Study Reveals Disabled Patients Like Terri Schiavo Show Awareness

Lifenews ^ | 2/8/05 | Steven Ertelt

[Former Fetus]

Disabled people who are treated as if they have no awareness of their surroundings or that they cannot interact with others may be absorbing more than previously thought, according to a new study. The research sheds more like on the plight of people like Terri Schiavo.

A team of neuroscientists in New York, New Jersey and Washington used imaging technology (MRIs) to compare the brain activity of two disabled people in conditions similar to Terri's and the level of activity of health individuals.

As expected, the minimally conscious subjects showed brain activity at less than half the levels of the healthy subjects.

But, the researchers also made audio recordings of loved ones telling cherished stories or recalling shared experiences. In each of the brain-damaged patients while the recordings played, the level of neural activity matched that of the health patients.

"We assumed we would get some minimal response in these patients, but nothing like this," said Dr. Nicholas Schiff, an assistant professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan and the study's lead author.

The findings, if repeated in other experiments, could have a significant impact on how the medical and legal community treat such patients.

Dr. Joseph Fins, chief of the medical ethics division of New York Presbyterian Hospital, told the New York Times, "This study gave me goose bumps, because it shows this possibility of this profound isolation, that these people are there, that they've been there all along, even though we've been treating them as if they're not."

Since the completion of the study, researchers focused on seven additional disabled patients and the results were the same.

Three million to six million Americans live with the consequences of serious brain injuries and as many as 100,000 to 300,000 are like Terri Schiavo -- minimally conscience and in a bedridden state. They are unable to care for themselves, but are still breathing on their own and may interacted in a limited manner.

The results of the study appeared Monday in the medical journal Neurology.

[pc93]

pc93 reporting!

FOR LOCAL AND NON-LOCAL (GLOBAL) DISTRIBUTION:

Here is the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Life Ribbon Desktop Logo with instructions on how to get it on your screen. Also contains an exhortation to the Florida House Representatives and Senators of the FL Senate as well as contact numbers of officials to call, including links to The Empire Journal, terrisfight.org and Free Republic, etc.:

http://www.enlightenment-engine.net/eeng/ribbon/terriliferibbondesktoplogo.zip

Here is a flyer for Terri that can be printed out and distributed:

http://www.enlightenment-engine.net/eeng/ribbon/terriflyer.pdf

Here is html code if you have a webpage and would like to participate in the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Life Ribbon Campaign besides the above of having a Terri Life Ribbon on your own computer:

Copy and paste the following text into your HTML web page code where you want the Terri Schindler Life Ribbon banner to appear:

Join the Terri Schindler Life Ribbon Campaign!

If instead you simply want to have the Terri Schindler Life Ribbon appearing on your web page then use this code:

Terri Schindler Life Ribbon Campaign

Terri Schindler-Schiavo Life Ribbon Campaign:

Google -> Life Ribbon

or:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/p/c/pc93/terri_schindler_life_ribbon_campaign.htm

Juan V Schoch - Lake Mary, FL
Concerned Florida Resident / United States Citizen who believes Terri should be provided protection, removed from out of the hands of those trying to kill her via substituted (hearsay) wishes, and who believes she should be placed back on the road to her recovery via rehabilitation and therapy, etc. as well as into the hands of her loved ones, etc.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1333205/posts

Florida House Could Impeach Schiavo Judge

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1342344/posts?page=1#1

[Kitty Mittens]

Thank you, Pc!