Posted on 03/21/2005 4:14:35 PM PST by stan_sipple
THIS BRAIN IS NOT THAT BAD I contest the theory that Terri's brain actively continues to degenerate.
I HAVE SEEN MANY WALKING, TALKING, FAIRLY COHERENT PEOPLE WITH WORSE CEREBRAL/CORTICAL ATROPHY. THEREFORE, THIS IS IN NO WAY PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE THAT TERRI SCHIAVO'S MENTAL ABILITIES OR/OR CAPABILITIES ARE COMPLETELY ERADICATED. I CANNOT BELIEVE SUCH TESTIMONY HAS BEEN GIVEN ON THE BASIS OF THIS SCAN.
The worrisome, no alarming thing, for me, was that I heard a bioethicist and several important figures on the major media describe Terri's brain as MUCH WORSE. One "expert" said that she had a "bag of water" in her head. Several experts described her as a "brain stem preparation"
These statements are wholly inaccurate. This is an atrophied brain, yes, but there is cortex remaining, and where there's cortex (?life) there's hope.
If you starve this woman to death it would be, in my professional and experienced medical opinion, the equivalent of starving to death a 75-85 year old person. I would take that to the witness stand.
(Excerpt) Read more at codeblueblog.blogs.com ...
Save Terri bump!!!!
we should have this MD blogger testify for TS
Wow, great find stan. Everyone should read the entire article and comments. Lots of interesting questions raised.
same MD blogger exposed Clinton's "illnesses."
Yes, I ran across this website last night after asking an adamant "Let Terri Die" person on this board if he had personally seen a scan.
Miami Ethics website he referred to
Justice for Terri Schiavo link
I haven't had a chance to read these sites yet, and since I didn't know how to interpret the scan myself, I didn't comment on it last night. All new info for me. Bumping for Terri.
full blog hints that TS suffered trauma at some point, not just O2 deprivation
He tried to testify for her and was ignored.(William M. Hammesfahr, M.D.) It is basically his final conclusion of Terri's condition. I have left out parts because it is lengthy but I think you can get the jest.
Impression:
The patient is not in coma.
She is alert and responsive to her environment. She responds to specific people best.
She tries to please others by doing activities for which she gets verbal praise.
She responds negatively to poor tone of voice. She responds to music. She differentiates sounds from voices.
She differentiates specific people's voices from others.
She differentiates music from stray sound.
She attempts to verbalize.(!!!!!)
She has voluntary control over multiple extremities
She can swallow.(!!!!)
She is partially blind
She is probably aphasic and has a degree of receptive aphasia.
She can feel pain.
On this last point, it is interesting to observe that the records from Hospice show frequent medication administered for pain by staff.
With respect to specifics and specific recommendations in order to carry out the instructions of the Second District Court of Appeal:
From a neurological standpoint: The patient appears to be partially blind.
She needs a full opthamological (eye) evaluation and visual evoked potentials done to flash and checkerboard patters. The opthamological examination is to evaluate her retina and her ophthalmic nerve to try to determine the cause of her visual limitations and if any treatment exists. The evoked potentials looks at the nerve between the eye and the visual centers in the brain, to see if there is treatable damage and the type of damage, if any in these areas.
This is important, as for individuals to interact with her...
*snip*
Communication: She can communicate. She needs a Speech Therapist, Speech Pathologist, and a communications expert to evaluate how to best communicate with her and to allow her to communicate and for others to communicate with her.
Also, a treatment plan for how to develop better communication needs to be done.
*snip*
ENT: The patient can clearly swallow, and is able to swallow approximately 2 liters of water per day (the daily amount of saliva generated). Water is one of the most difficult things for people to swallow. It is unlikely that she currently needs the feeding tube.(!!!!!) She should be evaluated by an Ear Nose and Throat specialist, and have a new swallowing exam.
*snip*
Her physical exam and videotapes also suggest a spinal cord injury is also present, as she has much better control over he face, head, and neck, than over her arms and legs.
This reminds one of a person with a spinal cord injury who has good facial control, but poor use of arms and legs. It is possible that a correctable spinal abnormality such as a herniated disk may be found that could be treated and result in better neurological functioning. This should be looked for, as may be treatable.
Thus, there may be an injured disk or spinal cord; the disk injury is more treatable, the spinal cord injury, if present without a disk injury, may be more difficult to treat.
A person with a spinal cord injury and hypoxic encephalopathy will need different treatment and rehab recommendations than one who just has a hypoxic encephalopathic.
Interestingly, I have seen this pattern of mixed brain (cerebral) and spinal cord findings in a patient once before, a patient who was asphyxiated.
*snip*
____________________________ William M. Hammesfahr, M.D.
Shocking how Judge Greer seemed to gloss over all of this medical evidence and capitulated to the husband's line
Here's a nice picture of a random autonomic smile for you. ;^)
Where there is cortex there is hope!
They've already decided they want her dead. It seems no amount of info has the power to stop this, because so many people think that if a person is inconvenient they should be done away with.
Why hasn't she had an MRI and/or a PET scan, anyone know?
Yes.
There is an article from last September where they tried to get someone to look into allegations of abuse. I haven't seen anything else come of it.
from this blog:
"Based on this evidence Terri Schiavo should have a CT scan repeated. She should also have an MRI and a PET scan to gage the severity of her brain dysfunction.
IF THIS IS TERRI'S CT OF THE BRAIN, SOMETHING MAY BE VERY WRONG"
BUMP!
The CT scan looks bad, if this in fact it's hers. Can anyone confirm it's her HCT?
Not shocking at all.
The judge was a county commissioner in the midst of a swampland controversy prior to ascending the bench.
Money talks.
