Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify

Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives?

And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can bring to our lives and to the celebration of the Culture of Life.

On March 18th, we as a nation will begin to grieve again, to reach into our hearts and feel with our collective national spirit what the Schindler family felt last year at this time as each moment since Terri was disconnected from the feeding lifeline, the moments crept by like hours and hours like days.

All of us have felt in some way that pain — even if it were only in the privacy of our loved one's home, hospital room, hospice or perhaps talking with an attorney and doctor attempting to make sense out of some fleeting comments made in a conversation perhaps voiced ten, twelve or even two decades earlier — not necessarily an expression of her true feeling about an end-of-life decision but merely an incidental musing in a long-forgotten side conversation.

For at least one million Americans, and quite possibly a whole lot more, this is an opportunity to voice an opinion through a pledge supporting a resolution in each state called "Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life." Each and every person who cares that your family, your spouse, your mother, your father, your sister or brother understands with clarity what you wish the end of life for you to be, with dignity and certainty should sign the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com and take the additional step to sign a Living Will — or as they call it at www.terrisfight.org, the Will to Live.

Some have asked why Americans should care about an annual Terri's Day. It is quite simple, we tend to keep turning the page on the Culture of Life because we feel it does not affect us. We tend to believe that seemingly universal belief that those who are handicapped, those who are not quite living a "perfect" life or by contemporary notion "ideal" then those lives are possibly disposable, marginal, not relevant, and part of the Culture of Death which embraces a "disposable society."

But life and our values for the Culture of Life are not disposable. Think about the young people today who would rather hurt themselves or even take their own lives rather than feel "imperfect" or the elderly person whose family is told by an insensitive health care professional while the stricken person struggles to cling to life, "she would be better off in another place," — just let her die, disconnect her from life, because her quality of life is not up to "contemporary standards. "

Why does celebrating the Culture of Life in Michigan become so essential for all of us in America? It is important for several reasons. Dr. Jack Kervorkian, also known as "Doctor Death" helped launch first in Michigan and then the nation the notion of the death culture. Secondly, and equally as important, at the May 12 event — just two days before Mother's Day — there will also be a "Mary's Moms" celebration of those women and mothers who have met challenges in standing up for some aspect of the Culture of Life.

This past weekend I sat at my cousin's funeral — or going home celebration, which more accurately describes it — thinking about the dearly departed and how she packed so much caring for others into her life even as she struggled with illness and advancing age. She was a wonderful woman who had lived through many, many challenges in her life, but in her 73 years she had met these challenges with dignity and had conveyed to her family when would be the right time to allow her to pass away.

Her daughter, who is a minister, spoke to the packed church about the times when, with all of her pain and then a stroke, the doctors had informed them that perhaps it was better to let her go. Yet that was three years ago that that occurred, and if the family had listened to the doctors and refused to see how she fought back and not only recovered but went back to volunteering at the church to feed and clothe the homeless. The medical professionals didn't care about an elderly lady who was on dialysis, but the family did and they knew better. Patricia lived three more years — years her extensive extended family considered "a gift from God."

So isn't part of the lesson of Terri's legacy and Terri's Day for families and loved ones to have a meaningful conversation with their family and to have the written document on hand as well that conveys the wishes clearly and concisely? You betcha.

As I sat in the church I thought of all of the families across the nation and the world who were sitting at their loved one's bedsides — or even standing outside of a hospital emergency room — overwhelmed with emotion, torn by what may be days of conflicting anguished decisions. I thought again of how out of death we may have the certainty of life. Terri's death reminded the nation that yes a state can and will starve you to death, and your family may be rendered helpless as you watch your loved one's precious life forces drain slowly away.

By signing the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com or going to www.terrisfight.org, you can learn about how to encourage your state legislature to establish March 31st as an official Terri's Day. Hold a Culture of Life Home Party or meet-and-greet to sign pledges, share ideas and support The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation as well as Culture of Life activities and events in your community or around the nation. Between now and March 31st you can make a dramatic difference for yourself, your family and for the nation. Stand up for the Culture of Life because one person, one life, one family can and does make a difference in America. Make the difference and be the difference today. America...The countdown for the Culture of Life has begun.

Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist for the Detroit News. He is also the daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show online at www.wdtkam.com daily 2-3 p.m., and call in toll-free nationwide to make your opinion count at 800-923-WDTK(9385) © Copyright 2006 by Kevin Fobbs http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fobbs/060313

Google: "Broderick Hehman"
Currently returns 6 articles.
Here are 2 of them.

