Quote:
Originally posted by pinkyphimu
now, on another note, a friend's older brother was in a serious motorcycle accident. he had a portion of his brain removed and many numerous surgeries. after a few weeks on life support, it was determined that he was brain dead and that there was no chance for life without artifical means. his family decided to remove his life support. eight days later, he woke up and said he was hungry. it has been a very very long road for him, but he can now walk and talk. he can return to a normal life, but different from what he was used to. his wife divorced him. he sees his daughters regularly, but can't take them overnight because he has such short term memory loss that he is afraid he might forget to turn off the stove or something. his doctors honestly were in disbelief when he woke up. based on his test results, there was no brain activity whatsoever. no one is sure why he woke up, but he did. the main difference between the case of my friend's brother....and terri shivo is that he had only been on life support a few weeks. she has had 15 years to make gains and has shown no progress.
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This gave me new perspective. I seldom (if ever) agree with this columnist, but he mentions depositions etc that I had no idea had been taken:
"On Friday, a Senate committee, trying to forestall the withdrawal of feeding, subpoenaed her, though unsuccessfully. The action is not as silly as it sounds. At one point, after she presumably became vegetative, Terri Schiavo was taken to a shopping mall."
"...The facts are these: Terri Schiavo collapsed in 1990. She has been in hospitals and nursing homes since then. Videotapes depict a young woman who seems to respond to some voice stimuli, but does not communicate. At least three affidavits are on file from former nursing home attendants who insist Terri showed some hope of making progress, but that her husband insisted she be given no rehabilitation."
"...One nurse, Carla Sauer Iyer, said Terri 'spoke on a regular basis, saying such things as 'Mommy' and 'help me.' " Iyer said that when she put a washcloth in Terri's hands to keep her fingers from curling together, 'Michael saw it and made me take it out, saying that was therapy.'"
Read the article - it's an eye opener.