Posted on 08/04/2005 5:49:22 PM PDT by rwfromkansas
For 20 years, Sarah Scantlin was seemingly unaware of the world around her after she was hit by a drunk driver in an accident that sent her into a comatose state in September of 1984.
Then in February, she shocked her parents and doctors when she began to speak. In her first national television interview, after undergoing surgery on her long-unused limbs and speech therapy to unlock her long-dormant tongue, Scantlin speaks with The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith in a two-part interview to be broadcast Thursday and Friday.
Smith also speaks with Sarah's parents, Jim and Betsy Scantlin, who never imagined they would talk to their daughter again.
In a February interview on The Early Show , Sarah’s father recounted the phone call he and his wife got, informing them of the unimaginable.
"It was amazing. I'm in the living room. Betsy was in the computer area, and the phone rings ... and suddenly, I'm aware that there's a profound, distinct difference. Rather than speaking about Sarah, it became very clear she [Sarah’s nurse] was speaking to Sarah. It was the most amazing feeling in the world," he said.
The 1984 accident occurred when Scantlin was crossing the street in her hometown of Hutchinson, Kan. She suffered a massive brain injury and could not breathe on her own. Smith speaks with New York neurologist Randolph Marshall, who says that people like Scantlin rarely awake from such an injury. "You only hear about these cases very rarely and they’re always a surprise when they actually come to light," he says.
Scantlin’s speech is still limited.
However, it seems that throughout her 20-year coma, she could see, hear, and understand what was going on around her. Shortly after she awoke, her father asked what she knew about events that had occurred years earlier.
"Sarah, what's 9/11?" her father asks. She responds, "Bad…fire…airplanes…building…hurt people."
Smith says there are other things deep in Scantlin’s brain that also survived the accident, such things as her favorite 1980s song "Summer Lovin’," which she even sings for The Early Show.
bump
So... a lady who was in a coma for 20 years has better mental reception than the average leftist.
Absolutely amazing. What a wonderful story. Shows how little we really know about coma patients. I'll bet, when asked, she will be glad to respond that she is pleased no one decided to end her 'misery' for her, especially by slowly starving her to death.
amen
true
"So... a lady who was in a coma for 20 years has better mental reception than the average leftist."
No NPR.
It's so much better to err on the side of life. She might not ever be 'completely normal'. But she will hopefully have continued improvement going forward!
8mmMauser--I don't know the whole ping list, but thought you might want to pass this on!
Important post ping
. <- (That's a tear, not a bookmark.)
Let this be a lesson to those who would starve, pull the plug, inject too much morphine etc. to rid themselves of those considered worthless eaters. This woman is so fortunate she wasn't the victim of the courts.
This is wonderful news that won't go anywhere in the media.
Ooh, good hit.
Thank goodness she's lived to tell of her ordeal. Remember this case, and insist on humane treatment for patients even when the medicos say "They're a slab of meat."
I bet they don't ask her her opinion on Terry Schiavo....
Months later, afeter my dad recovered, the doc's name came up in conversation. Dad said, "Oh, yeah. He's the one who wanted to kill me"...
So much for coma patients being unaware.
The left says it is a "quality of life" issue. That they are imprisoned in their heads.
Never hear the left urging the death penalty as being compasionate over keeping someone locked up in prison for multiple life sentences.
bttt
Indeed...that's the sort of thing that needs to be cut/pasted/sent-to-all-in-address books.
Paging Michael Savage....
She wasn't brain-dead; a difference that would show up compared to your brain scan.
If she couldn't breathe on her own, she must have been on a respirator...that's truly a massive brain injury, because breathing is the one of the most basic brain functions...
Yes. Theirs comes out "airplane, building, freedom fighters, root causes, understanding, bush lied, people died."
It is great news!
It screams out for the right to life and is an indictment of the culture of death, of Michael Schiavo, and of his evil legal allies in the court system , etc
I am barely remembering now a story about someone telling Terry Schiavo that her plug was being pulled again (for the second and last time) and their account that she struggled to make her wishes known. Of course, this was discounted by those who said she was in a permanent PVS, and what was being witnessed was simply 'autonomic response mechanisms.'