'HATE' KILLED NYU KID
By LARRY CELONA, ERIKA MARTINEZ and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

April 6, 2006 -- The NYPD hate-crimes unit is probing a report that a white NYU student killed by a car in Harlem was fleeing a gang of black teenagers screaming "Get whitey!" sources said yesterday.

If the report proves true, the violence could turn out to be an eerie replay in reverse of the infamous 1986 Howard Beach murder, where a black man was chased into traffic and killed by a group of white bigots.

The 20-year-old student, John Broderick Hehman, died yesterday, six days after the attack.

The sources said Hehman might have been targeted as a soft mark for robbers after the teenage gang spotted the caring urban-studies major handing pocket change to a wheelchair- bound man near the corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue Saturday night.

The gang of youths, some of them as young as 11, had been smoking pot inside a nearby Popeye's fast-food eatery at 8:30 p.m. when they spotted Hehman walking by and then stopping to help the handicapped man.

An anonymous caller later tipped the CrimeStoppers hot line that a group of youths screamed, "Get Whitey!" and ran toward him.

Witnesses said Hehman fled into traffic against the light and was hit by a Mercedes-Benz traveling east on 125th Street.

The 38-year-old driver remained at the scene and was not charged.

"When we heard the crash, we thought it was two cars - it was such a loud noise," said a witness.

"I couldn't believe it was a person," he said.

Hehman, known as "J.B.," had been in a coma since he was struck.

He died of massive head trauma at Harlem Hospital.

His sister, Marisa, said he had been walking to meet a friend when he was attacked.

His father, Manhattan investment banker Thomas Hehman, lives on the Upper East Side.

On a student Web site, Hehman joked his off-campus interests included "doing laundry."

Meanwhile, cops yesterday fanned out around the area where the attack occurred looking for witnesses and putting up fliers.

In the notorious Howard Beach case, John Lester, 17, confronted a group of three black men whose car had broken down in the predominately white Queens neighborhood.

Lester, shouting, "Kill the n-----s," chased one of the black men, Michael Griffith, onto the Belt Parkway where he was struck and killed by a car.

larry.celona@nypost.com

Student run over in chase dies

A New York University junior died yesterday of injuries suffered after he was chased into the path of a car in Harlem on Saturday, police said.

Broderick Hehman, 20, was hit about 8:35 p.m. near 125th St. and Park Ave.

A police source said he was the victim of a robbery attempt before he ran into the street.

The driver of the car stayed on the scene and wasn't charged. Police are still looking for at least one person who witnesses told cops was running behind Hehman.

The student, who majored in metropolitan studies, had been in critical condition at Harlem Hospital since he was hit.

A police source said relatives made the heartrending decision early yesterday to take him off life support.

"It's over," his distraught sister said. "He's dead."

Robert F. Moore

Auschwitz

Experimental Auschwitz
Auschwitz applied most of its energies to killing people, but its openness to virtually any form of human manipulation inevitably resulted in a wide variety of additional experiments. Eduard Wirths, as chief doctor, was the Auschwitz sponsor and facilitator of most of these experiments, particularly those in which there was interest from Berlin at a higher level. An example here is the continuous experimental activity of SS Captain Dr. Helmuth Vetter, a key figure in pharmacological “trials” in Auschwitz and elsewhere. He was employed for many years with Bayer Group WII of the I. G. Farben Industry, Inc., Leverkusen, and, at Auschwitz, retained his connections. He ran medical trials for Bayer in Auschwitz and Mauthausen (and possibly in other camps) on several therapeutic agents, including sulfa medications and other preparations whose content is not exactly known.*
Vetter commuted between Auschwitz and Mauthausen in order to supervise the study of the effects of “ruthenol” and “3582” on many different serious medical conditions (typhus, typhoid, paratyphoid diseases, diarrhea, tuberculosis, erysipelas, and scarlet fever among others); but of the 150 to 250 patients he gave these medications to on the contagious disease ward in Auschwitz, about 50 were suffering from typhus. The impression of prisoner doctors was that these agents were of no therapeutic use, and some patients seemed to die quickly after receiving them. Vetter was reluctant to accept these negative findings, always insisting that better results had been obtained in other camps.⁵⁰
Vetter drew other SS doctors into his research, including Eduard Wirths. The latter became not only what one observer called Vetter’s “official deputy” in Auschwitz but later actively pursued typhus trials himself, in which four Jewish inmates, artificially infected with typhus because there were no active cases available, were killed. These were apparently an extension of Vetter’s work. Vetter represents the Nazi research functionary, in whom ordinary medical vanities became lethal. He found in Auschwitz a testing area where he need not be restrained either by compunctions about harming — or killing — research subjects, or by rigorous judgments about therapeutic effects.
__________
* Among these preparations were ones numbered 3582 (a nitroacridine preparation), V1012, and ruthenol (a combination of preparation 3582 and arsenic acid).

