Posted on 09/05/2006 4:45:45 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed via euthanasia when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma. Now Poutre, once termed "brain dead" by doctors, continues to improve and is speaking a few words, her grandmother says.
Sandra Sudyka, the girl's biological grandmother, is no longer allowed to visit her granddaughter and now says she is ready to speak to the media about Poutre's condition.
She told The Republican newspaper that she last saw Poutre on July 18 but indicated she was "doing well."
"She was bright-eyed and smiling. She is always responsive to us," Sudyka explained.
Department of Social Services had asked Sudyka not to talk with reporters about Haleigh, but since they will no longer allow her and Haleigh's biological mother, Allison Avrett, to visit the 12 year-old, she said she's going to talk to the media.
"I decided since they broke the deal, I am going to talk. People should know how well she is doing," Sudyka told the newspaper.
"They don't want people to know how she is doing after they wanted to pull the plug," Sudyka said.
DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro declined an interview with The Republican but said that the visiting privileges have been suspended, not terminated.
Haleigh first began speaking in June, her grandmother told the newspaper.
"I was saying to her 'I love you,' and she was trying to say 'love' and it came out as a vibration...'ove,'" Sudyka said.
Sudyka, who is working with an attorney to adopt the girl, said she has said hello, responds to comments and questions, speaks nonverbally and is able to write her name. Haleigh can't walk and is confined to a wheelchair.
Avrett, Poutre's biological mother, lost custody of her daughter after physically abusing her. Poutre was put into a foster home where her adoptive parents also abused her. Her adopted mother committed suicide after abusing Poutre so much she had to be hospitalized.
DSS took Poutre into custody and when she appeared to slip into a coma, the agency asked the state Supreme Court for permission to take her life. That's when Poutre began responding.
Poutre has been receiving physical, speech and occupational therapy since January 26 at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton.
Gov. Mitt Romney appointed a commission to look into how the state failed to properly handle the girl's case.
Possible, to be sure; but what's the point? The hoax would fade away and be forgotten, the beauty of the plant would remain and pay tribute to a beautiful, innocent woman. If it's a hoax, it will backfire.
> Gee, any wonder she reacted negatively whenever hino was around.
You are correct that she did. She was positive at first, but became scared to death of him later, due to his abuse. Loads of indications over the years that Terri responded better to people (and stimuli) she knew and liked. She had the nicest smile. With her mom, especially, she just lit up!
Here is an exceprt from a post-autopsy statement by Dr. Hammesfahr. It sheds some light on the relative damage to different parts of her brain and functionality in various areas.
“The autopsy results confirmed my opinion and Dr. Maxfield's opinions, that the frontal areas of the brains, the areas that deal with awareness and cognition were relatively intact. To use Dr. Nelson's words, "relatively preserved." In fact, the relay areas from the frontal and front temporal regions of the brain, to the spinal cord and the brain stem, by way of the basal ganglia, were preserved, thus the evident responses which she was able to express to her family and to the clinicians seeing her or viewing her videotape. The Spect scan confirmed these areas were functional and not scar tissue, and that was apparently also confirmed on Dr. Nelson's review of the slides. Dr. Maxfield's estimates of retained brain weight were apparently accurate, although there may have been some loss of brain weight due to the last two weeks of dehydration.
“Dr. Maxfield and myself both emphasized that she was a woman trapped in her body, similar to a child with cerebral palsy, and that was borne out by the autopsy, showing greater injury in the motor and visual centers of the brain. ..."
Top 10 USES for Lutefisk
10. For a Remake of the 1958 movie "The Blob". 9. It's more disgusting than manure, for the "Burning bag on the front porch" trick. 8. To give your home that Scandinavian "Holiday Scent". 7. Toss lutefisk under the porch to get rid of skunks. (CAUTION: May attract Norwegians!) 6. To get "the taste out of your mouth" after eating pumpkin pie. 5. For a Scandinavian version of Jello Wrestling. 4. Put it in your shoes. It hides foot odor, cushions your heel and puts a spring in your step! 3. For an earthquake detector. (the only time lutefisk STOPS quivering is during an earthquake) 2. If you are filming a documentary, "The Norwegian Bachelor Farmers" you can use lutefisk to lure them out of their houses. And the number one USE for Lutefisk... 1. The odor will rid your house of relatives, rodents and other unwanted pests.
