Posted on 05/11/2005 6:39:07 PM PDT by BykrBayb
‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’
Tracy Gaskill shows major signs of recovery after critical accident in 2002
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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.
“We’ve been assisting her with a feeding tube until yesterday,” she said.
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.
You couldn't be more correct. Great post. Well done!
Absolutely. I have made the same point. And recently there has been greater evidence and testimony that the above is true.
bttt
The 'bad behavior' was in that hospice that straved an innocent woman to death. That is what your side supported. Corret?
You opined, "Terri's case is unique only in that there was so much family turmoil." The openness with which this wrong was committed makes Terri's execution in fact unique. Don't count on it not being repeated. ... And there are still a myriad of unanswered questions to be dealt with by those willing to continue the quest.
Bookmarked.
Thank you for posting that video link. Terri certainly laughs and smiles in the video ... me thinks someone projected 'gone' onto Terri because that's what the poster wants to believe. And therein is the reason to continue speaking out to folks like texasflower ... perhaps, just perhaps, truth will begin to dawn on them.
Thanks for the p*i*n*g. How do I mention a p*i*n*g
without doing a p*i*n*g? I have vs other newbie queries
too, is there a FR How To Forum?
Be that as it may, this story was one that needed to
be publicized.
Thanks for the p*i*n*g. How do I mention a p*i*n*g
without doing a p*i*n*g? I have vs other newbie queries
too, is there a FR How To Forum?
Be that as it may, this story was one that needed to
be publicized.
There's an old thread for newbies and their ?s. I used to have it bookmarked before I sent my laptop in for "fixing". It's now on a disk but who knows where, I don't.
Check out the homepage and click anything that looks like it might be it.
The ping is really just symbolic, in a sense. Any time you post a reply - IOW, a comment that has another FR member's name in the "to" box, is a ping. It draws the other person to it in a remorseless magnetic manner.
:>)
Getting a "ping" via a pinglist just means many people were pung all at once.
Crystal clear now, I'm sure.
If I find a link to that thread, I'll ping you.
Are you referring to the FR html sandbox?
They heal the wound of My people lightly. "Peace, peace!" But there is no peace, saith the Lord.
It's just a few well constructed miles of highway on the route to Hell, that's all. It's not the whole road, nothing to worry!
Not HTML sandbox as much as a thread about - well, newbie questions. There also was one that was all about the Mods - a real funny one, I used to send it to people.
I can't find any of it, I did save stuff on a disk which is, I think, in a pile somewhere around here.
Good to see you! I hope you and yours are well.
This has been happening for many, many years. I am a medical professional and this has been going on as long as I have been involved in health care. That's about 28 years now and it was going on before that.
The nation is not dying for heaven's sake. You guys over react and that is off putting to many.
You say I was trying to establish a straw man? Excuse me, but I'm not the one that over reacts here. That exact same thing has been said many times on this board. In fact, I saw it just last night.
You guys are the ones who think the country is going to be destroyed, not me.
Denial is not a river in Egypt.
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