Posted on 05/11/2005 6:39:07 PM PDT by BykrBayb
‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’
Tracy Gaskill shows major signs of recovery after critical accident in 2002
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By FOSS FARRAR, Arkansas City Traveler For nearly three years, Don and Stella Gaskill had hoped their severely injured granddaughter would talk again. Just recently, their prayers were answered.
On Sept. 3, 2002, Tracy Gaskill suffered critical internal and head injuries when her pickup overturned on its top. Doctors told her relatives that night that she probably would die by noon the next day, Don Gaskill said this morning.
“That accident scared us to death,” said Gaskill, who lives in rural Winfield. Tracy Gaskill also is from Winfield.
But through personalized care received at Medicalodge North in Arkansas City and the daily visits and prayers of the Gaskill family — as well as many others in the Cowley County community — Tracy survived and gradually got better, medical personnel say.
Then, about three weeks ago, she spoke for the first time since the accident, Don Gaskill said. About the same time, she began to swallow on her own.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Dr. David Schmeidler said today. “I have never seen this happen in my career. I’ve read about it happening, the severely brain damaged recovering suddenly, but never seen it until now,” said Schmeidler, the medical director at the Medicalodge. He said he visited Tracy a few weeks ago and she greeted him, “Hi, Dr. Schmeidler.”
“She is actually able to speak and to speak coherently,” he said. “In light of all this stuff on Terri Schiavo — and I believe what was done in that case was wrong — it makes you pause and think. For three years or so, (Tracy) was fed through a tube, then she swallowed a little bit and now she speaks.”
Schiavo was the severely brain damaged woman who died March 31 after spending 15 years connected to a feeding tube. It finally was disconnected, after a bitter right-to-die dispute between her husband and her parents. The case went all the way to the White House and Congress.
But everyone involved in Tracy Gaskill’s care has been pulling for her to get better ever since her accident.
“It’s really quite amazing (that Tracy can speak),” said Lynda Marshall, a registered nurse who works at Medicalodge North. “After they’ve been without speech and the ability to eat that long, it’s very rare they’re able to come back.”
Marshall said Tracy will get speech therapy, continue working on improving cognitive functions and eat on her own.
“We’ve been assisting her with a feeding tube until yesterday,” she said.
Don Gaskill said he feels that without the personalized care his granddaughter has received at Medicalodge, she wouldn’t have made such an amazing recovery.
“In the last year and a half, she’s indicated that she knows us; she has been watching TV and smiling,” he said. “More recently, she started nodding her head when we asked her questions. Then a few months ago, she’d laugh out loud.”
In the last few months, nurses at the Medicalodge worked with her to get her to hum, he added. Finally, she started to speak clearly.
Asked by a reporter today how old she was, Tracy answered, “Twenty-nine. “You’re 30,” Don Gaskill corrected her. “Remember, you had another birthday.”
Tracy Gaskill was injured in 2002 when she lost control of her pickup truck as she was driving south on U.S. 77 just south of Strother Field, near the site of Cowley Cinema 8, according to the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department. The vehicle rolled over.
“We don’t know what caused it,” Don Gaskill said. “We weren’t at home at the time. One of (her) brothers who had heard from the sheriff’s office called us.”
Tracy was taken by ambulance to Strother Field, where a medical evacuation helicopter airlifted her to Wesley Medical Center. Tracy is a sister of Tyler Gaskill, a photographer and office staffer at the Winfield Courier. She has another brother, Shawn, a junior at Winfield High School.
She was in surgical intensive care for about a month at the Wichita hospital, Don Gaskill said, before she was moved into the Medicalodge in Arkansas City.
Husband In Name Only
Estranged husband
Murderer
Bump.
This case is, thankfully, far more hopeful.
That's not even a remotely factually based claim. Give it up. Terri's gone whether it's been fifteen years or several weeks.
Yes! Isn't it wonderful when patients are given the care they deserve, instead of being murdered? Rejoice!
'Hope someone sends a copy of this to murderer greer.
Oh, I see you're already rejoicing. In Terri's murder. There's a thread around here somewhere about her family still not knowing where her ashes are. Have you been there to gloat yet?
If you're not aware of the facts, maybe you shouldn't be speaking out on this topic. It makes you look foolish.
He refuses to say what he's done with the ashes.
I hope everybody sends him a copy.
PONG
amazing story
That's what I meant. I'm very happy for this girl and her family but sad for Terri's .
OK, stop making me cry.
Sick man.
Every once in a while, you find these patients who make amazing recoveries from severe brain damage when so many don't. Just as some people have natural immunity to certain diseases, or a greater susceptibility to others, I wonder if these people have some unique genes that enable some brain regeneration or brain remapping that wouldn't normally occur in someone else. I have no idea how you would study this, but it would be worthwhile to find out what causes this recovery and whether it can be applied to others.
Every once in a while, you find these patients who make amazing recoveries from severe brain damage when so many don't. Just as some people have natural immunity to certain diseases, or a greater susceptibility to others, I wonder if these people have some unique genes that enable some brain regeneration or brain remapping that wouldn't normally occur in someone else. I have no idea how you would study this, but it would be worthwhile to find out what causes this recovery and whether it can be applied to others.
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