‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’Woman shows major signs of recovery after brain damage

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By FOSS FARRAR, Arkansas City Traveler For nearly three years, Don and Stella Gaskill had hoped their severely injured granddaughter would talk again. Just recently, their prayers were answered.

On Sept. 3, 2002, Tracy Gaskill suffered critical internal and head injuries when her pickup overturned on its top. Doctors told her relatives that night that she probably would die by noon the next day, Don Gaskill said this morning.

“That accident scared us to death,” said Gaskill, who lives in rural Winfield. Tracy Gaskill also is from Winfield.

But through personalized care received at Medicalodge North in Arkansas City and the daily visits and prayers of the Gaskill family — as well as many others in the Cowley County community — Tracy survived and gradually got better, medical personnel say.

Then, about three weeks ago, she spoke for the first time since the accident, Don Gaskill said. About the same time, she began to swallow on her own.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Dr. David Schmeidler said today. “I have never seen this happen in my career. I’ve read about it happening, the severely brain damaged recovering suddenly, but never seen it until now,” said Schmeidler, the medical director at the Medicalodge. He said he visited Tracy a few weeks ago and she greeted him, “Hi, Dr. Schmeidler.”

“She is actually able to speak and to speak coherently,” he said. “In light of all this stuff on Terri Schiavo — and I believe what was done in that case was wrong — it makes you pause and think. For three years or so, (Tracy) was fed through a tube, then she swallowed a little bit and now she speaks.”

Schiavo was the severely brain damaged woman who died March 31 after spending 15 years connected to a feeding tube. It finally was disconnected, after a bitter right-to-die dispute between her husband and her parents. The case went all the way to the White House and Congress.

But everyone involved in Tracy Gaskill’s care has been pulling for her to get better ever since her accident.

“It’s really quite amazing (that Tracy can speak),” said Lynda Marshall, a registered nurse who works at Medicalodge North. “After they’ve been without speech and the ability to eat that long, it’s very rare they’re able to come back.”

Marshall said Tracy will get speech therapy, continue working on improving cognitive functions and eat on her own.

Don Gaskill said he feels that without the personalized care his granddaughter has received at Medicalodge, she wouldn’t have made such an amazing recovery.

“In the last year and a half, she’s indicated that she knows us; she has been watching TV and smiling,” he said. “More recently, she started nodding her head when we asked her questions. Then a few months ago, she’d laugh out loud.”

In the last few months, nurses at the Medicalodge worked with her to get her to hum, he added. Finally, she started to speak clearly.

Asked by a reporter today how old she was, Tracy answered, “Twenty-nine. “You’re 30,” Don Gaskill corrected her. “Remember, you had another birthday.”

Tracy Gaskill was injured in 2002 when she lost control of her pickup truck as she was driving south on U.S. 77 just south of Strother Field, near the site of Cowley Cinema 8, according to the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department. The vehicle rolled over.

“We don’t know what caused it,” Don Gaskill said. “We weren’t at home at the time. One of (her) brothers who had heard from the sheriff’s office called us.”

Tracy was taken by ambulance to Strother Field, where a medical evacuation helicopter airlifted her to Wesley Medical Center. Tracy is a sister of Tyler Gaskill, a photographer and office staffer at the Winfield Courier. She has another brother, Shawn, a junior at Winfield High School.

She was in surgical intensive care for about a month at the Wichita hospital, Don Gaskill said, before she was moved into the Medicalodge in Arkansas City.

Turn the volume up. Listen very carefully at about 10 or 11 seconds into the video. Terri responds to her Mom.

You claim that you haven't said what you believe, but you've said more than you realize. You may be too ashamed of your new position to come right out and say what it is, but you've said enough.

There was a time when you saw disabled people as human beings. Do you remember this?

