Myths about the Schiavo case debunked

[Kelvin Mace]

In order of stupidity:

Michael Schiavo tried to kill his wife. Terri's nurse said so.

If you want to believe this you must also believe that practically person involved in Mrs. Schiavo's care conspired to cover up attempted murder. The court did review the affidavit of one Carla Iyer, registered nurse who claims:

- Mrs. Schiavo was lucid.
- All of her notes indicating Terri was lucid were mysteriously deleted.
- She saved Mrs. Schiavo's life after her husband "injected her" with insulin.
- A fellow LPN was possibly killing patients.
- She was fired after she told police about all these crimes.

The court found Ms. Iyer's tales "incredible" which is legalese for "bullshit". In order for her claims to be true everyone from Mrs. Schiavo's doctors to the police had to decide to cover up for Michael Schiavo.

Theresa Schiavo is lucid.

I do not wish to be disrespectful here, but I am dealing with people determined to ignore cold facts, so I will be blunt. Mrs. Schiavo is about as lucid as your average Venus Flytrap. She responds reflexively to some stimulus, but there is NO willful, deliberate or conscious actions.

The cerebral cortex of Mrs. Schiavo's brains was destroyed 15 years ago due to anoxia (oxygen starvation) brought about when heart stopped beating due to a potassium imbalance. The cerebral cortex is responsible for all higher brain functions. It is the part of the brain that makes you "you". It allows you to think, it contains your personality, your language and and voluntary motor functions. Without this part of your brain you are like a computer with know operating system. They can boot you up in the morning, but you pretty much just sit there and do nothing except consume electricity.

Theresa Schiavo could get better.

Yes, theoretically, in a parallel universe, two hundred years in the future where Star Trek is actually real, Dr. McCoy could travel back in time and stumble across Mrs. Schiavo and give her a pill (which she couldn't swallow, since swallowing is a conscious action) and she would regrow her cerebral cortex. Mr. Spock would then find the keeper of her katra and restore her personality via a Vulcan Mind Meld™.

But, short of that, no, she won't get better.

But people have come out of these types of situations before. I read in Reader's Digest about this guy who was in a coma/vegetative state who suddenly started writing a novel...

Stop! This is an "apples and oranges" situation. The folks you have read about suffered physical trauma to their brain, usually as a result of falls and car crashes. The cerebral cortex was damaged, but still there. Mrs. Schiavo's cortex is not damaged, it is DEAD. The brain tissue died from lack of oxygen. In fact, the cortex has shriveled and liquefied.

Let's go to the CT Scan where Carol Merrill is standing:

]

As you can see, you can't think with what isn't there.

Future medical advances, like stem cell research, could help her regrow dead brain tissue.

Yeah, like stem cell research is blazing along in Bush's America. That issue aside, such things are WAY in the future. Also, assuming such a technology showed up courtesy of Dr. McCoy's vacation layover in this dimension, and you regrew the dead brain tissue, the tissue would be BLANK. The unique essence that was Theresa Schiavo has been lost forever. It was lost 15 years ago.

Nothing is going to change this. Not Wendi Freisen hypnosis CDs, not Bob with a truckload of Enzyte™, and not Benny Hinn and a Holy Ghost Machine Gun (pat pending).

Senator Bill Frist, who is a heart surgeon said Terri's diagnosis was wrong and he looked at the tapes and she wasn't really in a vegetative state.

1) Dr. Bill is a quack. Why do I say that? Because only a quack would diagnose a person he has NEVER met, never mind examined.

2) It's Mrs. Schiavo to you.

3) While Dr. Bill is a medical doctor (or at least he plays one in the senate), he is NOT a neurologist or a neurosurgeon. He is not qualified to make ANY diagnosis of Mrs. Schiavo's condition. A civil engineer is not a nuclear engineer and we don't give much credence to his opinion on nuclear reactor design.

4) Dr. Bill is using Mrs. Schiavo as a tool to pander to the religiously insane side of the Republican party. In 1989 Frist advocated changing the definition of "brain dead" to include anencephalic babies. Anencephalic babies are in the same state as Terri Schiavo except that she suffered a physical trauma that put her into a vegetative state while the anencephalic babies are born that way.

Michael wants his wife dead so he can collect the money from her settlement.

1) The fund was exhausted years ago. This charge was made back in 1998 and was found without merit by the court. Michael had at the time formally offered to surrender his wife's trust fund to independent administration. He would in now way benefit from the money.

2) That's Mr. Schiavo to you.

Michael Schiavo wants his wife dead so he can marry another woman.

Mr. Schiavo could have divorced his wife long ago and married anyone he wanted. Mr. Schiavo started dating again at the insistence of his in-laws who encouraged him to get on with his life. Mr. Schiavo went so far as to introduce women he was dating to his in-laws.

Michael Schiavo abused his wife and neglected her care.

Dr. Wolfson, the court-appointed Guardian Ad Litem who spent a month investigating the Schiavo case found that Mrs. Schiavo received outstanding care from both her parents and her husband. In fact, he noted in his report that after 13 years in a bed, she had never ONCE developed a bed sore. The medical professionals out there will tell you that this is indicative of near miraculous, exceptional care.

Theresa Schiavo's parents are evil.

No, they just love their daughter. They have allowed their love to cloud their judgment so much that they have become pawns of outside groups with political agendas who are lying to them and giving them false hopes.

Michael Schiavo petitioned the court to kill his wife.

No, he asked the court to step in (in accordance with Florida law) and determine whether life support should be stopped. The court, acting as a proxy, ruled that Mrs. Schiavo was in a "persistive vegetative state", had no hope of getting better, and had told people at various times (funerals) before her accident that she had no desire to be kept alive in such a state.

The court found all the evidence "clear and convincing" and order her feeding tube removed. The COURT did this, not Michael Schiavo.

A feeding tube is nourishment, not life support.

Not according to Florida law:

Life-prolonging procedure" means any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention, including artificially provided sustenance and hydration, which sustains, restores, or supplants a spontaneous vital function.

§ 765.101(10)

The video tape I saw shows here reacting to people.

The video you saw was edited to give that impression. It was culled from hours of video where Mrs. Schiavo did absolutely nothing. Random or reflexive reactions do not demonstrate cognition.

Removing the feeding tube is a cruel thing to do. She will be in agony, dying of hunger and thirst.

No. The part of Mrs. Schiavo's brain that would register pain of this sort is gone. Medical professionals describe the death as peaceful.

A summary of Mrs. Schaivo's Guardian Ad Litem's report can be found here:

http://www.thoughtcrimes.org/mt/archives/001986.html


Further reading:

Abstract Appeal - Timeline and excellent source of court rulings
http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html

Dr. Jay Wolfson's <i>Guardian Ad Litem</i> report
http://www.miami.com/multimedia/miami/news/0319schiavo_finalreport.pdf

Q&A on legal issues in Schiavo case
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11197084.htm

Bio of Theresa Schiavo
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11183098.htm

Death when a feeding tube is withdrawn is "placid"
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11183111.htm