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‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’Woman shows major signs of recovery after brain damage
Arkansas City Traveler ^ | May 11, 2005 | Foss Farrar

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Arkansas; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: cary; disability; euthanasia; feedingtube; lifesupport; murder; pvs; righttolife; schiavo; schindler; terri; terrischiavo; terrischindler
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To: MHGinTN
"If We The People let our outrage abate regarding Terri's inhumane execution, this will become common place execution for the severely handicapped and inconvenient."

You couldn't be more correct. Great post. Well done!

61 posted on 05/12/2005 9:50:53 AM PDT by TAdams8591 (Terri Schindler was NOT in coma, JUSTICE was.....)
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To: little jeremiah
"Where there's life, there's the soul. And often the soul can perceive beyond the ability of the senses or body to respond. Even people in comas often can hear, and have said they could hear, once they came out of the coma."

Absolutely. I have made the same point. And recently there has been greater evidence and testimony that the above is true.

62 posted on 05/12/2005 9:54:49 AM PDT by TAdams8591 (Terri Schindler was NOT in coma, JUSTICE was.....)
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To: BykrBayb
This is the kind of love and care all patients should get.

bttt

63 posted on 05/12/2005 5:42:52 PM PDT by bjs1779 ("It was wrong to kill her. No other "facts" matter".-JimRobinson)
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To: MHGinTN
I wonder why all of you feel so compelled to repost a history of Terri each time someone says anything contrary to the view that Terri was talking?

We ALL know the details.

Still, Terri was not talking at the end. She did not speak. I heard the tapes my self.

Like I said, I wanted Terri to live also and despite her severe disability, I thought that she had a life worth living.

You asked me if I admonished those who were in the "other camp".

Only if they were being deliberately hateful towards those who disagreed. The exact same thing I am doing right now.

The ardent (perhaps militant) Terri supporters did most of the name calling my friend. Those who professed to love Terri, were sometimes brutally hateful to others, calling them murderers etc.

That was just wrong. Very wrong and it's still happening, just like what happened early on this thread.

That poster was not "rejoicing" in Terri's death at all.

Like I said, MOST of the really bad behavior during that time was exhibited by Terri's most ardent supporters.

Personally, in all honesty, I think this was not the "turning point" in our country that you are saying.

This stuff has been going on for a very long time now. Terri's case is unique only in that there was so much family turmoil.

This case did not, nor will it, destroy the country. Nor will it lead to the murder of all inconvenient people.
64 posted on 05/12/2005 6:01:36 PM PDT by texasflower ("America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one." President George W. Bush 01/20/05)
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To: texasflower
Like I said, MOST of the really bad behavior during that time was exhibited by Terri's most ardent supporters.

The 'bad behavior' was in that hospice that straved an innocent woman to death. That is what your side supported. Corret?

65 posted on 05/12/2005 7:23:47 PM PDT by bjs1779 ("It was wrong to kill her. No other "facts" matter".-JimRobinson)
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To: texasflower
She did not speak. I heard the tapes my self.

"What did you say about Mom, Dad?"

66 posted on 05/12/2005 7:31:14 PM PDT by bjs1779 ("It was wrong to kill her. No other "facts" matter".-JimRobinson)
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To: texasflower

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.


67 posted on 05/12/2005 8:06:00 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: MHGinTN

Bookmarked.


68 posted on 05/12/2005 8:12:52 PM PDT by EternalVigilance ("We, the people, are the...masters of...the courts..." -Abraham Lincoln)
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To: bjs1779

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.


69 posted on 05/12/2005 8:26:06 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: little jeremiah

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.


70 posted on 05/12/2005 9:00:39 PM PDT by cycjec
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To: little jeremiah

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.


71 posted on 05/12/2005 9:01:32 PM PDT by cycjec
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To: cycjec

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.


72 posted on 05/12/2005 9:06:20 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Resisting evil is our duty or we are as responsible as those promoting it.)
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To: little jeremiah

Are you referring to the FR html sandbox?


73 posted on 05/12/2005 9:15:51 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: MHGinTN
Spread peace and love all you can, flower,

They heal the wound of My people lightly. "Peace, peace!" But there is no peace, saith the Lord.

74 posted on 05/12/2005 9:20:03 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: texasflower
This case did not, nor will it, destroy the country. It is the advanced stage of rot that allowed the Terri execution to occur. The nation is dying with a whimper, not with a bang, as the deadly disease of secular humanism/liberalism 21st Century degenerates a once God-fearing nation. Nor will it lead to the murder of all inconvenient people. By using the 'all' it becomes apparent that you want to establish a strawman ... but for what reason?
75 posted on 05/12/2005 9:24:35 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: MHGinTN; texasflower

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!


76 posted on 05/12/2005 9:55:42 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: MHGinTN

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.


77 posted on 05/12/2005 10:10:28 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Resisting evil is our duty or we are as responsible as those promoting it.)
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To: MHGinTN
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.
78 posted on 05/12/2005 11:20:02 PM PDT by texasflower ("America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one." President George W. Bush 01/20/05)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

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.


79 posted on 05/12/2005 11:20:22 PM PDT by texasflower ("America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one." President George W. Bush 01/20/05)
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To: texasflower

Denial is not a river in Egypt.


80 posted on 05/12/2005 11:23:26 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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