I responded to the scene of an elderly woman who had suffered a severe stroke while visiting her daughter for the holidays.
She was unresponsive on scene, but I talked to her anyway. I spent only about 20 with this woman from the time I arrived on scene, to the time I turned her over to the care of the hospital. She was not even responsive to pain during the entire time I was with her.
I never saw her again, until almost 2 years later.
She was with her daughter in a grocery store that I happened to be at. She approached me after she heard me talking to my toddler. I was not in uniform.
She came up to me and said, "You are the paramedic that took me to the hospital after my stroke. I would know your voice anywhere, you sounded to me like an angel".
I had never seen this woman or her daughter prior to her stroke and had not seen her since. She had recovered somewhat and moved back to New York. She had just come back to visit her daughter again.
What you said is so true. People can hear and remember. If this woman remembered me two years later, having never seen me at all, Terri most assuredly knows her mother.
24 posted on 02/07/2004 3:45:07 AM EST by texasflower (in the event of the rapture.......the Bush White House will be unmanned)

As of September of last year, you still advocated allowing someone you don't even like to live, regardless of how much it cost or where the money came from.

Yes, petty. None of us like Clinton, but he is one of only 43 people to ever hold the office of President of the United States.
He should be entitled to the best healthcare. Even if that means paying for a room with a sofa in it and afternoon tea.
It is really immature to make this an issue. This is DU level crap.
35 posted on 09/06/2004 10:30:15 PM EDT by texasflower (How appropriate...... the pro abortion party is the "D 'N' C")

By November, you were singing a completely different tune. What a prophetic new tagline.

They probably consider him alive as long as he is on the machines.
244 posted on 11/04/2004 9:36:30 PM EST by texasflower (Liberty can change habits. ~ President George W. Bush 10/08/04)

While Terri was starving and dehydrating to death, you requested, then practically begged to be added to a list of people who supported that action. You praised those who supported killing Terri, and you insulted your former allies who continued to support Terri. Your new group held drinking games about Terri's murder, and you proudly sported the title of WPPFF even after your group had been exposed. You've done much of your speaking through others, by simply stating that you agree with what they have said ("I want Terri Schiavo to die because I believe she's earned it."), though you don't have the courage to say it yourself.

Up until September you understood that it was wrong to exterminate disabled people. From November onward you describe disabled people in subhuman terms, and give reasons for exterminating them. Though you're still too ashamed to admit what you believe, you expose your beliefs with every post. You used to give reasons to support life. Now you give reasons to end it. What happened between September and November that caused you to change so severely and so quickly?

No Barb, I haven't said to anyone what my true feelings are about this. As I said, my feelings are extremely complicated and they include lots of different experiences, religious beliefs, personal experiences not only in marriage, but also in my medical experience, familial experiences, death and life. Among other factors.

VERY complicated. And not fully expressed here on purpose. So, I could be as angry as you are, or not. I could support any of the significant people involved, or not. I could support the judges or not. I may think the right thing was done or not.

My willingness to express a few things here and there is not an indicator of my feelings about this. There is nothing at all contradictory in anything you posted from my previous comments.

Although I am a bit concerned about your willingness to go through all of those posts, just to try and "trap" someone that you don't even know. And then for it to be an entire waste of your time, because you still do NOT know what I think.

You can even look at my profile page and see one of the personal experiences that I have that affect the way I feel about the Terri case, BUT you STILL WILL NOT KNOW what I think.

Now on to your examples which make you think you know what I think.

1. The experience with that woman who had the stroke is still one of my most treasured memories. I still talk to patients just like I did with her. My love for my patients and people with disabilities is the same as it always was. Nothing has changed.

I still believe that Terri knew her mother. Nothing has changed about that at all. That still doesn't mean the woman was able to form words.

If you will recall, that is the ONLY thing I said about this. I said nothing about thinking she should die because she couldn't speak. There was NOTHING of the sort said. ALL I said was she couldn't form words. Period.

