in one month.
3/28/90 Some kind of program started 3/25 with a goal of increasing responses. ....can't make out the last.
Looks like a chicken stepped in ink and got loose on some paper?
LOL!!! I didn't get as far as you did. Page 2 was bad too but at least it was shorter. If I understood it correctly, when lying prone in PT, Terri said "Stop". All 3 pages are assorted dates too. I would imagine that it's because of limited space on the website.
Thanks for trying to decipher the chicken scratch.
"You don't get those kinds of fractures lying in bed"
Walker notes only one fracture....not fractures. He further notes other reasons for what he sees as well as in his testimony in court.
I meant to ask your opinion. Terri wore glasses and then contacts. I wondered if anyone bothered to take that into account. That would explain part of the tracking problem, you can't track what you can't see. I don't imagine the brain damage helped her eyesight. One report I read said the doctor thought she was nearly blind if objects were more than 18 inches to a foot away from her face. Can't remember where I read it. I've read so much in such a short time that I just can't remember what reports are where and by who. But I only remember 1 doctor mentioning her having poor eyesight before her collapse.
Getting close to the magic number.
"Maybe you didn't read the report:"
Maybe....no, you didn't read what I said. The doctor's "mentioned" it. Mentioning it is not an assertion that it is so...it is not an assertion that something is medical fact.
"You mean you posed a trick question for me?"
Trick? Just back up what you say with something to support it. Happens all the time. Either you can or you can't no trick to it.
The Sun-Times is just a horrendous paper. Pure tabloid. Take Eric Zorn, mix in some Jennifer Hunter and top off with Richard Roeper. Left-leaning morons...all of them
"That and Man's desire for the perfect woman."
Maybe it comes out of that parternal thingy in the Bible?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.