[cyn]

re: skilled nursing care: It's what we already know, but Felos et al must hide and distort: the fact that Terri is in quite good health.

The fact is that Terri is NOT on her deathbed, suffering in pain, critically ill, or even a little sick, so she does not need any special care. She does not need to be in a nursing home or care facility at all; her routine daily needs can be met at home.

Happens for Christopher Reeve all the time. Works for me!

That's one of the things that gave me pause while skimming some articles last night -- the research was talking about terminally ill patients with cancer, COPD, etc, but then threw in comatose patients. It was going to take more reading and concentration than I was willing to give late/early? at night!

Stay warm up there -- keep those feet warm!

[cyn]

Here's the story about the woman who has been caring for her daughter for 33 years posted here on 10/31/03

TEST for readers: can you find the fallacy in this snip?:

Miami Gardens Woman Has Been Caring for Comatose Daughter for 33 Years

MIAMI GARDENS -- For 33 years, in a bedroom decorated with angels, Kaye O'Bara has tended to her daughter, Edwarda, a diabetic whose heart stopped beating in 1970, damaging her brain and thrusting her into a sleep from which she has never awakened.

Kaye turns Edwarda from side to side a dozen times a day to prevent bedsores. She mixes baby food, milk, eggs, orange juice, Mazola oil, brewer's yeast and a piece of white bread into a blender and then a wire mesh strainer, pouring the concoction into Edwarda's feeding tube every two hours, day and night.

She suctions mucus from Edwarda's throat, whispers endearments in her ear, and braids her long gray hair.

"She always liked to be fussed with," Kaye says of her eldest daughter, who was 16 when she begged her mother: "Promise you won't leave me, will you, Mommy?" before losing consciousness in the hospital. Now 50, Edwarda has never said another word.

She coughs, grins, grimaces, blinks, and yawns, but exhibits no signs of cognition.

Kaye refuses to let anyone refer to her child's condition by its medical term: persistent vegetative state. "I say if they can find me a tomato that smiles, they can say she's in a vegetative state."

Unfortunately, the entire article was not posted, and it is no longer on the linked page. That's why when possible the entire article should be posted.

BTW, this month's Citizen magazine includes that quote:

"I say if they can find me a tomato that smiles, they can say she's in a vegetative state."