2. I still feel like Clinton or any former president and even any former first lady, should be well taken care of for life, regardless of cost. This is also completely consistent with my current feelings about this. NEVER did I say one word about the cost of Terri's care and as a taxpayer, I wouldn't have had a problem keeping her on the public care system forever.

3. "By November you were singing a completely different tune". What in the hell are you talking about? It is curious that you didn't bother to include a context for that one. Since I don't know what we were discussing, then I don't care to comment. Post the link and I'll be happy to show you how that doesn't contradict my current feelings also.

I'm well known for standing by my posts and my principles, so there is NOT going to be anything "prophetic" in that post.

My suggestion is that you give up the prophecy thing, because you really aren't good at it.

4. That list you are saying that I "practically begged to be on" was in response to the hatefulness that those of you militants were subjecting the rest of us to. JUST like this time and this thread. You will never find anything that says I supported Terri's death. NOTHING.

You will find that I accepted the fact that the law is what it is and no matter how the law might have failed Terri, the appellate judges had to uphold the law as written. That DOES NOT mean I support that particular law.

You will also find that I accepted the fact that Terri was going to die and felt that the hatefulness really needed to stop. My opinion of that HAS NOT CHANGED ONE BIT. Which is EXACTLY why I was upset at your "rejoicing" remark to the other poster.

He NEVER said that. NOT EVEN CLOSE, but you still accused him of being happy that she was dead. That was a completely unwarranted cheap shot by you and it was wrong and nasty in tone and A COMPLETE LIE.

I did not participate in any sort of drinking games or any of the other nonsense that you brought up. I have the courage to say what I think, IF it is pertinent or appropriate.

So, that crap about letting others speak for me is a charge that is completely false. IF I DIDN'T SAY IT THEN YOU CAN NOT ATTRIBUTE IT TO ME.

You accuse me of describing disabled people in subhuman terms. THAT IS A FILTHY LIE.

For your information, I happen to be a disabled person now, following a very serious car accident a couple of years ago.

I also spent every single summer of my teenage years as a volunteer for the muscular dystrophy foundation, living and working with disabled children. I would have continued to do it if they allowed adults to participate in that program.

So that accusation of yours, once again, IS A FILTHY NASTY LIE AND YOU SHOULD BE COMPLETELY ASHAMED OF THAT.

I gave NO "reasons for exterminating" disabled people. That is also a lie.

I have not changed one single bit. I did say that it was time to let Terri go with respect once it became clear that there was no hope. That is the ultimate respect for Terri. Having her every bowel movement and urination discussed on international TV, letting children get arrested, showing those pictures of that poor woman after years of neglect, in a way that no woman would want to be seen is disrespectful to Terri.

Praying for Terri to have a peaceful passing does not mean I wanted Terri to die. But for you guys to continually pray for more days for Terri, even though the legal process had run it's course, was not respectful or loving for her.

You guys talked about the agony she must be going through, yet prayed for her to live longer in that agony. Tell me which one of us actually, truly loved Terri?

Me and some of the others who wanted her to go to Jesus in peace, once it was clear that nothing more could be done?

Or your camp who got hysterical about the very things that would make her more comfortable like morphine? Your camp who wanted her to linger in agony?

NO, Barb, my love for disabled people was absolutely evident in my feeling that all the negativity surrounding her and the lingering in an agonizing state was wrong. It was love for Terri that caused me to say those things.

It was selfish of you guys to try and keep her and the situation in such turmoil.

It was dreadfully selfish of you guys to say that you didn't care about the other patients and family members of the hospice. It was hateful and dreadfully selfish of your camp to not care about the poor young woman who ran to the hospice in her pajamas in order to be with her dying grandfather, but couldn't make it because the protesters had caused everyone to be strip searched before getting to the patients.

You didn't care about her or any of the other families and dying patients.

That was inhuman in my opinion and it showed that the rights of the sick and disabled wasn't your true cause at all.

Think about it Barb. Think about it all of you others who want to try and bash me.

Your behavior was disgraceful during this and it is disgraceful now.

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