I saw no evidence of suffering. Her skin was intact, her hydration was adequate, her immune system was incredible, and she was kept warm and dry. Most of all, she had people around her that loved her that she responded to. It wasn't a great place to be, granted, but on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most nightmarish PVS I have seen, hers was a 2.
You want to know suffering? It is being totally 'there' in the head and knowing beyound a shadow of a doubt that there isn't a single person on the planet that gives a dang if you live or die. Toss in intractable pain, decubitus ulcers, rotten HCP and a bit of psychosis and you have a cocktail for misery beyound words.
THAT is the pure hell I have seen in working in Hospice and LTC.
Terri was a very healthy woman with a brain that was damaged who was NOT suffering beyound what was inflicted on her by outside sources.. Period.
Why did those who saw this as interfering in God's work, at the same time, rabidly support taking the unnatural measure of surgically implanting a feeding tube directly into her abdomen to artificially sustain life?
NGT's/PEGS are inserted every day in accident victims, preemies, CA patients etc. They have been around for decades and they have helped saved 1000's of lives. Either as a short-stop method to sustain life until PO intake can be resumed or as a method to maintain nutrition/hydration in those who can't provide it for themselves.
This includes, but is not limited to those with chewing/swallowing problems, GI disfunction, brain damage or the simple fact that they can't orally take in enough nutrition without support (does the name "POPE" ring a bell?)
Also, since a swallow study wasn't done in, like, forever, no one really knows what her eating abilities really were. Heck, we may have starved to death a woman who could chew and swallow just fine.
The fact that Terri Schiavo was severely bulimic;,
Not a fact or diagnosis, mearly a guess by treatment staff.
a woman with such a poor, maladjusted self-image that she'd rather slowly, deliberately, painfully take her own life, than to have food in her stomach, leaves me unable to comprehend how anyone could possibly think someone who ended up in her condition as a result of a severe eating disorder, would choose to be force fed through a feeding tube, when she obviously didn't appreciate and love herself when she was young and alive, and had a future to look forward to.
So the so PEGS that have been inserted into my guys with ED's while being treated are worthless? So we are to let these alert, oriented but mentally ill individuals starve themselves without treatment? Or do we go after them with the same gusto that we do the preemie, the trauma victim, the stroke patient, the CA survior?
Doesn't common sense dictate that, of all people, Terri, who ended up severely brain damaged as a result of her own self-loathing, would be the last person who'd want to be kept alive as she's been for the past 15 years?
Supposition and hearsay. Little to no evidence to support it as a long term Dx.
What made Terri Schiavo, in life, unique from every other being in the animal kingdom were her brains. Today, every dog and cat in living rooms across America have more brain capacity than Terri has had since 1990. How is that showing a human being compassion?
By seperating OURSELVES from the animals. (Check into what some critters do to the wounded/dying in their packs). We do this treating what is left of her with respect and love. We don't know how much of her is still there...but what WAS there was greatly loved. Pssst, you may not know this, but we DON'T know all there is to know about everything in the universe, yet. Many years ago, babies like those with CP were routinely allowed to die because we believed they were mentally defective. Now, we know that their brains work where their bodies don't.
Another hot flash bucky, Doctors make mistakes all the time. And they are wrong, alot. Nice folks, but they are still human.
So, when I saw Terri, I saw someone who as most of all loved, healthy, with a severe brain injury. Ironically, she had more going for her with those first two things than most of the people on the planet.
What purpose was there to continue artificially sustaining her life, other than to placate her selfish parents who continued to bring anguish upon themselves by remaining in a delusion state of denial 15 years after they lost their daughter?
You've never cared for someone you have loved while they were sick, have you? It is the greatest testament of love and devotion. It used to be woven into the threads of our society, our ability to provide hands on care for our family members in illness, disability and death.
We saw it as part of life, part of being human, the part of us that seperated us from the animals (as you mentioned). Our ability to care for those totally helpless.
Now we see them as disgusting and an imposition. We see ourselves as all knowing, while we bury our distain behind a facade of 'compassion'.
Great post bump (much more there than quoted).