Subliminal Understanding That What Happened to Terri Schiavo Was Wrong?
I think Bobby Schindler is right.
There have been a lot of stories of late about how supposedly vegetative patients could understand, or of "miraculous" awakenings by people who doctors were sure would never react consciously again. Bobby, Terri Schiavo's brother, has noticed that whatever the condition of the patient whose story is being told, the reports all have a common sub theme--the awakening, comprehension, etc. has nothing to do with Terri, meaning it was right to dehydrate her to death. It is as these reports, to quote Shakespeare, "doth protest too much," as if there is a subliminal realization that a terrible injustice was done to her.
The latest almost unbelievable example is in an otherwise interesting and important (and long) piece in the New Yorker, byline Jerome Groopman. After describing how supposedly unconscious people have been misdiagnosed, the author quotes an unnamed neuroscientist about Terri. From the story:A neuroscientist showed me a video on the Internet of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who spent fifteen years in what most doctors agree was a vegetative state--tests revealed almost no activity in her cortex--and whose death, in 2005, provoked fierce debate over the rights of severely brain-damaged patients. (Schiavo died after the Supreme Court rejected her parents' appeal of a judge's decision approving her husband's request that her feeding tube be removed. An autopsy showed extensive brain damage.) In the video, a man's voice can be heard praising Schiavo for opening her eyes in response to his instructions, and the neuroscientist told me that he was impressed until he muted the sound. "With the sound off, it is clear that her movements are random," the neuroscientist said. "But, with the voice-over, it is easy to make a misdiagnosis. (My emphasis.)
The above stills are from the video in question. It deeply touched my heart and it is seared forever in my memory. In that video, Terri is asked by the examiner to open her eyes. At first, nothing. Then, within ten or so seconds, her eyes flicker, she opens them, and then opens them so wide her forehead wrinkles. It is clearly an intentional response to the question.
But if you turn the sound off, there is no question to hear--and voila, her opening her eyes with clear intention can now be dismissed as merely "random movement." But a random movement under those circumstances would be to move her head from side to side or lick or lips. But when she opened her eyes, and so intently, precisely as requested, you have to work hard to make it "random." So, to make sure we don't see the terrible wrong that was done to her, we just turn off the sound.
As I said, unbelievable. But do read the larger piece. It is well worth the time.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:34 PM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
Wow! How hard can you work at fooling yourself?
Not very hard, or else the reporter and the neurosurgen wouldn't be able to swallow that, even with a teaspoon of sugar. It doesn't make him happy to hear they screwed up, so he turns the sound off and is now happy.
There's a range of emotion on her face regularly throughout the videos they have of her.
Is there any data on the rest of the times that "Terri" was asked to open her eyes? If not then it is completely plausible that this was a random movement of the face. This reading of the case is further supported by the complete lack of higher brain function and the EXTENSIVE damage to her brain.
To my mind there was nothing left in that body that one would properly call "Terri."
Well Matteson, you can tell that to Dr. William Hammesphar who said he'd helped worse patients or the other scores of medical professionals who said they could help Teri but were prevented from doing so. Teri was the subject of the longest state approved execution in the history of our nation. It would have been more merciful to put a bullet through her head. Teri was not sick, she was not dying, and all of those professionals said they could help her if allowed to. Her family would have cared for her the rest of her life. How can anyone trust the decisions of a man professing his love for his wife when he's been living with another woman for 10 years and had two kids with her... that makes sense. Any judge with dignity would have seen this situation and given custody of Teri to her parents.
I spoke to the family priest Fr. Frank Pavone who was with Teri and he'll tell you too that Teri was responsive and aware. Cops were looking over his shoulder while he ministered to her five minutes from her last breath to make sure that he wasn't giving her a drop of water. At the same time there were cut flowers in a deep vase of water. It's a sad day when we treat cut flowers better than human beings and when we allow a man to do in his wife for his chick on the side.
I think some of these writers now are starting to second guess themselves and are trying to justify themselves. The media and others got in it not because they cared about Teri's condition, but because it was a chance to get at pro-lifers and President Bush. The next move they are going to make in their justification will be to say, "we were wrong about Teri, but under our current understanding of people in her condition, there was no way to know" or "if that judge would have allowed more tests, we wouldn't have screwed up." If they think that will absolve them, they'll have to think again.