Because I was in the kitchen during dinner hour tonight I had to 'endure' network news, and not the news on the cable TV in the living room, but I was quite surprised the networks covered the story as they did. They did not suggest apologies for their stance on Terry's PVS, but it was as if they now had second thoughts by running this story and actually seemed to celebrate this lady's return from her 'coma'.
I was surprised CBS had the story on the morning show today, on the Evening News tonight, and they will even talk to the whole family tomorrow on the morning show again.
But, I am sure it will not go hardly anywhere else after this.
Just an amazing story.
Oh my!
Shuddering here that he recalls so keenly.
wow
Yeah......shocking, huh!
They are even playing it up more tomorrow on the morning show, talking to the lady and her family.
No doubt....
So she missed the Clinton years.
God is merciful.
lol
...she could see, hear, and understand what was going on around her
I'm sorry, but this sounds like something out of a horror movie. I think I would go insane if I had to endure something like that for 20 years.
i would definitely lose it. all those thoughts rattling around in her head, and she could not vocalize her own feelings...the horror...seriously.
but the difference between her and schiavo is that schiavo was BRAIN DEAD. no activity...did they say if this lady had activity on brain scans? i am not saying that i think schiavo should have had her feeding tube pulled, but just noting the difference.
Terry Schindler was not brain dead, but brain damaged. There's a big difference. Read some of the stories about the brain dead woman who just delivered a baby, and whose body was kept functioning until the baby's chances of survival were high enough. When she was disconnected from the machines, she died fairly quickly, which is the case when true brain death has happened. Because Terry, on the other hand, was not brain dead, she had to be starved in order to get her to die.
There is a difference of course, which is why I never linked this to Terri when I posted.
Still, Terri should have been able to live.
Ping.
Later pingout.
Once upon a time I was in a coma, only for a week fortunately. I knew everything that was going on. It was the strangest thing I've ever been through. Tried my hardest just to wiggle a finger but couldn't. But, I could hear everything that everyone said. Ticked me off when the doctor told my husband I was most likely going to die and to get things in order. I knew my time wasn't up and I wasn't going anywhere. It really ticked me off.
A couple of months later, when I had my strength back, I had a talk with the doctor. Told him to watch what he says in front of patients. He was a bit surprised when I told him some of the things I remembered. The human mind, body and spirt is the most amazing thing.
Recently I read an article about a man who sings and reads books to coma patients. He has done this for years. Those patients who emerge from their comatose states, laud him for his work, explaining how much they enjoyed listening to him in their sleep state.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
I am so happy for this woman and her family! THANK GOD there was no monster lurking near her to inflict starvation and dehydration as the preferred murder mode used against the inconvenient ( with the exception of the brutal murder tactics of abortionists ).
Pro-life bump!
**This is wonderful news that won't go anywhere in the media.**
Not unless we write about it in letters to the editor, or call a local paper's attention to it!
ABCNNBCBS is basically a bunch of lazy reporters who have a bias.
Incredible story.
#1: Personhood is coterminous with physical, metabolic human life. It begins with a single cell --- a human master cell--- which under the proper conditions, can grow and organize ALL its own tissues, organs, and systems; and it ends when the living system comes to a full stop.
Any other definition --- anything that separates "human" from "personhood"--- and you will sooner or later be in the same classification as a chattel slave, a German Jew, a fetus, or a Leslie Burke: a "life form" which possesses a human genome, human tissues, a human identity, maybe even a human name --- curiously, everything human, except human rights.
#2: If you're ever flat on your back in a hospital bed and find yourself looking up into the progressive, enlightened, and humane eyes of somebody described as a "bioethicist," for God's sake KEEP TALKING while reaching slowly for your gun.
Bump
Oh my God. I can't believe it. What hell Mr. Burke will have to face, and to think the 'bioethicist' who testified that the patient had no rights and was a non-person because of incompetence or incommunicability sat and faced him, person to person! (Ok, that's my inference, but they were at the same trial.) What a scary world. Has Stephen Hawking weighed in on this? I don't know if it's an option or not, but Mr. Burke should consider relocating. Prayers sent for Mr. Burke. What a nightmare.
Words to keep living by!
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