Posted on 10/10/2006 4:04:27 PM PDT by wagglebee
GRESHAM, Oregon October 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A young boy, who had previously been diagnosed as being in a “permanent vegetative state,” has awakened from a 22 month-long coma and is breathing on his own.
Devon Rivers collapsed in a seizure during a phys-ed class in 2004 and his condition was never explained, though some doctors suggested it was caused by an unknown viral infection. Doctors agreed, however, that he had little hope of recovery.
His mother, Carla Rivers, visited him regularly and, in addition to physical therapy by his paediatric nursing home to keep his limbs supple, she talked to him in the belief that coma patients can retain their hearing and some understanding.
"For two years the doctors said there was no hope," said Carla Rivers. "Everything that happens in Devon's life is a gain. There's no losses."
Despite the doctors’ gloomy prognosis, eleven year-old Devon is now being prepared for occupational therapy to help him re-learn motor skills and is able to play with his siblings. Doctors cannot explain the reason either for his unexpected awakening or for his steady recovery.
In August of this year his mother, Carla Rivers, noticed that he began turning his head to follow movement; instead of a blank stare, he was reacting to his environment. Days later Devon was breathing without a respirator.
Carla Rivers said, “Devon may make a full recovery or what we see today may be what we get…God's plan is greater than ours. There's nothing we can do to force it any sooner or hold it back,” she said.
Coma patients and others with severe cognitive disabilities have been labelled “hopeless” only to recover frequently enough that some doctors and ethicists are questioning the accuracy of the diagnosis of “persistent vegetative state” (PVS).
The diagnosis is ambiguous in that symptoms of patients can vary greatly and still be called “vegetative.” A 1996 study published in the British Medical Journal showed that 43% of patients diagnosed with PVS do not qualify for the diagnosis.
In 2003, Kate Adamson, a former coma patient who had been diagnosed PVS, appeared on the television talk show the O'Reilly Factor. She said that, like Terri Schiavo, the hospital had removed her feeding tube that was only reinserted after eight days when her lawyer-husband threatened to sue the hospital.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Diagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State Questioned as Former Patient Speaks Out
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/nov/03111207.html
Yes, the autopsy revealed that her brain was so severly damaged, in fact less than half of it even remained and they agreed her case was indeed hopeless.
This case of course is very different.
I didn't say that. I told you Cheshire was not permitted to examine her. It was your doc, Ronald Cranford, who said that, in the course of his exam. It was videotaped. So, was Cranford lying? Or incompetent?
My brother died of cancer a few years ago.
He had directives to have no life sustaining measure done on him. They waited until his children could be by his side, and they pulled the plug on him.
It's a personal decision and should be respected.
When my twin daughters were 6 weeks old, both of them almost died of a respiratory virus. One was on a vent for a week, and the other was on a vent for a month.
At one point, the one that was on a vent for a month almost had to be put on a heart/lung machine. On New Year's Eve, we were celebrating one of them getting off the vent and the other one started spiraling downward. The doctor started talking to my husband and I about how bad my daughter was doing. I think she was trying to prepare us for my daughter dying, but I couldn't handle the conversation. I told the doctor to stop talking, and I left the room. Thank God, after a blood transfusion my daugter started doing better.
Today, my daughters are almost 10. The one that was on a vent for a week does have brain damage, but she is a great kid. The one that was on a vent for a month is extremely gifted and the sweetest little girl.
It is very tough to be in life/death situations. I'm thankful that I never had to make any decisions about my daughters. It would have haunted me the rest of my life.
I thought that Terri did have anorexia. If so, that really puts a strain on the body.
I found the video but can't figure out how to link it yet. It's fun to hear Cranford talk to a... person he personally declared to be a non-person.
That was an interesting comment by the assisting M.E. It didn't actually say that however. It just mentioned the weight of her brain was about 1/2. Cerebral cortex "relatively intact". Remember how you guys tossed that one around like bulimia? Being the body is 90 % water and we have a "most sever case of dehydration I have ever seen" according to main M.E., will, you figure it out.
Sounds rather far fetched to me.
No, what was suggested was bulimia, not anorexia. This was theorized on a single blood test at the emergency room, not on any direct evidence. Nobody ever saw Terri have a bulimic episode. The theory dreamed up by a trial lawyer named Gary Fox for purposes of a malpractice suit. Dr. Thogmartin was at pains to refute the bulimia theory in the autopsy report. Indeed, he ridiculed it, albeit in polite medical language. It WAS ridiculous. The medical facts do not fit bulimia and can be accounted for in far more sensible ways.
That was the most interesting finding in the autopsy. With bulimia ruled out, Michael has no alibi. I keep asking people for any innocent explanation how Terri went from a healthy young woman to nearly dead on the floor, in cardiac arrest, shortly after her husband got home late one Saturday night. Nobody has yet offered an explanation.
I have one -- domestic violence. It's the number one cause of death and injury in young women.
You are welcome to be specific. It would help my repsonse is all.
And I am both overjoyed and relieved at the happy ending! Holy smokes, just reading that was scary. Give you daughters a hug from Free Republic :-)
You are welcome to be specific. It would help my response is all.
Connect my "don't recall" to your "remember" in the post I was responding to and it will make sense.
Unless of course you don't recall your own post. :)
O'kay : )
I guess I am a little tired, but you did not respond to anything yet in my post. You know brain weight, dehydration, bulimia,(remember?) cerebral cortex (remember?), autopsy, ect. I know you don't have a bad memory.
He is so lucky that Dr. Death wasn't there at his door. Reading of quite a few of these cases lately.
Dr. Cranford is doing a poor job. The balloon is too far away for Terri's short vision. He's moving it too fast as well -- brain-damaged patients react slowly. It's a wonder that she can keep up with him at all, yet she does track the balloon on both sides of her head, and over her head.
Even more remarkable since the autopsy proved she's been blind for years and all that, and anybody like Dr. Cranford who says otherwise is lying or incompetent.
I said I "don't recall" the exchanges about "dehydration" being responsible for the degree of brain damage found by the M.E....I probably because I didn't read them.
And I find that very unlikely in any case.
The only problem with that video is that Michael's attorneys got the sound turned off in court. And our detractors claim fake! LOL
Where did you say that all of that?
I said it in the post you just read.
To explain to you what I meant by "don't recall"..or don't you remember that either?
This is too funny.
Sounds like make believe as you go along. You are right, it is funny.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.