Was Kate Adamson in danger of losing her life as a result of the brain stem pons stroke she suffered on June 29, 1995? Without a doubt. "During the first few days of the six weeks she would spend in the intensive care unit at Torrence memorial Medical Center, doctors gave her a one percent chance of surviving". This would be appropriate considering the location of the stroke and the damage that might be present. However, the articles she has chosen to tell her story tell a different story than she related during her interview with O'Reilley. For instance she leads O'Reilly and the audience to believe that she was that she was aware but the medical staff thought she was totally unresponsive for almost seventy days. Her own website disproves this.
Her own website makes NO claim that anyone diagnosed her as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). There is one article that states "From a near vegetative state just under two years ago, Kate has come a long way". This is a far far cry from the PVS diagnosis of Terri Schiavo.
During last night's interview she spoke of her inability to speak, yet again from an article she has placed on her own website, it is stated "Her inability to speak was caused more by the presence of a tracheotomy tube she needed to help her breathe than it was by the stroke, but it was very frightening nonetheless". Again this indicates that her condition did not even approach that of Terri Shiavo. Why, if the statements contained in this article aren't true, would Ms. Adamson place the article on her own website?
And what about that "rippng out" of her feeding tube?? This poses so many questions as to discredit the entire interview. First why would the doctor's and/or the staff remove the tube at all, unless so directed by her guardian or in this case, her husband. Neither the hospital, her doctors or the nursing staff would unilaterally make the decision to starve the patient and let her die. Her husband insists that she could communicate by blinking her eyes and claims that he forced them to replace the feeding tube under threat of lawsuit. Nowhere on Ms. Adamson's website is this eight day denial of sustenance mentioned, much less the traumatic "ripping out" of her feeding tube. Initially during last night's interview, Ms. Adamson states "when the feeding tube "was turned off for eight days, ahh I was......". She doesn't say removed or ripped out, she says "turned off". After reviewing every word on her Ms. Adamson's own website, it becomes very apparent that this incident has been created to help create a link to the Terri Schiavo case.
When asked by O'Reilley "how long did it take you to come out of the vegetative state" she didn't answer the question except to say "[w]ell it was a matter of time" then immediately attempted to divert the question to a discussion of her feeding regimen. It is her husband who intervenes and attempts to answer the question, yet his account appears to be at odds with the information on the Adamson website. When you read the articles she has place on her website, you will discover that her cognizance was discovered in about two weeks from the time of her admission. "After a couple of weeks, someone brought in an alphabet board, which she could use to communicate by blinking 'yes' at the next letter in her message." It was through this method that she communicated with the hospital staff and her doctors far from being unable to communicate for seventy days. If the stories that her own website reports are true, and if they weren't why would Adamson place them there, the new story of denial of sustenance and the traumatic "ripping out" of her feeding tube is more than suspect.
Lets see, her husband states that she could communicate by blinking her eyes in a week or two. " There was a good week or two where she was aware, and I couldn't get anyone to believe me. Just like Terri's family..." The articles on Adamson's website says she was using blinking to communicate words to the hospital staff and her doctors. Quite a difference.
There's more. Go to Kate Adamson's website and read for yourself.
One thing has to be kept in mind. Kate Adamson's story doesn't change anything about the condition of Terri Schiavo nor is it even remotely similar. Terri's cerebral cortex has been extensively and irreparably damaged and other than a small amount of tissue that is totally isolated (and the viability of this little remnant is in dispute) consists of dead tissue. Kate Adamson suffered a brain stem pons stroke, not the global damage that Terri suffered. Kate Adamson's cerebral cortex was undamaged. Kate Adamson was confined in the hospital and rehab for less than a year before she was returned to her home, upright, talking and carrying on near normal activities. Terri, on the other hand has not recovered or demonstrated any signs of recovery for over thirteen years.
You are aware, are you not, that there were more doctors willing to state that Terri was NOT in a PVS condition, most not allowed to testify, then Felos used, in court? YOU DO KNOW that TERRI is NOT PVS, do you not? So.....neither was Kate, what is your point?