Posted on 06/19/2005 6:04:50 PM PDT by wagglebee
Dr. William Hammesfahr, nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work in Medicine, has been recognized by agents for Medicare, the federal government, and others for new approaches to helping the brain injured.
Dr. Hammesfahr has been identified in helping patients with chronic brain injuries from many causes actually leave long term disability, and return to work.
Dr. Hammesfahr was identified the first physician to restore deficits caused by stroke.
Dr. Hammesfahr has released the following statement in response to the autopsy report on Terri Schindler Schiavo:
We have seen a lot on the autopsy of Terri Schindler Schiavo in recent days, that I feel needs to be addressed. To ignore these comments will allow future 'Terri Schiavo's' to die needlessly after the wishes of clinicians and family are ignored.
Considering that there were so many physicians and therapists who were willing to step forward to treat Terri Schiavo, from university based practitioners to those in private practice, it clearly shows that the mainstream medical community across the board, those involved in treating patients, knew that they could help Terri.
The record must be set straight. As we noted in the press, there was no heart attack, or evident reason for this to have happened (and certainly not of Terri's making).
Unlike the constant drumbeat from the husband, his attorneys, and his doctors, the brain tissue was not dissolved, with a head of just spinal fluid. In fact, large areas were "relatively preserved."
The purpose of the therapies offered by so many, from major universities, brain injury centers, and from private practice physicians, is to improve and restore quality of life, and function, which the mainstream medical community clearly tried to get to her.
I have had a chance to look at Dr. Nelson's analysis of the brain tissue, and essentially, as a clinician, these are my thoughts.
The autopsy results confirmed my opinion and Dr. Maxfield's opinions, that the frontal areas of the brains, the areas that deal with awareness and cognition were relatively intact. To use Dr. Nelson's words, "relatively preserved." In fact, the relay areas from the frontal and front temporal regions of the brain, to the spinal cord and the brain stem, by way of the basal ganglia, were preserved, thus the evident responses which she was able to express to her family and to the clinicians seeing her or viewing her videotape. The Spect scan confirmed these areas were functional and not scar tissue, and that was apparently also confirmed on Dr. Nelson's review of the slides. Dr. Maxfield's estimates of retained brain weight were apparently accurate, although there may have been some loss of brain weight due to the last two weeks of dehydration.
Dr. Maxfield and myself both emphasized that she was a woman trapped in her body, similar to a child with cerebral palsy, and that was born out by the autopsy, showing greater injury in the motor and visual centers of the brain. Obviously, the pathologists comments that she could not see were not borne out by reality, and thus his assessment must represent sampling error. The videotapes clearly showed her seeing, and even Dr. Cranfoed, for the husband, commented to her that, when she could see the balloon, she could follow it with her eyes as per his request.
That she could not swallow was obviously not borne out by the reality that she was swallowing her saliva, about 1.5 liters per day of liquid, and the clinical swallowing tests done by Dr. Young and Dr. Carpenter. Thus, there appears to be some limitations to the clinical accuracy of an autopsy in evaluating function.
With respect to the issue of trauma, that certainly does not appear to be answered adequately. Some of the types of trauma that are suspected were not adequately evaluated in this assessment. Interestingly, both myself and at least one neurologist for the husband testified to the presence of neck injuries. The issue of a forensic evaluation for trauma, is highly specialized. Hence the wish of the family to have observers which was refused by the examiner.
Ultimately, based on the clinical evidence and the autopsy results, an aware woman was killed.
s/Dr. W. Hammesfahr
[Dr. Hammesfahr was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1999. The Nomination was for work started in 1994. In 2000, this work resulted in approval for the first patent in history granted for the treatment of neurological diseases including coma, stroke, brain injury, cerebral palsy, hypoxic injuries and other neurovascular disorders with medications that restore blood flow to the brain. It was extended to treat successfully disabilities including ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette's and Autism as well as behaviorally and emotionally disturbed children, seizures and severe migraines.]
My comment was directed toward the structure and functionality of the website... not the Schiavo issue in general. We've crossed the line. And it is sad that so many long-time Freepers left in March and April in protest.
They most certainly were. Any honest comparison of Terri's brain scan shows that the cortial area was largely intact and did not show marked deterioration. The autopsy was a forgone conclusion, what did anyone expect the coroner to conclude? He did make some conclusions that the autopsy alone could never show. He claims her vision centers were dead, I won't dispute that, given her whole brain was dead at the time. Would it have been more justified if she were indeed blind? A simple series of empirical tests could've been ordered before her death to set everyone at ease but for some reason any evidence that suggested Terri was not PVS was rejected outright. That I think is reprehensible and will always be, I would think in America one would at least want to be absolutely certain beyond a resonable doubt that someone is truly "brain dead" before treating them to starvation and dehydration but that was too messy and we couldn't be bothered with that. Its easier to defer to the Doctors and lawyers to do the messy work for us, and make us feel better about how good we are because we put an assumed nonconsious vegetable out of her "misery". It doesn't matter how ignorant or illogical such ideas are. One could be at least impersonal and honest and say "Ya know man she isn't worth a f*** and when someone isn't worth a f*** well what in the f*** are they still hanging around for? I mean sh** I've got places to go and people to see...and no time for vegetable sitting.". No, people aren't that honest, they instead pretend that they only want what is best, its even funny how people who don't even believe in an afterlife will talk about "a better place " or that someone is "better off", if this is all there is then I would think there is nothing about dead that can be "a better place" and unless we're getting messages from "John Edwards" we certainly can't say anything definitive "someone being better off". As for "Christians", who see no problem with starving and dehydrating someone to death, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they've figured something out that I've not because Jesus never said anything about helping the sick get to heaven by withholding food and water or giving up hope or having no faith. I don't know, I can't see Jesus Christ sitting there with a camera filming a woman dieing when a drink of water and a bit of food could help her live. I suppose this is beating a dead horse, but of course she wasn't a horse, we put people in jail for starving horses.