London

Drug trial disaster baffles experts, but report clears firm
By Jenny Booth and agencies
An interim report from Britain's medicines watchdog today said there was no obvious explanation for what went wrong during a catastrophic drug trial which left six volunteers near death.
Six healthy young men suffered organ failure and violent, life-threatening side-effects after being injected with the anti-inflammatory drug TGN1412 during a clinical trial in north-west London on March 13.
One volunteer injected with a placebo instead of the real drug described how he watched his fellow volunteers at Northwick Park Hospital screaming and vomiting and passing out within minutes of the injections.
The men, who were paid £2,000 to take part in the trial, were taken from the small private research unit to the intensive care department of the adjoining NHS hospital, and placed on life support.
The drug was developed by TeGenero, a small German research company, as a possible treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, leukaemia and multiple sclerosis.
After laboratory analyses and tests on animals, TGN1412 was cleared for its first trials on humans, which were carried out by Parexel, a medical research company. The human volunteers were given doses 500 times lower than those given to monkeys.
Today the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said that its investigation into the incident had found no evidence that there was any problem with the way the drug was manufactured or administered.
"There’s no simple explanation of what happened," said Professor Kent Woods, the chief executive of the MHRA, which regulates 350 Phase 1 clinical trials -- the first testing on humans -- in the UK every year.
In a statement, Professor Woods added that the drug did not appear to have been contaminated "or to have contained anything other than the correct ingredients".
"Neither have we found anything in the way the trial was run which contributed to the adverse reactions experienced by the volunteers – it was run according to the agreed protocol, and the correct dose of the product was given to the patients."
The MHRA said that its findings were not conclusive and there was more investigation still to be done. "There are still further tests planned and until these are complete we cannot be firm about our conclusions. However, if these findings were to be confirmed, it would indicate that this product showed a pharmacological effect in man which was not seen in pre-clinical tests in animals at much higher doses.
"The Secretary of State for Health has therefore agreed to establish a group of leading international experts in the field to examine the issue further. The group will need to review the evidence from the TGN1412 case and consider what necessary changes to clinical trials may be required."
Sam Lister, Health Correspondent for The Times, said the inability of the MHRA to identify an obvious mistake in the conduct of the trial only increased the doubts surrounding the testing of radical new drugs.
"The findings of the interim report cast further uncertainty over the entire field of biological agents with novel modes of action, such as TGN1412," he said.
"While the discovery of human error, contamination or a diversion from the agreed trial protocol would have allowed the investigation to focus on a specific problem, the actual pharmacological cause of the disastrous adverse reactions in humans still remains unknown."
TeGenero welcomed the report. "We are grateful to the MHRA for their conduct of this investigation," the company said in a statement. "The preliminary findings of the investigation underline that we observed the highest standards in developing this drug and that these symptoms were both unexpected and unforeseeable."
But Martyn Day, a solicitor representing four of the volunteers, said the MHRA's interim findings left a series of questions unanswered and claimed that his clients were unaware that they would be testing such an innovative drug.
"If it had been explained that it was so new, then there’s not the slightest chance that one of them would have gone through with the test. For £2,000? Not the slightest chance," he said.
Mr Day also questioned why the men were injected with the drug in quick succession. Mr Day said nurses gave the volunteers their doses of TGN1412 within ten minutes of each other, rather than testing one man and waiting to see if any vigorous side-effects took hold.
The Academy of Medical Sciences appeared to support his contention today, issuing a paper called Testing Antibody Therapies, which highlighted what it called "usual practices" for administering drugs in Phase 1 trials.
"It would be usual practice to administer a single dose in a single patient, who would then be observed for an appropriate period of time," the paper said.
Today a fifth victim of the drugs trial was allowed to go home. Only one of the six volunteers now remains in Northwick Park Hospital and he is no longer in intensive care.
Dr Ganesh Suntharalingam, clinical director of intensive care at the hospital, said: "I am pleased to say that all six patients transferred to us from the Parexel unit have now been discharged from critical care, and five have now gone home.
"One patient continues to receive treatment in hospital and is making steady progress. All the patients will remain under close follow-up by other specialists as they continue their recovery."

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