Posted on 01/16/2011 10:30:14 AM PST by BuckeyeTexan
South Dakota was willing to go without a Senator for 9 months while Johnson recovered, rather than let the seat turn over to a Republican.
-PJ
This is my fear as well. While I pray she comes through this whole, I also fear for the damage she will do to our country.
This might veer into Schiavo territory down the road, if she doesn't improve.
I am sorry for the Giffords family and the other victims of the shooting. The little girl broke my heart. But a 27 year old cop was shot in cold blood in New Jersey the other day, a border guard was murdered last month and murders occur almost every day. I cannot dredge up more feeling for Giffords than I feel for all these others just because she is a congresscritter. I don’t consider that that makes me heartless. In fact, the demands of the demonRATs that we should not, now, vote on repealing BOcare, or any of the other things the new congress is set to do is specious and self serving.
As to Giffords injuries...as hard as this sounds, the people need to get set for a special election. Barring some fantastic miracle (which is not beyond God’s abilities), she is not going back to congress. I am a registered respiratory therapist, retired after 32 years on the job. The nature of her wound cannot be pushed aside by a desire to see her back at the capitol with her seat safe from a special election where a rep might win. She was hyperventilated as a matter of course to help keep her brain swelling down and after 24 hours they began to wean her off the vent. One can definately be on a ventilator and still be breathing on one’s own. The trach and the feeding tube are necessary to facilitate long term care, and that is what I see happening here. Brain damage very often leads to an unstable airway and aspiration is always a possibility. She may, in time, be even more functional than James Brady. Maybe not.
I think so. The mods may disagree. Removing Giffords from the ventilator is significant progress.
>>>Nah, see post #31.
It’s likely the trach was done very early on, and they’re beginning the process to wean her off it.
She is improving. Nothing about this is bad news. Taking her of the ventilator is good.
Yes, I saw your post 31 after I’d posted. I’m just wondering, should she not improve beyond a certain point, what will happen, and if the media would be as eager to give up on her as they were on Terry Schiavo. But it probably won’t come to that.
Giffords was intubated not “hyperventilated.”
I’ve spent 6 years as a critical care nurse, primarily in surgical/trauma (but some cardiac, neuro, and most recently transplant). Knowing what I’ve seen, I’m attending by my earlier post that a trach at this stage dosent correlate with what we are being told about her condition.
Do you walk to work? Or take a lunch...
She HAD to be intubated to be ON a ventilator AND be hyperventilated AND she was originally in a medically induced coma. Hyperventilating a head trauma is SOP- what were you, a housekeeper?
Stop showing your a$$.
Then you know that the risk of pneumonia in immobile patients is fairly high, especially in the ICU. They need the trach to suction her to prevent pneumonia.
I hope she recovers ASAP. My first reaction (not being a doc) is this sounds like a step backward. I hope I am wrong.
Um, no. I totally disagree.
If reporters had a clue they would be asking questions and not parroting what they are being lead to believe. I actually heard one of them say she could be back in DC in six months.
Yes, this doesn't appear to be consistent with the standard propaganda that 'they' have been feeding us.
I suppose everyone wants this to be true, even we conservs. I think it is most unlikely, though. They are very excited about her reactions to external stimuli, but that isn’t necessarily proof of cognizance, as we were sadly told in the Schiavo case (that one pi$$ed me off plenty!).
As I said, she may well recover a certain amount of function, but I truly believe her days as a congress person are over.
A breathing hole? What is she, a whale?
Truthfully, I haven't been following her medical condition very closely. I thought she was off the vent. Frankly, I can't figure out why they did a trach now. Perhaps they think she will need to return to the vent soon. The "breathing hole in her throat" would make it much easier to put her back on the ventilator than intubating her.
/end speculation
What I would rather hear is something like, "she remains in serious, but stable, condition"
Yes, I know what intubating a patient means. Just because Giffords was intubated doesn’t mean she was also hyperventilated.
As a matter of fact, hyperventilation in TBI (traumatic brain injury) is not SOP. It is now generally accepted that limiting the use of hyperventilation in TBI may help improve neurologic recovery following injury, or at least avoid iatrogenic cerebral ischemia.
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