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http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_thailand.html
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Mon Apr 04 2005 23:07:47 GMT-0700.
Thailand
April 4, 2005
This Public Announcement is being issued to alert American citizens to the need to exercise special caution in the far south of Thailand and to urge American citizens to defer non-emergency travel in that area as a result of recent, escalating unrest in the region. This Public Announcement expires on July 5, 2005.
The far south of Thailand has recently experienced increasingly serious and frequent incidents of violence. On April 3 and 4, a series of bombs were detonated in Hat Yai and nearby Songkhla city in Songkhla Province, and in Yala province. The bombings occurred at the Hat Yai International airport, a large international department store, a hotel, and on a road near a technical college. They represent a continuing spread of indiscriminate violence in public areas where tourists may congregate. Two American citizens were injured in the most recent attacks.
In response to the escalating violence in Thailand’s southern region, the Department of State urges Americans to defer non-emergency travel to the far south of Thailand, including Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala, Satun, and Songkhla provinces, including the town of Hat Yai. American citizens who must travel to these areas are urged to exercise special caution.
Americans living or traveling in Thailand are encouraged to register and update their contact information at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok or the Consulate General in Chiang Mai. Registration may be done on line, and can be done in advance of travel. Information on registering can be found at the Department of State’s Consular Affairs website: http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/registration/registration_1186.html.
U.S. citizens should consult the Consular Information Sheet for Thailand and the latest Worldwide Caution Public Announcement at the Department’s Internet site at http://travel.state.gov. Updated information on travel and security in Thailand may also be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the United States or by calling 1-202-501-4444 outside the United Sates.
Other Government Websites
First Gov Service Locator
U.S. Department of Justice
The White House
more >
This site is managed by the Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.
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http://www.assistnews.net/Imaages05/mi%20LauraJeff&CalebKnowles.jpg
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05040014.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com
Monday, April 4, 2005
EXPERIENCING THE SCHIAVO DILEMMA: WHO WILL DECIDE FOR YOU?
Brain Injury Victim Speaks Out On Terri Schiavo Case
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
ORLANDO, FLORIDA (ANS) -- Terri Schaivo’s life ended at 9:03 a.m. on Thursday, March 31, 2005, thirteen days after her feeding tube was removed. "Was her life as hopeless as the world was told?" asks Laura McCue Knowles. (Pictured: Laura, Jeff and Caleb Knowles. Laura survived traumatic brain injury and now speaks on the sanctity of life. Courtesy: www.hangontohope.com).
As a traumatic brain injury victim herself, and someone who has spoken with several people who had close contact with Terri, including her Chaplain and other close family friends, Knowles wants to speak out on Terri’s behalf.
Suffering from a severe traumatic brain injury, having a punctured lung and lacerated spleen, and three fractures to her pelvic bone in a church van accident in Central Florida, Knowles was taken to the hospital in a deep coma.
"The doctors informed my family and friends that I had maybe three days to live, and that the type of brain injury I had sustained (Diffuse Axonal) was permanent and irreversible, so if I did live and wake from the coma I would be in a vegetative state for the rest of my life. Hearing that, why didn’t my parents just take me off of life support and let me die, so I wouldn’t have to live a life without purpose?" Knowles asks.
"They hung on to hope. Hope in God who is bigger, smarter, and more powerful than all the doctors in the world. Hope in God who sees life as more than just flesh and bones or even a working mind. God created me on purpose, and my parents knew they had to let Him be the one to decide when my life here on Earth would end, so they hung on," Knowles said in a recent article obtained by ASSIST News Service (ANS).
"I hung on too. After years of trusting God’s plan, numerous surgeries on my trachea to allow me to breath, months of different therapies, and putting new meaning to the term hard work I am living a life the doctors said was impossible," Knowles said.
The accident took place just after she graduated high school at the age of 17.
"I am now 23 years old living each moment of life to its fullest. I was married to Jeff Knowles three years ago and our wedding was featured on TLC’s, 'A Wedding Story.' We are now raising our beautiful son (Caleb) who is nearing the age of two," she said.
Knowles is now also an author and public speaker.
"I never dreamed life could have so much fulfillment and joy. Being truly happy, I have learned over the past five years that the joy in me isn’t because of how much I have recovered. I don’t remember much about my time in the hospital because when I awoke from the coma I had no short-term memory. It took a while to remember anything."
What she does remember is in bits and pieces -- like the sound of her mother playing her guitar and singing to her or husband Jeff’s blue eyes looking into hers, telling her everything would be okay without saying a word.
"The one memory I have that encompasses them all though is God’s presence and peace that assured me constantly I was more alive than I had ever been before. I knew in the midst of my circumstances that my life was not over and I trusted God’s plan. I pushed on to live each moment realizing that God’s plan was a purpose worth living for even if I never woke up. The joy I have isn’t controlled by circumstances surrounding me, but it comes from my Savior who lives in me," Knowles said.
"Terri Schaivo’s injury was not the same as mine but Terri was alive and conscious to an extent that she could respond to her family through verbal and facial expressions, move her limbs with more control and to a larger degree than many other mentally handicapped patients, and she could even swallow and say the word 'no' when she felt pain during the brief amount of physical therapy she had," she added.
Knowles says that according to Terri’s lawyer (Patricia Anderson) Schiavo's husband stopped therapy only a year after her collapse and refused to allow anymore.
"The fact that the judicially-appointed doctors argued Terri was in a persistent vegetative state is ludicrous. If that were the case than we can also constitute every newborn baby as in a vegetative state because they can’t communicate properly, move with high accuracy, or get food and eat on their own," Knowles said.
One argument made against Terri’s life was that there was no hope for her to recover at all, she writes.
"After hearing the facts, I disagree that there was no hope for recovery. The truth is that, yes, all brain injuries are different, and just because one person recovers, like I have, that doesn’t mean Terri could have recovered to the degree I have. However, if all brain injuries are different then how could doctors know for sure, especially when so little therapy had been allowed, that recovery was 100 percent impossible for Terri?" Knowles says.
"Call me a stubborn optimist, but I have seen far too many brain injury cases where after therapy the brain was able to make new neurological connections to compensate for the damaged ones. Research shows that we only use 10 percent of our brain, so the other 90 percent is perfectly capable of picking up at least some of the slack if part of the ten percent is destroyed. I know the brain is one of the most complicated things we study and I am making things sound more simple than they are. But I also know doctors don’t know everything about the brain because it is so intricate," Knowles explains.
"My point is that we need to stop playing God with things we really know nothing about. If there is no proof that someone can heal, then where is the proof that they can’t heal?"
Knowles concludes: "What has happened to Terri breaks my heart because I believe God is the only one with the authority to decide when life should begin or end. As someone who was once where Terri was, I can testify that she was very much alive when they killed her, and I ask that the people of our country take a stand to make sure that this type of thing never happens again."
Laura Knowles is a speaker and writer for the sanctity of all life. For more information about her ministry see the website, www.hangontohope.com.
If you would like more information about Laura Knowles, please contact:
Audra Jennings
Media Specialist
The B&B Media Group
“A Media Communications Company”
109 S. Main
Corsicana, TX 75110
Fax: 903-872-0518
1-800-927-0517 Ext. 104
ajennings@tbbmedia.com
Visit us on the web at www.tbbmedia.com
** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
