How do you libs who wanted Terri Schiavo dead feel after reading this?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070801/ap_on_he_me/brain_damage

NEW YORK - He was beaten and left for dead one night in a robbery while walking home in 1999. His skull was crushed and his brain severely damaged. The doctor said if he pulled through at all, he'd be a vegetable for the rest of his life.
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For six years, the man could not speak or eat.

On occasion he showed signs of awareness, and he moved his eyes or a thumb to communicate. His arms were useless. He was fed through a tube.

But researchers chose him for an experimental attempt to rev up his brain by placing electrodes in it. And here's how his mother describes the change in her son, now 38:

"My son can now eat, speak, watch a movie without falling asleep," she said Wednesday while choking back tears during a telephone news conference. "He can drink from a cup. He can express pain. He can cry and he can laugh.

"The most important part is he can say, `Mommy' and `Pop.' He can say, `I love you, Mommy' ... I still cry every time I see my son, but it's tears of joy."

The progress of the patient, who remains unidentified at the family's request, is described more formally in a report in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Experts called the results encouraging but cautioned that the experimental treatment must be tried in more patients before its value can be assessed. The researchers are already proceeding with a larger study.

Before the electrodes were implanted, the man was in what doctors call a "minimally conscious state." That means he showed only occasional awareness of himself and his environment. In a coma or vegetative state, by contrast, patients show no outward signs of awareness.

There are no reliable statistics on how many Americans are in a minimally conscious state, but one estimate suggests 112,000 to 280,000. Doctors may try medications to improve their condition but no drugs have been firmly established as helpful.

The experimental treatment is called deep brain stimulation. It has been used for years in treating Parkinson's disease, although in this case the electrodes were implanted in slightly different places. The goal of the stimulation was to provide "drive" to areas of the brain that are critical for specific skills like speaking.

Similar stories of partial recovery from brain damage occasionally grab headlines, whether the improvement came from treatment or just out of the blue.

kev i suppose you didn't see the video where she followed the balloon around the room with her eyes, and her responding to her mothers voice. I did. it was pretty convincing to me. convincing enough to question the diagnoses of one doctor hired by her ex-husband.

http://terrisfight.org/quicklinks.php?id=50 videos of her responding.

Answer 1

"On occasion he showed signs of awareness, and he moved his eyes or a thumb to communicate. His arms were useless. He was fed through a tube."

"An EEG showed no measurable brain activity. The court viewed a six-hour tape of Schiavo and concluded that her vegetative condition was factual and not subject to legal dispute."


Terry showed no signs of awareness.
I see no reason why this case was even a legal debate. Her husband was her legal gaurdian and he decided to pull the plug

On a personal note, yeah I wanted her to pass on. Becuase in her state, she was hardly living. Instead of having her lay in a bed for 40 more years living thru a feeding tube and having her most basic of body functions controlled by a machine. She was esentally dead already and the parents are very selfish for keeping her in that terrible existance becuase they think, despite what most doctors said, she could become slightly aware.

Answer 2

Although this is a wonderful story of success and I wish him and his family well and hope this treatment works for others, I feel the need to point out that he was in a "minimally conscious state." He was NOT a vegetable like Teri Schiavo. They tried this on people in vegetative states without results. In fact it says this in the article. Although I respect your opinion as well as anybody else's views on Teri Schiavo and this story, you need to do your homework before challenging liberals in such a matter. I myself was not sure where I stood on the Teri Schiavo issue but I do now that she and this very fortunate man had very different conditions.

Answer 3

I feel fine about it. If you maybe bothered to read the WHOLE ARTICLE, you might have noticed this little tidbit at the end:

"He noted that a similar treatment did not help Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a vegetative state whose care triggered national controversy before her death in 2005. That's the typical outcome for electrical brain stimulation in vegetative states, he said."

Answer 4

I think you are grasping at a huge straw to say this is a cure for all brain injured people. the article says it is experimental and still in development. I further think that if it is someones wish not to be kept alive by artificial means than it should be the duty of every spouse to see that their loved ones wishes get carried out and I applaud Terrie's husband for doing that for her. I would hate to live in a world controlled by you where people couldn't be granted a last request

Answer 5

I think that's great, and I didn't "want Terry Schiavo dead". That's a dumb thing to say. We have a justice system in this country that allows close family to decide what to do in difficult situations like these. I think that should remain in place, instead of allowing politicians to decide for the families. If you think the Republicans who shamelessly exploited that family's situation for their own political gain care more than I do about people in need, then you are quite gullible.

Answer 6

Do you know the difference between a minimally conscious state and a persistent vegetative state? This man showed signs of awareness, as the article said. Terry Schiavo showed none. I thought this argument was over after her autopsy proved that she was in a PVS, and the condition she was in would have made to impossible for her to ever have any human functions again.

However, nobody wanted her dead, as you so coldly put it. We wanted an end to the charade, we wanted her husband to be able to exercise his legal rights, and we wanted her to be at peace.

Answer 7

I feel fine about it. The question of the Terri Shaivo case was not about whether removing the feeding tube was right or wrong. The question was, when a person is unable to make her own medical decisions, who should make them for her?

I know that if I were in the hospital, unable to speak for myself, I would want my medical decisions to be made by my wife. Not my parents, not my brother, not a judge, not the Supreme Court, and certainly not the President.

The case for Schaivo was that by law, IT WAS HER HUSBAND'S DECISION TO MAKE. Whether I agree with his decision is not the point: the point is, I agree that it was HIS decision to make.

Answer 8

Terri Schiavo was in a complete vegitative state where as this man was in a minimally conscious state. Did you even read the entire article?

Answer 9

There is a tremendous difference between brain DAMAGE and brain DEATH. Brain death means just that; it's non-functioning - there is NO BRAIN ACTIVITY OR ELECTRICAL IMPULSES TO THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

It would be cruel to give a family false hope for a person that was clinically BRAIN DEAD for 14 years.

Answer 10

WOW. I wish this technology was available then.

Have you actually read any of the actual legal decisions and manuvering. that went on in the Terri Schaivo case? Have you actually rad that several of her best friends testified in court that several months before that accident she stated that she would not like to be dependent on life support.

haveyou read that her mom testified that when she was 12, she said she would not like someone to remove her life
support.

Do you know that the judge in the case is a conservative, appointed by Uncle Ronnie Himself?

Quit scape-goating the LIBERALS for legal decisions that CONSERVATIVE JUDGES make.