Posted on 04/01/2005 11:52:28 PM PST by FairOpinion
The amount of medical misinformation put out about Terri Schiavo has been truly stunning. The testimony of Terri’s physicians who believe that some recovery is possible has been largely dismissed. Judge Greer’s court and the media in turn, have focused only on the pessimistic interpretations of the raw data of her CT scan.
A physician at a credible physicians’ website has analyzed Terri’s CAT scan and concludes that it has been grossly misrepresented. There is some cerebral atrophy, but it is a completely inaccurate to characterize it as “bag of water.” Furthermore, the author states that
“the most alarming thing about this image, however, is that there certainly is cortex left. Granted, it is severely thinned, especially for Terri's age, but I would be nonplussed if you told me that this was a 75 year old female who was somewhat senile but fully functional, and I defy a radiologist anywhere to contest that.”
In one of the definitive court battles in 2002, five physicians examined Terri to determine if therapy would be of further benefit. Two chosen by Terri’s parents believed that she was not in a “persistent vegetative state” and that some recovery was possible. Two chosen by Michael Schiavo held that she had no chance of recovery, as did the “neutral” physician appointed by the court. This 3-2 decision was key in the 2003 attempt to pull her feeding tube.
One of Michael Schiavo’s medical experts was the right-to-die advocate Dr. Ronald Cranford, who has been an expert in a number other key court cases on our nation’s slippery slope to euthanasia, including those of Nancy Cruzan and Robert Wedlund. But Dr. Cranford has made serious errors in other cases when prognosticating about the prospects of neurological recovery. Frederica Mathewes-Green states that Sgt. David Mack, who was shot in the line of duty as a policeman, was diagnosed by Cranford as
"definitely...in a persistent vegetative state...never [to] regain cognitive, sapient functioning...never [to] be aware of his condition."
Twenty months after the shooting Mack woke up, and eventually regained nearly all his mental ability. When asked by a reporter how he felt, he spelled out on his letterboard, "Speechless!"
In fact, the entire field of diagnosing “persistent vegetative state” or “PVS” is fraught with inaccuracy. Recent studies have shown the rate of misdiagnosis to be as high as 37% or even 43%. PVS is a clinical diagnosis, meaning that it depends on the subjective judgment of the examining physician. Experts in the field cannot even agree on the usefulness of diagnostic imaging.
Dr. Ronald Cranford himself was upset about the articles showing the inaccuracy of diagnosis and prognostication about PVS. Childs and Mercer, authors of one of the studies citing the difficulties of diagnosing PVS, took Cranford to task for “zealously” promoting the concept of the "permanent vegetative state" despite the evidence of its problematic nature, and the regularity with which some patients recover from it .
The nomenclature of “persistent vegetative state” was coined in 1972 by Jennett and Plum in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. The original article, “Persistent Vegetative State: A syndrome in search of a name” seems to have succeeded in its task as reclassifying severely cognitively disabled humans as non-persons - something akin to vegetables in the minds of many. Public perception of this highly-charged term predisposes many to dismiss the lives of human beings as no more significant than plant life. It is a brilliant, if chilling, masterstroke of propaganda, one which has been swallowed hook, line, and sinker.
This reclassification of non-terminally ill people has allowed for their dehydration and starvation deaths in Britain with a doctor’s recommendation, and in many states in the USA with the family’s wishes (or a patient’s own advance directives). The medical literature is rife with arrogant pronouncements in editorials of learned journals, such as life itself not being of “benefit” to someone in the PVS state. The echoes of current bioethics doublespeak resound in these journals.
In some respects the “persistent vegetative state” is more a political than a medical diagnosis, as it allows its unfortunate victims to lose their right to life and be medically killed through withholding food and water. It is unfortunate that some of the experts on the side of the Culture of Death seem to have had the upper hand in Terri’s fight, and have been portrayed by the media as reasonable and responsible members of the medical profession, rather than the zealots which, in fact, some of their own medical colleagues have branded them.
So - only the medical OPINIONS that support your view are legitimate.
Maybe we could just wait for the autopsy, and for once base our gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts on FACT.
...due to her bulimia
The courts have ruled---we starve "bulimics" in America.
Some people find your "ossification" position "untenable"
From What does Terri's bone scan mean
Certainly IN A CHILD (which Schiavo, obviously was not), the combination of posterior rib fractures, vertebral compression fractures, and distal femoral periosteal elevation is **ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY DIAGNOSTIC for child abuse** and any radiologist who missed this diagnosis would be subject to disciplinary action from his peers and state licensing board. SEE: http://radiographics.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/full/23/4/811** syriacus's emphasisIt is my opinion that the most likely reason for these bone scan findings in March of 1991 is that someone either was physically abusing Terri or they dropped/mishandled her severely.
The x-rays might make all of this clearer if we can obtain them.
n.b.
Teri's fractures could be of the "insufficiency" type (caused by prolonged immobilization/dietary irregularities) and some might posit this explanation; however, in a nonambulatory bedridden patient under careful supervision, **I find this untenable, especially given their distribution which are so typical for ABUSE.**
Here's the link to the bone scan report: http://www.terrisfight.org/images/bonescan.jpg
IF that is true, perhaps MS had an 'angel of death' assist him. Of course this is all speculation and we may never be able to get that deep into in. However, that doesn't negate the obvious fact that Terri suffered trauma by 'someone'.
=======
Who knows, except the criminals (and Terri - may she rest in peace). However, she was diagnosed with additional severe brain damage several days AFTER she entered the hospital. And when Mikey visited her, he was usually alone and locked the door from the inside -- just as he continued to do at the Hellhole Hospice.
WHY THE CONSTANT LOCKED DOOR IF HE WAS NOT DOING WICKED THINGS TO TERRI ???
So what's this physician's name and how am I supposed to gauge his credibility?
In order to qualify for office, judicial candidates must take and file an oath of office before being elected.
According to public records and state statutes, George Greer did not legally qualify for his current term of office and has no legal authority to sit on the case or issue any decisions.
Florida law is explicit that any person who fails to take the required oath shall be immediately discharged, his name removed from the state payroll and not permitted to receive any compensation.
Greer can’t claim that he is a “de facto” officer because he never had title to the office. His name shouldn’t have even been on the ballot according to the records provided by Florida’s Department of State.
Thus the question can be and should be legally raised if Greer has had jurisdiction in any of the adverse rulings affecting Terri Schiavo. Are all of his decisions null and void and should the entire matter be submitted for a new trial before a legally qualified judge?
According to rulings by the Attorney General’s office, statutory and case law, Greer has never qualified for office to gain access to the ballot, failing to file the mandatory oath of office, therefore he was not legally elected.
And even though election officials improperly allowed him access to the ballot, he still failed to comply with the statute which requires him to file his oath of office within 30 days of the commencement of his term.
According to the Department of State, the last oath on file for George Greer is dated Aug. 7, 1998. Although the Division of Elections says that Greer qualified for office on May 3, 2004, to date they have not been able to produce a copy of his oath of office that was presumably filed in order to qualify. VIEW THE ONLY OATH OBTAINABLE-CLICK HERE [must have Acrobat Reader]
The copy of the 1998 oath that they have produced for Greer is not in the proper form as required by statute which automatically disqualified him from the 1998 election. By law, his name should not have been on the ballot and therefore, he allegedly illegally served a six-year term as a judge and unlawfully collected compensation for the position.
You don't have to gauge his credibility. Save yourself the trouble. Do like Greer did, and deal with viewpoints that you don't like by dismissing them.
This was murder for $$$$$$ by a Scientologist-run Judiciary.
The "bad old boy" network is alive and well in Florida.
Are you clairvoyant? I will forgive your presumption of where I stand on the issue.
I'd rather not.
Ping.
Sucks, don't it? I've had people putting thoughts/opinions in my mouth for the last week.
I based my post on what you had stated in response to another poster. Your actual words.
So - if you actually feel differently than what you are presenting here - my apologies.
And how magnanimous of you to "forgive" me for reading your exact words on a public forum, and then commenting.
When he was 4, Greer's family moved from Brooklyn to L. Ron Hubbard's chosen hometown--Dunedin.
1976: Police Hold Scientologists' Guns
Police confiscated a cache of weapons in a temporary Church of Scientology headquarters in Dunedin after the Scientologists abandoned the based, the Clearwater Sun has learned.All but four of the weapons, found "about 60 days ago" in the King Arthur Courts condominiums off State Road 580 just west of U.S. 19, are being held by Dunedin police[snip]
Sources close to the situation said representatives of *Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp., the Church of Scientology business firm* that handled the cult's local property acquisitions last year, made a claim for the Mauser earlier.
*Felos's father, who was from Queens, NY, ran Douvidal Realty Corp. a real estate business that sold property in Florida, too. The corporation is still listed as having its main offices in New York, on Long Island.*
Yes. Exactly. The point is not whether she was PVS, and, if so, that makes it ok to kill her.
From the article:
The medical literature is rife with arrogant pronouncements in editorials of learned journals, such as life itself not being of “benefit” to someone in the PVS state.
I know that there have been many outbursts of anger here on FR when someone uses the term "Nazi" in relation to this subject. But my goodness, does this or does this not sound like "Life unworthy of life" term that the Germans used when they started their whole "merciful death" for those that had no "quality of life". We in Western Culture seem to be of the same belief now. If you don't have a 'quality of life' that we deem to be appropriate, it is 'merciful' to just 'let you go' - it is extremely chilling.
Christopher Reeve got an experimental implant at a hospital associated with Case Western Reserve.
Dr. Peter Bambakidis, the "independent witness, " asked testify by Greer, is also associated with Case Western Reserve.
Case Western Reserve has a very large brain bank
The whole story has been posted here, and if you follow the link in the story, there is a video of the news story we saw. It is both optimistic (as far as this man is concerned) and heartbreaking (as far as Terri is concerned).
It seems clear that there is no ethics in 'bioethics'.
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