Ole bought a mule and took it home. When he tried to put it into the barn, the mule's ears hit the top of the doorway and the mule refused to enter the barn.
Sven stopped by, and he and Ole started discussing ways to get the mule into the barn. Ole said, "Vell, I'll yust have to yack up da barn and add a little to the valls to make it taller."
Sven thought for a minute and offered, "Vell, you haf a dirt floor, vhy don't you yust dig out a little."
"Nah, dat von't help any!" said Ole, "It's his ears that's too long, not his legs!"
Well, I follow that strip. Grandpa is old. He's had a stroke. Old people often die from strokes. He may die in the strip. He may live, but with deficits. He may recover. That's pretty much how it goes with elderly stroke victims.
Perhaps you're reading too much into a comic strip. It's a good strip. It has always been a good strip. I've been reading it for years, as one of the best comic strips out there.
Reading political stuff into this probably isn't reasonable. Really.
I just lost my father-in-law. He had had a couple of strokes, but recovered partially from both of them. Still, he lost ground each time. Finally, his 86-year-old body was no longer capable of staying alive, so he died.
We didn't give up. His body did. Something similar may happen in this comic strip. It happens thousands of times a day. Elderly people who have strokes often die.
Those jokes there aren't so bad.
The minister of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, way up there near Bemidji was counseling Ole, just before the day he was supposed to marry Lena.
"So tell me, Ole, do you love Lena, then?," the pastor asked.
"Oh...yah...sure. I love Lena so much, I almost told her," Ole replied.
Snorf! :-)
Ole Sven Larson, one of Lindstrom's most famous batchelor farmers, was getting pretty old, and he fell off his roof while trying to get that darned snow off of it. He wound up in the hospital, with serious injuries.
He was pretty sure he was going to die, so he told the doctor that he wanted to be buried in his boat.
The doc asked him why he wanted to be buried in his boat, and not a normal casket.
"Well, doc, you know I like to fish, and I'm sure they've got some pretty good boats up there on those Heavenly lakes, but I don't know if they're Lunds, and I wouldn't want to use any other brand. Besides, I need my outboard. It was signed by Ole Evinrude himself."
A little added history free :-) Ole's talented daughter in law
I don't think they'll go in that direction. Their previous episodes have demonstrated an appreciation for life, and respect for disabled people. I suppose that could be a false front, like we sometimes see demonstrated here. They pretend to care about disabled and/or dying people, so that when they advocate killing them, fools will be confused. It doesn't work on those of who know better. No matter how pretty they try to paint it, murder is wrong. They can try to separate themselves from the vulgar harpies by wrapping it up in good manners, but they're still selling the same evil. I don't think that's what For Better Or For Worse is trying to sell, but we'll see.
Yes, the yellow page abortion ads with *no parental consent needed* paved the way.
This is Cranford.
12 Q. Now, let me -- in between the first
13 balloon trial where she tracked and the second
14 balloon trial where you said she did not track
15 you pinched her; did you not?
16 A. You know I don't remember the details.
17 I know I did three trials with the balloon. I
18 did three trials with the teddy bear. And on the
19 one trial with the balloon, I don't remember the
20 exact order, Ms. Anderson, but I thought she did
21 follow for a few seconds. I think you can see in
22 the video.
23 By the way, you can see when the father
24 does it on September 4th he had her follow the
25 lights, so it's obvious that she does have
737
1 some -- whether you want to call it tracking or
2 visual-orienting reflex it's obvious at some
3 point she follows for a few seconds a light or a
4 bright balloon. And I saw in one of three trials
5 these observations were with the balloon, but not
6 with the teddy bear.
Thanks for your thoughts. They haven't shown the old duffer for awhile. It also depends on the severity of the stroke and how serious any paralysis is. Even younger people can have them but it's not as frequent.
http://drudgereport.com/
And there we are again, Cranford mistook her vision problem for inability to track. He used the wrong object and moved too fast to let her track.
Bob Schindler knew better and had Terri track a bright light. At least Cranford was honest enough to concede that she did track the lights.
>> you pinched her; did you not?
Good catch, Pat!! That would have ruined the subsequent testing. Terri did not respond well to unpleasant stimuli or people she did not like. She'd go into a shell, sometimes for hours. Dr. Hammesfahr took the trouble to make friends with her before he started testing. Even so, she got mad at him for a whole afternoon, as I recall, because he did a pain test and hurt her a little.
(Genuinely PVS patients cannot experience pain...)
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