Cranford (Deathford) stated that Terri's EEG was flat, zero recording, then shouted that he was absolutely certain she was in PVS and would never recover. ... A flat EEG is indicative of brain dead, and the death merchant contradicted himself with his next assertion of PVS. Actually, I don't doubt that Cranford got a flat EEG ... someone should explain that chord attached to the machinery and the necessity of it being plugged into a power outlet to record signals, or perhaps it would help to show him that the little tags are to be placed upon the patient's head, not the pillow under the head.
Thank you for posting this.
He wasn't successful in the Wendlund case; I posted the newspaper account of the judge's ruling on that case, that was almost identical with Terri's - but with a very different outcome...and in California. It was, at that time, also a case that reverberated nationally - :
His wife was not successful in starving him to death because of the Judge - who happens to be a man I know well, and know to be a brilliant, compassionate, fair, honest and probably the personification of what we grew up thinking a judge would be. We could use someone like him on the Supreme Court.
He is now Presiding Judge at the San Joaquin County Superior Court.
This is from THE RECORD newspaper, Wednesday, December 10, 1997:
Judge rejects plea to end Stockton man's life support By Kimi Yoshino Record Staff Writer Robert Wendland should not be allowed to die by disconnecting the feeding tube that has kept him alive for four years, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt declared Tuesday. The surprise ruling cut short a high-profile trial monitored by medical and legal scholars across the country. Judge McNatt said: ""If I must err, I am going to err on the side of caution. It is necessary that I choose life. ... I don't know at this point whether here today I am preserving Robert's life or whether I am sentencing him to life." "I feel that this is the absolutely wrong decision for all the right reasons," McNatt said. "I entertain a strong suspicion that Robert would have wanted to die." But McNatt said a strong suspicion is not enough evidence to end the 45-year-old Stockton man's life as requested by Wendland's wife, Rose Wendland,...and his court-appointed attorney, Deputy Public Defender Doran Berg. They did not -- and could not -- meet their clear and convincing burden of proof under California law, McNatt said." If McNatt had allowed Wendland's life-sustaining feeding tube to be removed, it would have been a first for a California court. No judge has endorsed withdrawing life support from a person in Wendland's condition, conscious but unable to communicate because of serious brain damage from a 1993 car crash. Wendland's mother, Florence Wendland, and sister Rebekah Vinson, who fought since July 1995 to keep him alive, met McNatt's decision with relieved tears. "We are on top of the world," Vinson said. "We are going to relax for the first time in 2 1/2 years." Rose Wendland, who testified that her husband did not have a living will but had told her he would not want to live without being a "father, husband and provider," sat in stunned silence and quickly left the Stockton courtroom without comment. McNatt described Rose Wendland as one of the most selfless and devoted wives he has seen, but he said that to rule in her favor, he would have to extend the bounds of California law. "If I must err, I am going to err on the side of caution. It is necessary that I choose life," McNatt said. "I am not ready to start down that slippery slope without some form of guidance." The ruling, which McNatt predicted would be appealed, came 1 1/2 hours after the court day usually ends and before Wendland's mother and sister presented their case. Elements of the case have been considered by the state Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. The case also has grabbed headlines in national magazines, won attention on Internet bulletin boards and aired on the TV newsmagazine "Dateline NBC."
A very similar case as Terri's - with very different results .............How I wished, these past weeks, that Terri had had her case brought before Bobby.
I'd like to see him put of for Supreme Court - it would be fun watching him confound those lib senators, which he could do with half his brain turned off
And it is absolutely essential to read the opinion of the doctor who examined the CT scan:
http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/codeblueblog/2005/03/csi_medblogs_co.html
"First, if Terri's brain damage was due to oxygen deprivation, her enlarged ventricles would be by a passive mechanism -- which is not amenable to shunting -- not by obstruction of the egress of CSF. To me, the presence of a shunt indicates obstruction to the flow of CSF that needs to be circumvented. Obstruction to flow is hard to postulate given the mechanism of Terri's brain injury (oxygen deprivation).
It would NOT be hard to postulate, however, if she had BLOOD in her head at some point in the past. So did she? Was there a history of trauma? I would like to see the BONE SCAN taken of Terri that purportedly showed evidence of traumatic type osseous uptake!"
====
The evidence may indicate that Terri suffered brain damage not as a result of oxygen deprivation, but as a result of trauma to the head.
PING to more evidence and facts.
Excellent, thank you. Examples of Doctors diagnosis in this area are replete with failures. They are frequently wrong.
PING! An article relevant to your discussion.
And .. I believe it was Dr. Frist's colleagues who also agreed that Terri did not have PVS.
But I think it's FL law that says that if someone has PVS you can pull their feeding tube. I remember seeing something about that on some documents - but I can't remember all the details.
Excellent article, excellent references and discussion.
I keep forgetting that Cranford is a member of what used to be called "the Hemlock Society." I knew he was on the panel that defined PVS.
Thanks Fair Opinion.. the CodeBlue article has been around a bit, is excellent, personally I tracked it down when I heard the media and court liars for hire and net pundits continually referencing Terri's cat scan as supposed proof of Terri having no brain function.
As an interesting correlative sidenote, some of the other experts have agreed, even on stations like CNN I caught about two (in addition to docs put on by Sean and other pro-Terri folks)
One I remember well. Dr. Sanjay Gupta from Atlanta was shown "normal brain" scan pic and "PVS brain" printed under the pic by the TV station (on Terri's scan). Sanjay objected vehemently, that that was an improper way to label the pic, somewhat shocking the media whore (ok.. talking head). It warmed my heart to see a doc with some integrity.
I am sure Dr. Davenport joins many distinguished physicians in her view of this..Below is a reminder of what some groups with the help of courts, may be trying to bring to the U.S. This was posted yesterday..Posting #1375676.
MEDICAL SCIENCE UNDER DICTATORSHIP
DR. LEO ALEXANDER
Science under dictatorship becomes subordinated to the guiding philosophy of the dictatorship. Irrespective of other ideologic trappings, the guiding philosophic principle of recent dictatorships, including that of the Nazis, has been Hegelian in that what has been considered "rational utility" and corresponding doctrine and planning has replaced moral, ethical and religious values. Nazi propaganda was highly effective in perverting public opinion and public conscience, in a remarkably short time. In the medical profession this expressed itself in a rapid decline in standards of professional ethics. Medical science in Nazi Germany collaborated with this Hegelian trend particularly in the following enterprises: the mass extermination of the chronically sick in the interest of saving "useless" expenses to the community as a whole; the mass extermination of those considered socially disturbing or racially and ideologically unwanted; the individual, inconspicuous extermination of those considered disloyal within the ruling group; and the ruthless use of "human experimental material" for medico-military research.
This paper discusses the origins of these activities, as well as their consequences upon the body social, and the motivation of those participating in them.
We have just got to do something about MSM slime liars. We just have to.
I do wonder what her recovery level would have been had she been treated with anything like that of Christopher Reeve.
Practically nothing was done with therapy with her. Had her husband spent the insurance on her rather than himself, he'd probably not been able to get away with using her ill-health as an excuse to kill her.
So what's this physician's name and how am I supposed to gauge his credibility?
Ping.
It seems clear that there is no ethics in 'bioethics'.
I wonder if the autopsy will support what Dr. Davenport suggests? If it does, then Michael Schiavo, accompanied by his lawyer Felos, and George Greer actually did err in starving this woman to death. And, IMHO, if an error was made, it ought to trigger charges of murder for the three.
Ping