better than Turban Durbin does.
Posted on 08/04/2005 5:49:22 PM PDT by rwfromkansas
For 20 years, Sarah Scantlin was seemingly unaware of the world around her after she was hit by a drunk driver in an accident that sent her into a comatose state in September of 1984.
Then in February, she shocked her parents and doctors when she began to speak. In her first national television interview, after undergoing surgery on her long-unused limbs and speech therapy to unlock her long-dormant tongue, Scantlin speaks with The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith in a two-part interview to be broadcast Thursday and Friday.
Smith also speaks with Sarah's parents, Jim and Betsy Scantlin, who never imagined they would talk to their daughter again.
In a February interview on The Early Show , Sarah’s father recounted the phone call he and his wife got, informing them of the unimaginable.
"It was amazing. I'm in the living room. Betsy was in the computer area, and the phone rings ... and suddenly, I'm aware that there's a profound, distinct difference. Rather than speaking about Sarah, it became very clear she [Sarah’s nurse] was speaking to Sarah. It was the most amazing feeling in the world," he said.
The 1984 accident occurred when Scantlin was crossing the street in her hometown of Hutchinson, Kan. She suffered a massive brain injury and could not breathe on her own. Smith speaks with New York neurologist Randolph Marshall, who says that people like Scantlin rarely awake from such an injury. "You only hear about these cases very rarely and they’re always a surprise when they actually come to light," he says.
Scantlin’s speech is still limited.
However, it seems that throughout her 20-year coma, she could see, hear, and understand what was going on around her. Shortly after she awoke, her father asked what she knew about events that had occurred years earlier.
"Sarah, what's 9/11?" her father asks. She responds, "Bad…fire…airplanes…building…hurt people."
Smith says there are other things deep in Scantlin’s brain that also survived the accident, such things as her favorite 1980s song "Summer Lovin’," which she even sings for The Early Show.
PING!
That is what made my grandfather's love so great, and the Schivo case and others like it so tragic.
That about covers it.
Amazing.
Amen to that. Terri will not be forgotten. Hopefully Sarah will help shed light on the coma experience, in as much as it varies between patients. So that we don't have anymore Terris starved to death.
I hope and pray that there will be more stories like this coming out to show the world that people in Coma's and in PVS are not dead yet and they are aware of their surroundings. This just proves to me what i have thought all along, that Terri Schiavo knew exactly what was happening to her when she was starved and dehydrated to death and felt it all as well.
It really is. And there is so much to be learned from Sarah to help coma patients. Hopefully that will mean no more Terris starved to death. See #48. Now, comes the plight of Leslie Burke. Hopefully, Sarah's experience in coma will lead to a more compassionate situation for Mr. Burke. Even though his condition will eventually result in death, there's no reason to treat him inhumanely and new reasons to treat him more humanely. I hope the socialized medical system in the UK recognizes that before he is left to die in agony.
bump
If you're brain dead your heart won't beat and you likely won't be breathing on your own. Case in point, Susan Torres.
As long as you're not standing over them talking about their imminent death and how much you stand to inherit!
You must know my great aunt. We've had 2 recent deaths in the family and man, as if she didn't have enough already, she was right there with her hand out looking for more. The woman is in her late 80s. You'd think she'd realize she can't take it with her.
You wrote shows how little we know about coma's.....
I would like to add shows how little we know about the brain.
: )
And as an addendum to that, how what we think we know can be way, way off base.
Uh, no. The heart can even beat when completely removed from the body.
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