Kyriaka

I am a student at the University of South Alabama (USA). I think it is a good school.

_______________ It isnt really a worry, so much as it does put some pressure on the back when you stand up straight. I tend to lean forward (still with my back straight) to relieve the pressure. In my case it is very clear it is lumbar.

________________ Not fused. Fully formed. Not Spina bifida Occulata. NORMALLY lumbar only has 5, but there is a defect where you can be born with over 5. In fact, I believe Cro Magnum man had 7/8.

I always give the standard response: I was saved 2000 years ago. But everyone holds the keys to Hell if that is what they wish.

My grandmother also was born with this condition. I really havent had any problems until recently (if I stand straight for a period of time). If I lean forward, I am fine. I just would like to read a bit on this condition. If anyone knows any resources I would be greatful. Either European, Asian, ect. outside sources other than standard US fare would be fantastic.

The "experts" can say all they want to about PVS...they dont feel anything, they are just a blob..but I am NOT willing to gamble with my soul on the unknown. What I do know is that I was on full life support 12 years ago (feeding tube & vent along with other various other things). My parents were told there was no hope for me. And if I did recover, I would be in a wheechair & retarded. The hospital tried in ernest to have my vent turned off. My parents refused and the Dr.s rolled their eyes at the silliness of my parents holding out hope. Forms were pushed in front of my family with pens ready to give away my organs as soon as the vent was turned off and I came to my end. But I was "in there" trying in earnest to communicate. I went thru the burn "baths" with possibly the staff not being as careful because some of them thinking I could feel nothing. But I did. Give Terri the benefit of the doubt. I dont care what the "experts" say. We do not know enough about the brain to determine exactly what is going on.

_______________ You could always give him enough narcotics to make him have no pain or consciousness. And still...you would have people climbing the walls because it would be cruel of it all.

This is an article that ran today from a mother whose daughter is on a feeding tube (with a flat eeg) and whose own mother is on a feeding tube; _____________ Sandwiched between feeding tubes: The lessons By Marianne M. Jennings Our daughter, Claire, has had a feeding tube for 10 years, and my mother is closing in on one year with hers. I am generationally sandwiched between feeding tube patients. Like Terri Schiavo, no one is really sure how much breaks through my daughter's or mother's neurological remnants. Also like Mrs. Schiavo, neither needs a respirator. To the clinical, the three are in a "vegetative state." The inexperienced callously refer to them as clumps of flesh that hover in a puzzling state for inexplicable reasons. But those of us who live with and care for these magnificent souls question the analyses hurled about as cherished life hangs in the balance. I offer my lessons from a decade of exposure to the "vegetative state." Doctors are almost always wrong. While I have the highest respect for the physicians who have treated our daughter and my mother and will be forever grateful for their selfless efforts and care, I know, and perhaps they do too, that these patients are unique. Doctors are inevitably taken aback at some point by Claire and patients like her who fight for their lives. If I had dug my daughter's grave each time a doctor told me she wouldn't live, I'd be in China by now. Their first death prediction was six months, then it was three years. When Claire turned 10, the good docs called her an outlier and threw in the towel on death predictions. Claire turned 18 two months ago. Doctors read CAT scans, MRIs, and EEGs, and conclude that, clinically, there ain't nothin' there. But doctors are not with these patients 24-7. Our Claire has a perfectly flat EEG. From what I can determine, Terri Schiavo is higher functioning than our Claire. Yet each morning when we touch the bottom of her shirt to prepare for her shower, she closes her eyes in anticipation of that shirt coming over her face. She clinches her teeth if you put a washcloth to her face because washcloths mean a good mouth cleaning and she, like all 3-6-month infants (Claire's developmental age) wants no part of that. She turns her head when you say her name. Claire's smiles come mostly in response to her mother's and her father's voices. They feel, they flinch, they startle, they turn, they moan, they react, they have some memory, and no one truly knows how much gets through, what is serendipitous, and what is a real response. When in doubt, doubt the doctors. Spirituality engulfs the vegetative. Be afraid. The life that exists in these struggling frames has had the judicial imprimatur of "So not worth it" placed upon it and the plug (tube) pulled. Yet the life that resides in these bodies so ravaged by immobility scares the livin' daylights out of me. If you already believe in a g-d, these souls will confirm your faith. If you don't believe, well, I have seen atheists and agnostics humbled, silenced, and in tears as they stumbled upon a spiritual experience that caught them unawares. These are the very elect of beings. Those who allow these lives to be taken, especially in reliance upon clinical reports, engage in the sentencing of innocents. Leo the Dog, hurled to his death in a California road rage case, engendered more outrage and due process. These souls should have the rights and respect of cats, dogs, ANWR moose, and death row inmates. If I turned our cat loose on the streets and refused her daily Little Sheba rations, I'd be charged with misdemeanors galore and sentenced to community service at the pound. And our cat has no cognitive skills, save for the ability to sniff bumpers. Scott Peterson will enjoy hearings and representation over the next decade as he sits on death row, where he will die a natural death. Where is Terri Schiavo's lawyer? Who does indeed speak for her? When our Claire turned 18, my husband and I had to petition to become her guardians. We were investigated, went to court, and paid for a lawyer for Claire so that the state of Arizona could be assured that Claire was in the right home with decent folk. There was no clamoring at the court house for custody of Claire, and the hearing was mercifully short. Three months and $972 later, not including copying costs, we were appointed guardians of our own child. How do Florida courts get away with less, not for just guardianship, but for the life of the ward herself? If Congress can dictate disability benefits, medical privacy, and any number of long-term care issues, it should make public policy on euthanasia for the disabled who have no living will. We are not here for them. They are here for us. I don't know why my mother has had to suffer physically at the end of her life. I have never understood why our Claire has had a life filled with illness, epilepsy, and deformity, or why we have a child who will never utter her first words. But my family and I have learned more from these two non-speaking souls than in any of our many studies for degrees. We have had our priorities shaped and our characters molded through their stoic presence. Eliminating them would mean no more diaper changes, no more feeding bags, and no more "1 - 2 -3 lift!" as we struggle to rotate their positions. But if I lost my Claire or my mother, I would spend a lifetime longing to be of service again, to have just one more time to feel the warmth of those neurologically curled fingers. I fear for the clinical callousness of this tube removal. We turn our backs on the closest thing this world has to offer when it comes to angels. This removal is a giant leap backwards as mankind denies its spirituality and harms the helpless. I worry about the precedent for our Claire and my mom, but I fear for us