I read (don't know if it's true or not) on a site that appeared to know a lot about Terri that when she was initially taken to the emergency room, the doctors noted a very stiff neck, possibly from trauma. It also stated she did not have a heart attack and given her age, it was highly unlikely low potassium would cause a heart attack. It said she had an EKG and blood tests and nothing indicated a heart attack, only heart arrythmia. I just wish they would allow a complete, thorough exam by qualified, unbiased doctors.
So, I've been wondering...
If Terri's original brain injury was actually inflicted by something Michael did to her, I'd really like to know how and why his original story has withstood scrutiny all these years? Or has it?
If he is totally innocent of wrong-doing, then why the nagging doubts about him? Is there a reason his innocence or guilt has not been proven one way or the other? When I first heard about Terri a few years ago, I remember feeling uneasy about Michael's behavior. I remember I "didn't like his face", and I still don't, but last time I checked, looking smarmy wasn't a crime.
I was under the impression they tried at least twice and the court said no. And at one point they did have a some kind of outside guardian involved but the court eventually fired him. It's been next to impossible to truly follow this case considering todays standards of journalism. Agenda first, truth be damned.
This husband is claiming that he's doing what Terri would want but he also has cleared it to cremate her without autopsy. What Catholic gets cremated? The only wishes he's going for are the ones to his benefit. At this point I think he's a Scott Peterson with "complications".
Didn't she have an eating disorder, ie anorexia?
http://medpundit.blogspot.com/ recounts witness who saw MS alter TS records
Thanks for the response. You are 100% correct. This is so sad that I could cry.
You are correct too about Catholics not being cremated.
This case just has my bees bonnet in a storm!
I read she had bulemia, which went undiagnosed by her doctors, who were eventually sued and that's where the money came from.
That shining object is the tip of a shunt. A shunt is a tube inserted into the brain to reduce pressure caused by build-up of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain. That big black butterfly in the middle of Terri's brain is her ventricular system, which holds the CSF and in Terri's case, it is enlarged (dilated).
Now...why was Terri being shunted in 1996? 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!
Evidence of trauma was brought up by a neurologist and the pathologist that reviewed the bone scan. She also had a neck vertebral injury.
Can't the state look at this stuff and investigate this as "foul play"?
Only a guardian can make such a filing. If Terri had an honest guardian, she'd have been divorced ages ago. Of course, that in and of itself should constitute a conflict of interest for Michael who refuses to divorce Terri, but removing him as guardian would violate Terri Rule #1/2: All motions to kill Terri must be approved; all that prevent her death must be denied.
I forget we are living in the "real world". I feel so bad for this poor woman. It's so evident to me.
Freeprs said the same thing last night on a thread!
That was speculated given her low potassium on admit to hospital. Never a shred of proof.
Michael however was on psychotropic medicine at the time of her death. That was never looked at.
I've read her potassium wasn't low enough to precipitate a heart attack. I wonder what it actually was. I want the number!
This whole thing either was handled very sloppily or reported very sloppily.
This is the first I heard that MS was receiving treatment for a mental illness. Can you give us references to back it up? I'm not doubting what you have read, I just need to have a better defense.
Very interesting. From other reports I had seen discussing Terri's cerebral cortex I didn't think she had any hope of recovery, but this might change things substantially.
The judge is delaying hoping to make a decsion moot.
Excellent. Thanks.
Thanks, SS and MM!
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
Michael's lawyer got the judge to agree that that would be the only test necessary. As one senator or congressman the other day said, "Spare no expense, eh?" because the other tests are more expensive but also give so much more information. Might have been Frist, but at this point, I'm not sure who it was who said that.
This is probably what was being commented on.
http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/Humana%20Discharge%20Summary%20050990.pdf
As well, there are a ton of links to documents which can be found here:
http://www.hospicepatients.org/terri-schindler-schiavo-docs-links-page.html
Wow!
Excellent blog...he's absolutely correct on the "fluid filled bag of water" lies that have been told. There are functioning elderly people who have CT scans much worse and you'd never know by talking to them. The shunt scenario is worisome. Did she have blood in her brain from trauma...If not is that really her CT scan? If a shunt was placed...Where is the surgery report?
He was never properly investigated. The Schindlers at the time were a little naive about Michael S. They didn't know Terri was planning to divorce him. They didn't know that her girlfriends found him to be a very controlling man. That he didn't allow Terri to see her friends, checked the odometer, etc. Another ex-girlfriend claims Michael stalked her.
At first even though her brother was suspicious he played up to Terri parents. It wasn't until he won the lawsuit that he changed towards them. The have a bone scan from about a year after her collapse that the Schindlers only recently found out about that showed many broken bones.
There are many affidavits from nurses that tell how abusive Michael was to Terri when he visited. He melted her wedding rings down and made a ring for himself.
Most of this stuff is documented in the court records. It wasn't until he met up with Felos 7 years later that he was able to place Terri in a hospice illegally under Medicaid/Medicare and "remembered" that Terri didn't want to live with a feeding tube. At the time of Terri's death, the feeding tube wasn't an issue because it was illegal to starve anyone to death.
This is just some of the stuff on Michael.
Low Potassium doesn't cause a heart attack, it causes the heart to beat erratically.
I think I read the account of Michael being on multiple medications in National Review article. It said when the paramedics came for terri there were several bottles of prescription meds but all were for Michael who saw a psychiatrist. I cannot provide a link.
Check it out, more medical evidence contradicting the husband's explanation.
Assuming the electrode implant is still in her brain (which I believe it probably is), an MRI scan would probably kill her. Not sure about the PET though.
Correct, she didn't have a heart attack, she had a cardiac arrest. Completely different.
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