Anybody who puts a person's name in quotation marks, when it isn't a pseudonym or something, deserves to be ignored. "Matteson" belongs in that category, though I pray that he is never in a situation that his existence and personhood is denied as he is denying Terri's.
That story about the doctor who turned off the sound is incredible. It reminds me of the dwarfs at the end of _The Last Battle_ who won't believe the evidence of their own senses. When the Lion roars, they say, "It's that lot at the other side of the stable. They do it with a machine." This business of turning off the sound is just this guy's way of saying, "The dwarfs won't be taken in. It's that lot at the other side of the stable." But as C.S. Lewis says (in another of the books) the trouble with trying to make yourself stupider than you are is that you usually succeed.
I'd be interested to know what "help" means in this context.
Was the report that she lacked higher brain activity a lie? Is a heart beat and regular breathing enough to call "life" in a human person?
I'm not really interested in the husband's motives for the purposes of this conversation, only the condition of the woman.
Matteson: It shouldn't matter.
But these are the facts: She had significant brain damage consistent with what would be seen in a PVS or what is now being called a minimally conscious state. She was going to be profoundly disabled for the rest of her life.
She did not require life support other than the feeding tube. She was able to swallow her own saliva. People I know who were in the room with her said that she was sometimes responsive. Most doctors diagnosed her as PVS.
The family asked for some rehab while waiting the appeals. A very respected rehab specialist from the U of Chicago thought she might be able to teach Terri to swallow on her own. Inexplicably, the court repeatedly refused. Just made her lie in a bed.
But what harm would there have been? If she had improved, the dehydration would have been off. If not, it would have been another indication of her condition.
Regardless of her actual condition, which we will never know, Terri should have been treated as a fully human person whose life was equally worthy of being lived.
You wouldn't dehydrate a dog to death. Why do it to a human being whose only medical requirements were to have sustenance?
The husband's motives have EVERYTHING to do with this case or else you would never have heard about it.
People who say that KNOW deep down an injustice was done here, all because the husband wanted to move on with another woman and collect some cash in the process while stabbing the parents in the back.
Very good Susan. I believe there 3 primary motives that drove Michael to petition the courts for Terri's death in 2000.
1. He wanted to marry Jodi.
2. He wanted Terri's money.
3. It was payback to the Schindlers for making Michael's life hell.
AT THE TIME THE DECISION WAS MADE, all of these motives existed.
Michel never thought the case would go on another 5 years and makes this clear in his book.
http://www.sacramentolifechain.org/terri-big_eyes.ram
This is probably one the best video clips that shows that Terri was aware and cognitive at some small level. The video starts with Terri's eyes closed. Dr. Hammesfahr (the voice) asks her to open her eyes. You can see Terri struggle to carry out Dr. Hammesfahr's directive or command for several seconds as she attempts to open her eyes. After several attempts, Terri opens her eyes. As Dr. Hammersfahr praises Terri, you can clearly see she is aware of him and understands what Dr. Hammerfahr has asked her to do. She moves her head or body towards Dr. Hammesfahr. As Dr. Hammesfahr praises her more, Terri is very eager to please and open her eyes really wide and even wrinkles her eyebrows. I find it hard to believe that someone could write that off as reflex action. Terri clearly opened her eyes on command and reciporcated Dr. Hammesfahr's praises by opening them wider and wrinkling her eyebrows. There was clearly some level of awareness or consciousness at work there.
James:
I'm a Lit major, not a scientist or doctor, so I don't know fact from fact, but isn't she looking directly at the doctor (or whomever is speaking) when he's telling her "good job?" She may have had problems due to her mental impairment, but she looked at him - there's a spark in her eyes as far as I can see. Am I the only one to notice this?
Absolutely. I won't deny that Terri was very very disabled and probably would not have gotten any better. However, in looking at this video and others she did display a small amount of cognition.
Was Terri going get up and walk around? Highly unlikley.
Could Terri recognize her parents and display rudementary congitive responses and emotions? Absolutely.
I believe Terri was probably MCS rather than PVS. There are 16 different levels of MCS from what I heard about it.
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