______________ She has had no MRI. Wouldnt the husband want the most up to date information? And so what if it was. You know, I am a nursing student. I am a high 4.0. Since this case, I am questioning whether I need to be a nurse because I dont believe in the murder of he handicapped. Nothing that I read about nursing told me that I needed to be pro-euthanasia. Yest. I talked with my favorite teacher about changing my major to chemistry. At least I can make drugs to help people live.

_______________ You know, if Terri had committed murder she would be treated better. If the courts were to say that Scott Peterson was to die of starvation and dehydration (even if he were given painkillers for a "painless death"), how many organizations would come out saying it was cruel and unusual?? Tons.

Well, well, well. An intersting tidbit today. The neurologist picked by Michael Shiavo is a member of the HEMLOCK SOCIETY (now called the Choice In Dying Society). Ah... ___________ © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Dr. Ronald Cranford The neurologist chosen by Michael Schiavo to examine his estranged wife, Terri, is a right-to-die activist who has been a featured speaker for the pro-euthanasia Hemlock Society. Dr. Ronald Cranford testified in the court cases before county court Judge George Greer that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. "I've seen her," he told CNN. "There's no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, she's in a permanent vegetative state. Her CAT scan shows extremely severe atrophy to the brain. And her EEG is flat. It doesn't show any electrical activity at all." His diagnosis has been disputed by Dr. William Hammesfahr, who said, "I spent about 10 hours across about three months and the woman is very aware of her surroundings. She's very aware. She's alert. She's not in a coma. She's not in PVS." Hammesfahr added, "With proper therapy, she will have a tremendous improvement. I think, personally, that she'll be able to walk, eventually, and she will be able to use at least one of her arms." "There's no way," responded Cranford. "That's totally bogus." Cranford is a member of the board of directors of the Choice in Dying Society, which promotes doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia. He was also a featured speaker at the 1992 national conference of the Hemlock Society. The group recently changed its name to End of Life Choices. In 1997, Cranford wrote an opinion piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune titled: "When a feeding tube borders on barbaric." "Just a few decades ago cases of brain death, vegetative state, and locked-in syndrome were rare," he wrote. "These days, medicine's 'therapeutic triumphs' have made these neurologic conditions rather frequent. For all its power to restore life and health, we now realize, modern medicine also has great potential for prolonging a dehumanizing existence for the patient." He explained that while landmark legal cases like those of Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan demonstrated it was "sensible to stop treatment in patients lingering in permanent vegetative states," it was now time to look beyond those cases. "The United States has thousands or tens of thousands of patients in vegetative states; nobody knows for sure exactly how many," he wrote. "But before long, this country will have several million patients with Alzheimer's dementia. The challenges and costs of maintaining vegetative state patients will pale in comparison to the problems presented by Alzheimer's disease." The answer, he suggested, was physician-assisted suicide. "So much in medicine today is driving the public towards physician-assisted suicide," he wrote. "Many onlookers are dismayed by doctors' fear of giving families responsibility in these cases; our failure to appreciate that families suffer a great deal too in making decisions; our archaic responses to pain and suffering; our failure to accept death as a reality and an inevitable outcome of life; our inability to be realistic and humane in treating irreversibly ill people. All of this has shaken the public's confidence in the medical profession." He blamed "right-to-lifers" and "disability groups" for discouraging families from making the choice for euthanasia. He applauded European values that embrace euthanasia. "But here in the United States, many caregivers wouldn't consider not placing a feeding tube in the same patients," he wrote. "It's hard to understand why. If we want our loved ones to live and die in dignity, we ought to think twice before suspending them in the last stage of irreversible dementia. At it is, it seems that we're not thinking at all."

__________________ These nurses went to the police years ago. It was legal AND it was ethical.

____________ I didnt know I was required to leave my humanity at the door. If I saw a man raping a woman, am I supposed to sit there and watch? I wouldnt want to judge or anything. If I saw a person strangling a child, am I supposed to sit there and watch? I wouldnt want to judge or anything.

______________ Yeah. Her brother in law is Michael Schiavo's sisters husband. The other witnesses are all relatives of the husband.

_____________ Yes. We need to pray. We need to pray for our country.