Posted on 03/24/2008 2:37:05 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap says he feels "pretty good."
Dunlap was pronounced dead Nov. 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested.
As family members were paying their last respects, he moved his foot and hand. He reacted to a pocketknife scraped across his foot and to pressure applied under a fingernail. After 48 days in the hospital, he was allowed to return home, where he continues to work on his recovery.
On Monday, he and his family were in New York, appearing on NBC's "Today."
"I feel pretty good. but it's just hard ... just ain't got the patience," Dunlap told NBC.
Dunlap, 21, of Frederick, said he has no recollection of the crash.
"I remember a little bit that was about an hour before the accident happened. But then about six hours before that, I remember," he said.
Dunlap said one thing he does remember is hearing the doctors pronounce him dead.
"I'm glad I couldn't get up and do what I wanted to do," he said.
Asked if he would have wanted to get up and shake them and say he's alive, Dunlap responded: "Probably would have been a broken window that went out."
His father, Doug, said he saw the results of the brain scan.
"There was no activity at all, no blood flow at all."
Zach's mother, Pam, said that when she discovered he was still alive, "That was the most miraculous feeling."
"We had gone, like I said, from the lowest possible emotion that a parent could feel to the top of the mountains again," she said.
She said her son is doing "amazingly well," but still has problems with his memory as his brain heals from the traumatic injury.
"It may take a year or more ... before he completely recovers," she said. "But that's OK. It doesn't matter how long it takes. We're just all so thankful and blessed that we have him here."
Dunlap now has the pocketknife that was scraped across his foot, causing the first reaction.
"Just makes me thankful, makes me thankful that they didn't give up," he said. "Only the good die young, so I didn't go."
He’s not quite dead....
Martin Fierro died a week or so ago.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1986562/posts
I think he also said he was feeling pretty good.
But most FReepers disagreed. They FReeped a poll and decided, that no... He’s still dead.
“Bury ‘im, burn ‘im or dump ‘im in the Thames?”
Note the doctors were lining up to get his organs.
Sorry, but I am a no go on organ donation. Been told by one too many doctor friends that there is a great $$$ incentive to let you die.
“Only the good die young, so I didn’t go.”
He’s still got his sense of humor. A good sign, I’d say. He’s already recovered enough to be brighter than most liberals.
I listened to this story on the radio yesterday. They had him just about ready to go for organ harvesting when one of his family members saw him move and raked a knife up the sole of his foot where he quickly jerked his foot away. He came about as close as one can get to being parted out before dying as one can get.
Feh. Fierro’s snuffed it. BTT.
That is nonsense, bunk and hokum.
“He came about as close as one can get to being parted out before dying as one can get.”
I came almost that close after a broken neck. They had someone lined up in the next room for my heart.
I guess he wasn’t dead. Medical science still can’t tell when the moment of death comes.
I am very familiar with that hospital - I’ve taken my mother there quite a few times. I don’t know how they rank among other hospitals, but they make a lot of mistakes. Last year they failed to put a heart monitor on a patient who subsequently had a heart attack and ended up brain dead - she was 45 years old. They once filled my mother up with drugs and discharged her when the doctor on call got off duty - she couldn’t even walk and had many problems after I got her home. I’m not surprised that they misdiagnosed this young man’s death.
Sure he says he feels well, but what do you expect from a brain dead person?
This is like an Emo Phillips joke.
Doctor told him his Grandmother was on life support, that her heart was still beating but her brain was dead.
Emo said, “We’ve never had a Democrat in the family before.”
I’ve heard much the same thing from friends who work at UC Davis Med Center in Sacramento.
I saw the teaser for that this morning. I didn’t watch. Don’t get me wrong, it really IS a miracle that he’s alive, let alone conscious to enjoy it, thank God for miracles....but he was brain dead for months.
All I could think was thank God he wasn’t a patient in Florida. He’d have been eased out of this life “humanely”, via death by thirst.
No he is only mostly dead....
Miracle Max
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