Posted on 03/22/2005 6:15:47 PM PST by FR_addict
First segments.... (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a medical case as high profile as Terri Schiavo, you would think the medical experts would have all the answers. But just by listening to them and reviewing statements they gave to the court, it's easy to see why a final answer is so complicated.
DR. WILLIAM HAMMESFAHR, NEUROLOGIST: I spent about 10 hours across about three months and the woman is very aware of her surroundings. She's very aware. She's alert. She's not in a coma. She's not in PVS. ...
DR. RONALD CRANFORD, NEUROLOGIST: A vegetative state is a scary diagnosis. Unless you know what you're looking for, it looks like the patient is interacting. But Terri is not interacting.
GUPTA: Both of them are neurologists and their conclusions are based on diagnostic tests that are supposed to be objective. Yet, they tell different tales.
HAMMESFAHR: Her CAT scan has maybe 75 percent of the brain tissue still left. CRANFORD: I've seen her. There's no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, she's in a permanent vegetative state. Her CAT scan shows extremely severe atrophy to the brain. And her EEG is flat. It doesn't show any electrical activity at all.
GUPTA: And, most importantly, their opinions about a possible recovery?
HAMMESFAHR: With proper therapy, she will have a tremendous improvement. I think, personally, that she'll be able to walk, eventually, and she will be able to use at least one of her arms.
CRANFORD: There's no way. That's totally bogus. ...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(Excerpt) Read more at transcripts.cnn.com ...
First, Dr. Cranford makes a very bizarre statement:
CRANFORD: I've seen her. There's no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, she's in a permanent vegetative state. Her CAT scan shows extremely severe atrophy to the brain. And her EEG is flat. It doesn't show any electrical activity at all.
Second, This part is missing from the transcript. Below is my transcription from my tape of the segment.
After the segment above, Daryn turns to Gupta and says. the "EEG was flat what does that mean?"
Dr. Gupta: He said that and I was a little surprised that he said that. I mean that is a very clinical thing when you say someone's EEG is flat that means they are brain dead. That's a really inmportant term for transplant surgeons before they take someone's organs. Terri is not brain dead. I think just about anybody that looks at her can tell that. What exact state she is in. I don't know. I've never examined her but the video along shows that she is not brain dead.
Third, Dr. Cranford is the neurologist that examined her and whose testimony was used to determine that Terri was in PVS. Yet he states above that Terri's EEG is flat, which is impossible.
How come every professional cited as claiming Terri is PVS has a history of "right-to-die" (i.e. euthanasia) activism?
http://www.bioethics.umn.edu/faculty/cranford_r.shtml
I am LIVID AT THIS MICHAEL SCHIAVO! I THINK A WARRANT SHOULD SWORN OUT FOR HIS ARREST! WE HAVE TO LOOK INTO THIS GUY! HE IS HIDING SOMETHING BUT HE CANNOT HIDE FROM GOD!
DR. RONALD CRANFORD should be known as Dr. Death. He has made an entire career out of testifying that people are vegetables. He is not a real witness, he is an advocate for death.
An article posted here a day or two ago gives the details on this man, who joins George Felos, Judge Greer, and Michael Schiavo in the inner circle of those who are trying to murder Terri.
A CAT scan is useless in any case. And Michael Schiavo has refused to allow an MRI scan, which would reveal the true state of affairs.
muslim fanatics like al-zarqawi behead innocent people with a knife. american judges like greer condemn an innocent woman to death by starvation.....which is worse ???
Here is the MUST READ deposition of Nurse Carla Iyer, found and posted by lanceman(as a separate thread, which was deleted with the suggestion to post it on an existing thread).
She took care of Terri at one of the convalescent homes.
The nurse testifies that Michael didn't want anything done for Terri, including medically necessary treatments, such as giving her antibiotics, that Terri actually used to speak, felt pain, and indicated when she was in pain, that MS acted happy, when Terri got ill and made statements, like "when is the b&^ch going to die"
It's an absolute MUST READ. Thanks lanceman for finding and posting it.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/aff2-terri.pdf
H&C just said that coming up is a testimony of a nurse, they didn't mention any names, it could be this one.
This is a chilling op-ed written by Dr. Cranford:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/779/23033.html
Terri never had a chance.
What is the standard procedure used to determine if someone is in a PVS, coma, or brain dead?
This is an issue that has to be made everyday somewhere in some hospital across this country.
Yep, the deck was stacked from the outset.
Apparently if you've decided you want a diagnosis of PVS regardless of the patient's actual condition, you call Dr. Cranford.
Dr. Crwaford was on Hannity & Commie just now - Hannity nailed him but good - Crawford sounds a pro-death advocate...
Cranford was just now on Hannity & Colmes. He repeated his assertion that Terri's EEG is flat. So, it was no mistake or accident on his part when he said this on CNN. He also said that PVS patients have no constitutional rights. Sean Hannity asked him twice if he meant that. Dr. Cranford repeated it twice...PVS patients have no constitutional rights.
Not only did Terri not have a chance,,this man sounds like he is coming for everyone who needs a feeding tube. He sounds like he would like to just do a big ole mass murder.
the man is a psychopath.
Never heard that EEG stuff either. Wonder what the heck he's talking about.
another demonic kevorkian.....these maniacs are committed to see people die
I saw him on Hannity. He seemed very much like a death advocate not a Dr of healing. He stated he wouldn't put a feeding tube in an Alzheimer's patient. That will be next for them to be starve to death. This is sick. I can't believe that his opinion was even considered.
Weird.
Well, before a diagnosis of "PVS" could be made terminal (i.e. before the days when people could try to make sure PVS patients would never 'snap out of it'), such a diagnosis would mean nothing more nor less than that a doctor was not able to identify any stimulus to which a patient would yield a cognitive response and had given up trying.
The reason Terri's parents didn't initially fight a diagnosis of PVS is that it wasn't considered a terminal condition, and it didn't really matter to them what doctors thought of their daughter. Even if doctors couldn't find stimulus/response combinations that satisfied them, the parents could find ones that satisfied them and that was in their minds sufficient.
Unfortunately, PVS has been morphed into a "terminal" diagnosis without any qualification attached. Whether a particular doctor diagnoses someone as PVS depends in very large measure on how hard they're willing to look for cognitive responses. If a doctor is unwilling to look very hard, he's not apt to find anything.
If one doctor manages to find proof that a patient isn't PVS, the patient is not PVS, regardless of whether other doctors find proof. To prevent "wishful thinking" from being mistaken for evidence of cognition, it would be possible to have protocols by which a doctor who wanted to find a patient non-PVS could demonstrate the stimulus/response combinations he found. If the responses are clear and unambiguous (e.g. when a patient's finger is wiggled 'n' times and released (n less than five or so), the patient will respond shortly thereafter by wiggling the finger the same number of times) it may be taken at face value. If the judgement of the response is subjective, the pro-cognition doctor could perform blind experiments where the patient is given one of several stimuli (which are selected in advance by the doctor, but sequenced randomly) and the doctor has to identify which stimulus caused the patient's response.
Of course, no such drills have been done for Terri.
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