Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Capturing Sarah's spirit [If Terri had had a Caring Husband...]
The Hutchinson News ^ | 031407 | Clara Kilbourn

Posted on 03/14/2007 12:10:45 PM PDT by kathsua

Her blue eyes sparkled, and a soft smile spread across Sarah Scantlin's face.

Sarah belted out a series of scales and sounds after Golden Plains Health Care Center staff member Jennifer Trammell asked if she would like to practice her sounds.

"La, la, la; da, da, da; so, so, so," she said.

At Trammell's suggestion, she repeated the series.

Hutchinson News Photo Sarah Scantlin smiles for the video camera during an interview Tuesday. Photo by Sandra J. Milburn

"Why are we doing this, Sarah?" Trammell asked, then answered the question herself: "This helps you form words and strengthens your vocal chords."

Sarah's story

In the two years since she uttered an 'OK' to Golden Plains activity director Pat Rincon, and after two decades of silence before that, Sarah Scantlin continues to draw worldwide attention.

Sarah's parents, Betsy and James Scantlin of Hutchinson, have lost count of the number of television and print journalists who have interviewed and filmed their daughter.

This week and last, a British television crew is in Hutchinson filming material for a one-hour documentary that will be broadcast on one of the major United Kingdom networks.

With each visit, Sarah's parents retell the story of how she suffered a massive brain injury in 1984 after being hit by a drunk driver after an evening out with friends.

Sarah, then 18, was three weeks into her freshman year at Hutchinson Junior College.

Betsy recalls the neurosurgeon saying he had removed a clot as big as his fist from Sarah's brain. If and when Sarah woke up, she might not recognize her parents or her brother, Jim.

That's when they began to take life one day at a time, Betsy Scantlin said.

After seven months in the hospital, Sarah was admitted to Golden Plains, where she lay bedfast and unable to communicate - until the OK in December 2004.

Q&A session

Since then, Sarah's life has evolved into a steady pace of speech, physical and occupational therapies, along with multiple surgeries.

Physically, she now can control her once-thrashing arms and legs and move them on command, albeit painstakingly and in small increments. With assistance from a lift, she stands upright.

She also has relearned to eat. The feeding tube that nourished her for so long hasn't been used for the past year; it will be surgically removed today.

On Tuesday, Sarah fielded questions posed by British director Liz Friend, with her crew of producer Dan Buckley and soundman Robert Thom.

Her responses came mostly in one-word answers.

"How old are you?" Field asked.

Even though she has reached her 40th birthday, Sarah refused to move from her answer: "Nineteen."

She answered questions about her birth date and where she lives more accurately.

To "What do you like to do?" Sarah volunteered, "beauty salon and bingo."

"What is the thing you like to do most?" Friend asked.

Sarah's response brought on a laugh from the crew.

"Eat," she said.

And what food does she like best?

"Watermelon," came the unprompted answer.

"A medical miracle"

In an update of her daughter's treatments and progress, Betsy Scantlin said surgeries at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kan., have released atrophied muscles and tendons and are giving Sarah additional flexibility.

In January, she returned for an operation that allows her to move her right arm, and she has a long-range goal of being able to feed herself and manipulate an electric wheelchair.

Ultimately, she wants to stand alone. She lifts her legs and adds halting words and sounds about what she wants most.

"Walk ... so I can go home," she said.

During a rest break, Trammell asked Sarah how it was telling her story again to a new group of journalists.

"All right," she said.

Spending time with Sarah over the past several days has been a moving experience for their crew, Friend said.

Her unique case fits their quest for extraordinary people with a story to be told, Friend said.

"People have a lot to learn from Sarah about the human will and the power of love and belief," she said. "Her case is unique, a medical miracle. Nobody can say what it was ... the human spirit and strength..."

03/14/2007; 02:31:00 AM


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: sarah; scantlin; schiavo; terri
30 doctors who regularly treated people like Terri Schiavo said she could have been helped with. Unfortunately an uncaring court system let her unfaithful husband control her fate instead of her caring parents. Sarah Scantlin had the advantage of having her parents determine her fate instead of a husband.
1 posted on 03/14/2007 12:10:56 PM PDT by kathsua
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: kathsua; Pegita; Halls

Awesome article!!! Life is precious Ping!!!!


2 posted on 03/14/2007 12:17:13 PM PDT by pollywog (Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kathsua

Go Sarah Go!!!!!!


3 posted on 03/14/2007 12:18:52 PM PDT by kimmie7 (Liberals embrace the sin......Christians embrace the sinner.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kathsua
in the 1970's, I worked with a seventeen year old boy who was brought to the nursing home where I worked with a diagnosis of brain death. His mother had been asked to donate his kidneys and she refused.

I worked with him as he gradually woke up and began talking. Eventually he walked out of the place on his own two feet. The reaction of some of the staff was "We created a monster". Yes he was not probably ever going to be what he was before, but he could walk and talk. I thought it was a miracle.

4 posted on 03/14/2007 12:19:21 PM PDT by w1andsodidwe (Jimmy Carter allowed radical Islam to get a foothold in Iran.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

The title should be, "If Teri's Husband Wasn't a Murderer".


5 posted on 03/14/2007 12:24:06 PM PDT by jackibutterfly
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: kathsua

Fantastic !!!


6 posted on 03/14/2007 12:24:09 PM PDT by Dustbunny (The BIBLE - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kathsua

To all those who say people like this are better off dead, I respond, "You first."


7 posted on 03/14/2007 12:33:48 PM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals, regardless of party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jackibutterfly

The Terri Schiavo episode was a case of mass murder ... a mass of dead souls murdered an innocent, severely disabled woman because they could. The 'husband' was only focused upon his life with a burden and he wasn't going to be held back from his full pursuit of happiness, his liberty, so Terri's LIFE was a burden. This same attitude permeates our culture in defense of aboriton on demand where the LIFE of unborn children is subordianted to the liberty and pursuit of happiness of pregnant females and their significant others.


8 posted on 03/14/2007 12:38:01 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you've had life support. Promote life support for others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: kathsua
30 doctors who regularly treated people like Terri Schiavo said she could have been helped with.

Sure, but only by Jesus Himself. She was well beyond medical science despite the lies folks are feeding themselves about her state.

Her parents were gold diggers who had no interest in Terri nor problem with her husband until he refused to share the settlement. The video was staged to garner maximum media impact, the battle they waged for was their own aggrandizement and out of spite. Terri was long gone.

9 posted on 03/14/2007 2:04:40 PM PDT by newzjunkey (Avg price, REGULAR gas, $3.11/gallon in San Diego.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: newzjunkey

Uh huh.....


10 posted on 03/14/2007 2:35:52 PM PDT by happygrl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: kathsua

Very inspiring article.


11 posted on 03/14/2007 3:18:03 PM PDT by GretchenM (What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Please meet my friend, Jesus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: newzjunkey

Terri's state of health, no matter how you "FEEL" about it, at NO time justified her torture and murder.

Starving and dehydrating someone to death is by definition, torture and murder. Try doing it to a DOG and you'll (rightfully) be jailed. Do it to a human being, and the perp walks, while folks like newzjunkey cheer. How messed up is that?


12 posted on 03/14/2007 4:40:27 PM PDT by Don W ("Well Done" is far better to hear than "Well Said". (Samuel Clemens))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Don W

I found the article quite uplifting as well, I just got a bit sidetracked. My apologies.


13 posted on 03/14/2007 4:41:30 PM PDT by Don W ("Well Done" is far better to hear than "Well Said". (Samuel Clemens))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson