Posted on 06/19/2005 6:04:50 PM PDT by wagglebee
Dr. William Hammesfahr, nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work in Medicine, has been recognized by agents for Medicare, the federal government, and others for new approaches to helping the brain injured.
Dr. Hammesfahr has been identified in helping patients with chronic brain injuries from many causes actually leave long term disability, and return to work.
Dr. Hammesfahr was identified the first physician to restore deficits caused by stroke.
Dr. Hammesfahr has released the following statement in response to the autopsy report on Terri Schindler Schiavo:
We have seen a lot on the autopsy of Terri Schindler Schiavo in recent days, that I feel needs to be addressed. To ignore these comments will allow future 'Terri Schiavo's' to die needlessly after the wishes of clinicians and family are ignored.
Considering that there were so many physicians and therapists who were willing to step forward to treat Terri Schiavo, from university based practitioners to those in private practice, it clearly shows that the mainstream medical community across the board, those involved in treating patients, knew that they could help Terri.
The record must be set straight. As we noted in the press, there was no heart attack, or evident reason for this to have happened (and certainly not of Terri's making).
Unlike the constant drumbeat from the husband, his attorneys, and his doctors, the brain tissue was not dissolved, with a head of just spinal fluid. In fact, large areas were "relatively preserved."
The purpose of the therapies offered by so many, from major universities, brain injury centers, and from private practice physicians, is to improve and restore quality of life, and function, which the mainstream medical community clearly tried to get to her.
I have had a chance to look at Dr. Nelson's analysis of the brain tissue, and essentially, as a clinician, these are my thoughts.
The autopsy results confirmed my opinion and Dr. Maxfield's opinions, that the frontal areas of the brains, the areas that deal with awareness and cognition were relatively intact. To use Dr. Nelson's words, "relatively preserved." In fact, the relay areas from the frontal and front temporal regions of the brain, to the spinal cord and the brain stem, by way of the basal ganglia, were preserved, thus the evident responses which she was able to express to her family and to the clinicians seeing her or viewing her videotape. The Spect scan confirmed these areas were functional and not scar tissue, and that was apparently also confirmed on Dr. Nelson's review of the slides. Dr. Maxfield's estimates of retained brain weight were apparently accurate, although there may have been some loss of brain weight due to the last two weeks of dehydration.
Dr. Maxfield and myself both emphasized that she was a woman trapped in her body, similar to a child with cerebral palsy, and that was born out by the autopsy, showing greater injury in the motor and visual centers of the brain. Obviously, the pathologists comments that she could not see were not borne out by reality, and thus his assessment must represent sampling error. The videotapes clearly showed her seeing, and even Dr. Cranfoed, for the husband, commented to her that, when she could see the balloon, she could follow it with her eyes as per his request.
That she could not swallow was obviously not borne out by the reality that she was swallowing her saliva, about 1.5 liters per day of liquid, and the clinical swallowing tests done by Dr. Young and Dr. Carpenter. Thus, there appears to be some limitations to the clinical accuracy of an autopsy in evaluating function.
With respect to the issue of trauma, that certainly does not appear to be answered adequately. Some of the types of trauma that are suspected were not adequately evaluated in this assessment. Interestingly, both myself and at least one neurologist for the husband testified to the presence of neck injuries. The issue of a forensic evaluation for trauma, is highly specialized. Hence the wish of the family to have observers which was refused by the examiner.
Ultimately, based on the clinical evidence and the autopsy results, an aware woman was killed.
s/Dr. W. Hammesfahr
[Dr. Hammesfahr was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1999. The Nomination was for work started in 1994. In 2000, this work resulted in approval for the first patent in history granted for the treatment of neurological diseases including coma, stroke, brain injury, cerebral palsy, hypoxic injuries and other neurovascular disorders with medications that restore blood flow to the brain. It was extended to treat successfully disabilities including ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette's and Autism as well as behaviorally and emotionally disturbed children, seizures and severe migraines.]
He never did anything. Period.
"Psychology and the brain is still firmly in the theoretical. It is not even certain if the soul resides in the brain."
Would the intellect i.e. spirit be the brain of the soul, as the brain is the intellect of the flesh body??? Would it not be the case so long as the brain is functioning to send the signal to breathe the soul still inhabits the body???
Oh, don't be so frustrated. For me, I wish he just had an opportunity to do so......
I'm no doctor, but that autopsy had to be like dissecting a saltine cracker. I don't see how the conclusions from such an autopsy could possibly have any credibility. The forensic doctor could pretty much say anything he wanted. I don't trust the whole thing. Not at all.
The brain appears to be necessary in regulation of some bodily processes. But not all. Some animals and most plants have no brain, and most plants have no nervous system at all, yet they exhibit some behaviors that we associate with the brain, including learning. Plants can have conditioned response and anticipate, slowly, of course. The idea is that the nervous system and the brain accelerate such behavioral responses, but do not originate all of them.
Sorry Howlin, it was thrown out of court.
Facts don't matter.
I agree.
I would have to refer back to animal physiology to answer that. It may be that the control originates below the brain.
Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr?
Breathing is an autonomic function of the brain, controlled by the brainstem.
I already knew that.
Hammesfahr, who was disciplined in 2003 by the Florida Board of Medicine
Nope.
I am glad you confessed.
They don't like him, do they?
I'm sure you knew, but my comment was ironic. It is clear that facts don't matter to many, but they do matter to me.
I don't mean to put you on the spot, but what facts are you talking about?
This is the same quack who said Terri could eat and swallow.
I'm going to start with a disclaimer: I thought it was wrong to pull the feeding tube, and am on record here as saying so. However, I'm really disturbed at a lot of the rumor, innuendo, and misinformation that gets thrown around as "fact". To start, I've heard a lot of what Dr. Hammesfahr has to say, and he isn't credible. He has said that Mrs. Schiavo was learning to walk with parallel bars shortly after being discharged from the hospital. I've never seen any corroboration of that, and I've read quite a few of the documents related to her case. When she was discharged from the hospital, she was unresponsive, and had a feeding tube, which would have been a problem with walking between parallel bars. How is it that an unresponsive woman can support herself between parallel bars?
Another thing I keep hearing is that she never had swallowing tests. She had three early on - and failed them. What good would it do for her to have had more? I've seen posted that she could have improved with therapy. Well, she had therapy, a lot of it in the beginning, and I know that the argument is that the therapy stopped when MS got the settlement money. But addition therapy doesn't do a lot of good when most of the cerebral cortex is gone because of the original therapy. You don't grow new brain tissue.
I see posted and hear it said that MS caused her initial collapse, trying to kill her. He may well have, but we don't know that for a fact. There isn't any evidence to prove that. Don't assume that my saying this means I'm a "Michael supporter", I'm not, the guy creeps me out. But I care about facts - we don't know what he may or may not have done.
I'm sorry, but I get beyond annoyed when people like me get lumped in with some nebulous group called the "death ghouls" or the "kill Terri" crowd. I've been shocked by the calls for violence against the MS, the judges, lawyers and politicians. I'm sure I'll get trashed for this post, but I really don't care anymore.
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