You're right - the only details that matter is that a woman was killedy by dehydration/starvation.
You are wrong, however. It doesn't matter if she was dying or not, or if her wishes were to kill her or not. You can't just kill someone and you certainly can't starve/dehydrate them to death. If her so-called "wishes" were carried out by shooting her in the head, would that have been acceptable? Of course not. So why is dehydrating or starving such a woman to death somehow acceptable to some people?
"Almost a third of such decisions, after periods as short as two years, no longer reflect the wishes of those who made them."
How do you know which way people changed their minds? If they have decided they DO wish to remain on life support equipment indefinitely with no hope for a cure, they can simply tear up their living wills.
It's the other way that it's more tricky. Say you signed a living will and you will accept a feeding tube provided you're cognizant but will never get out of bed. But then you have a massive stroke, can't talk, can't move, have a feeding tube and will remain that way for the rest of your life. It's too late to change your living will to say something different.
You have to trust your spouse or family to know what you would want and to do what their heart tells them to do.
The point you're responding to is the observation that FR has changed. The deliberate and willful misrepresentation of where people stood on Terri Schiavo is part and parcel of that.
You make think you know what position someone took on her, but most likely you're over-simplifying at best or flat out wrong at worst.
The rejection of documented fact in favor of malicious gossip is another unfortunate path that has been chosen by far too many here.
You're 100% correct, of course.
This "sides" issue has been taken to ridiculous extremes. The other day I posted one sentence on a Terri thread...it was to link to the fact that she did not present at the hospital with broken bones or marks on her neck.
I was called the most vile names. Now one cannot even present facts, correcting the many gross errors about this case, without being called a Nazi. It's most unfortunate.
You know you people that claim that others who are disgusted with what happened to Terri are full of conspiracy theories really miss the point. It really does not take a lot of conspirators to end up with the same results. One bad egotistical judge, one rotten husband and one very pro euthanasia lawyer is all it took. Not a big conspiracy in my book.
Read the Guardian Ad Litem Wolfman report to the court.
Well, from what I read, the only definitive test for it is an MRI. And we all know that Terri couldn't have one. Any normal eye test wouldn't help. First of all, because Terri couldn't respond well enough. And second because the eyes themselves apear normal. This is damage to the brain, not the eyes. It is one of the most difficult things to diagnose. Truly sad.
Terri was the apple of her father's eye. I know he misses her terribly. I can't for the life of me understand the hostility toward Terri's parents and siblings. Doesn't make sense but then the world has been turned upside down.
You're obviously forgetting dozens of doctors and nurses. But no matter.
I dont think they have any legal standing to file suit. Any suit they file will likely get tossed as quickly as all their appeals during the final two weeks.
Sam has an appopriate quote for everything. You've gotta love him.
The Wolfson report to Jeb Bush; widely considered to be the most complete history about this matter. He was one of 4 (or was it 5) guardian ad litems.
http://home.comcast.net/~trinity_tx/wolfson.htm
Maybe there's a little hostility toward her parents because they've lied on public television for years.
They testified under oath to various things and turned around and outright lied on television.
They made videos of Terri and sold them.
They admitted under oath that even if Terri told them she didn't want to live this way, they'd keep her alive. So much for her being the "apple of her father's eye".
Well I guess some people think other topics are more worthy. When a country is faced with killing an innocent woman at the hands of the judiciary I think people should stand up and be alarmed. It scares me more that most people could care less and would rather watch football.
If I ever become incapacitated, God forbid, I do NOT want to be dehydrated/starved to death. I guess I'm funny that way.
God used Terri in so many ways. She brought joy to her Mom and Dad and sibblings. She got people on their knees and thinking about Heavenly Father. Even now, we are missing her and discussing the injustice that was perpetrated and vowing that it should never happen again.
Terri was pure love. Incapable of malice. She was perfect. We loved her, not because of what she could do for us, but because she was a child of God. And they killed her.
It's not so simple, kiddo.
I have no comment on the sport of football. Again, I was discussing FR in general, and the myriad of discussions, politics, history, terrorism, the economy, etc... Terri Schiavo's death did NOT stop time from marching on. And FR is still trying to keep a pulse on what is most important in the nation at that moment. We're called activists, for a reason.
As part of an early attempt at therapy, Terri has metal probes of some kind inserted in her brain. Attempts at doing a scan without surgically removing these metal objects would have resulted in her head exploding in a very violent and unpleasant way.
You asked a question about her parents. I answered it.
And she, like the rest of us, was NOT perfect.
And if you don't wish to have a feeding tube removed, just make sure your living will states that you want to remain on machines or feeding tubes indefinitely regardless of your prognosis and cognitive ability.
The nursing home where you will be sent will be all too happy to keep you alive and collect the money.
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