From Blogsforterri:
In an article today in BP News,
A doctor close to the Terri Schiavo case said that the 41-year-old disabled woman could actually be fed orally if it were allowed.
“The important thing for people to understand is that she can eat and swallow right now,” said William Hammesfahr, a neurologist who has examined Schiavo. He is in many of the videos circulated through the news media showing that Schiavo is at times responsive and aware.
“They are truly withholding food from a person who is awake, alert, and can eat and swallow,” Hammesfahr said. After spending at least 10 hours with Schiavo several years ago, he told Florida Judge George W. Greer that she can improve with therapy.
What’s even more mystifying is this:
Standing with a handful of supporters outside of the hospice late in the evening Mar. 19, Hammesfahr told the Witness Schiavo previously has swallowed pudding and daily swallows almost two liters of water by virtue of being able to process her own saliva and sinus drainage.
“That’s liquid and that’s the most difficult thing to swallow,” Hammesfahr said of her saliva. “If she can swallow that she can swallow food or pudding.”
Other doctors who testified before Greer in 2003 had limited exposure to Schiavo and did not complete standard evaluations for brain injuries, Hammesfahr said. The court-appointed doctors maintained Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), with no chance for recovery.
“Terri’s not that bad,” Hammesfahr said. “She is like a child with cerebral palsy. She can speak. At least when I saw her, she would speak very slowly. She would sort of form words, she would move her arms and legs at command. She could understand questions in English.”
Hammesfahr said there are at least 50 physicians he knows of, in private practice and related to medical universities who have said Schiavo is not in a PVS or in a coma.
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Dr. Hammesfahr is going much further than Terri’s parents and sister. I think we need to stick to tthe question of the proper course to pursue with severely brain-damaged patients, rather than pretend that “Terri’s not that bad.”
Nobody’s “pretending” anything, you idiot. Go and read “Starving for a Fair Diagnosis“, the NRO piece, or go over to the Code Blue Blog and read the physician’s assessment of the CT Scan. Sue Bob’s Diary and The Anchoress on the reasonable conclusions drawn from that scan.
A CT Scan isn’t even a reasonable tool to use to draw the conclusion that she’s PVS.
Hammersfehl spent more time with her than any of the supposed “experts” on the “right to die side”, and further, Dr. Cranford can find PVS in just about anyone.
Judge Greer was obviously impressed by Cranford’s résumé: Cranford travels throughout the country testifying in cases involving PVS and brain impairment. He is widely recognized by courts as an expert in these issues, and in some circles is considered “the” expert on PVS. His clinical judgment has carried the day in many cases, so it is relevant to examine the manner in which he arrived at his judgment in Terri’s case. But before that, one needs to know a little about Cranford’s background and perspective: Dr. Ronald Cranford is one of the most outspoken advocates of the “right to die” movement and of physician-assisted suicide in the U.S. today.
In published articles, including a 1997 op-ed in the Minneapolis–St. Paul Star Tribune, he has advocated the starvation of Alzheimer’s patients. He has described PVS patients as indistinguishable from other forms of animal life.
He has said that PVS patients and others with brain impairment lack personhood and should have no constitutional rights. Perusing the case literature and articles surrounding the “right to die” and PVS, one will see Dr. Cranford’s name surface again and again. In almost every case, he is the one claiming PVS, and advocating the cessation of nutrition and hydration.
In the cases of Paul Brophy, Nancy Jobes, Nancy Cruzan, and Christine Busalucci, Cranford was the doctor behind the efforts to end their lives. Each of these people was brain-damaged but not dying; nonetheless, he advocated death for all, by dehydration and starvation. Nancy Cruzan did not even require a feeding tube: She could be spoon-fed. But Cranford advocated denying even that, saying that even spoon-feeding constituted “medical treatment” that could be licitly withdrawn.
In cases where other doctors don’t see it, Dr. Cranford seems to have a knack for finding PVS. Cranford also diagnosed Robert Wendland as PVS. He did so in spite of the fact that Wendland could pick up specifically colored pegs or blocks and hand them to a therapy assistant on request. He did so in spite of the fact that Wendland could operate and maneuver an ordinary wheelchair with his left hand and foot, and an electric wheelchair with a joystick, of the kind that many disabled persons (most famously Dr. Stephen Hawking) use. Dr. Cranford dismissed these abilities as meaningless. Fortunately for Wendland, the California supreme court was not persuaded by Cranford’s assessment.
Almost 50 neurologists all say the same thing: Terri should be reevaluated, Terri should be reexamined, and there are grave doubts as to the accuracy of Terri’s diagnosis of PVS. All of these neurologists are board-certified; a number of them are fellows of the prestigious American Academy of Neurology; several are professors of neurology at major medical schools.
Terri has had no big guns experts she hasn’t had her own attorney to represent her interests, only guardians ad litem…which means Greer has only heard one side of this. But then as a former member of the Suncoast hospice board, you don’t have to wonder very long what side of this argument he’s on, and that is a conflict of interest as far as I’m concerned.
Interesting, the money used for those “experts” came out of the fund Michael won in a malpractice suit for her rehabilitation when he was her “loving husband” and wanted to rehabilitate her. All that changed after he received his money…then he started using that money, with the approval of the courts, to murder her. His change of heart is what caused the Schindler’s to stand up for their daughter. Suddenly, after he received that money, he “remembered” that she said she wouldn’t want to live that way. But this isn’t about what Terri wants, this is about what MICHAEL WANTS. Take a look at the bone scan. Dr. Hammesfahr and Michael Baden have both said her neck injury and brain injury is due to attempted strangulation. This is nothing more than premeditated murder, and now it’s court-sanctioned. He’s not interested in her welfare, obviously, he’s already gone on with his life with another relationship that has already produced 2 children. A guardian is supposed to stand up for the ward. He has not done this. Repeatedly, he has abused his authority as her guardian.
The guy can’t have it both ways. Either he’s Terri’s loving husband, or he’s gone on with his life. Looks to me like he’s straddling the fence until Terri is dead. He wasn’t with her when the feeding tube was removed, he was on TV, talking about how terrible everyone is for not letting him kill his wife and sticking their noses in it. But this isn’t just about Terri, this could be about YOU. Or ME. This is the euthanasia test case, and it looks like it’s successful. This is going to change everything for handicapped people across the country. Killing the “inconvenient” has been quietly going on for a long time, this case will make lawful and legitimate. It’s a crime, and it’s murder.