Comments on: Rangel on PVS http://www.medrants.com/archives/2320 Internal medicine, American health care, and especially medical education Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:15:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John Anderson http://www.medrants.com/archives/2320/comment-page-1#comment-17068 John Anderson Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:24:17 +0000 http://medrants.com/archives/2005/03/30/rangel-on-pvs/#comment-17068 I agree with what he says about general cases of this type. But there has been a lot of wierdness, both legally and medically (Mr. Schiavo has the authority to order that her <i>teeth not be brushed??!!??)</i> on all (husband, parents, lawyers for both sides) fronts of this <i>particular</i> case. =========== My comment(s) to Rangel: I agree with a lot of your post, in that I fear she is <i>now</i> PVS, but (of course, heh-heh) not all. E.g. "Mrs. Schiavo’s cerebral cortex has been almost completely destroyed (by a lack of oxygen from her cardiac arrest in 1990)" is at least partially disputed by ---------- If you look carefully at this time line you will see that Terri had "NORMAL" CT's of the brain on 2/25 and 2/27. STOP THE PRESSES There is categorically and absolutely NO WAY Terri could have suffered MASSIVE ANOXIC INJURY TO THE BRAIN ON 2/25 AND HAVE NORMAL CT SCAN ON 2/27 --------- and it seems it was not until March 19 that even the EEG was "markedly abnormal" - it had actually been improving until about then. Lots more at http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/codeblueblog/ 2:10 AM ===== Oops, forgot to add - http://grahamlester.typepad.com/point2point/2005/03/british_study_f.html from the BMJ - "Results: Of the 40 patients referred as being in the vegetative state, 17 (43%) were considered as having been misdiagnosed; seven of these had been presumed to be vegetative for longer than one year, including three for over four years." I agree with what he says about general cases of this type. But there has been a lot of wierdness, both legally and medically (Mr. Schiavo has the authority to order that her teeth not be brushed??!!??) on all (husband, parents, lawyers for both sides) fronts of this particular case.
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My comment(s) to Rangel:

I agree with a lot of your post, in that I fear she is now PVS, but (of course, heh-heh) not all. E.g. “Mrs. Schiavo’s cerebral cortex has been almost completely destroyed (by a lack of oxygen from her cardiac arrest in 1990)” is at least partially disputed by
———-
If you look carefully at this time line you will see that Terri had “NORMAL” CT’s of the brain on 2/25 and 2/27.

STOP THE PRESSES

There is categorically and absolutely NO WAY Terri could have suffered MASSIVE ANOXIC INJURY TO THE BRAIN ON 2/25 AND HAVE NORMAL CT SCAN ON 2/27
———

and it seems it was not until March 19 that even the EEG was “markedly abnormal” – it had actually been improving until about then.

Lots more at
http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/codeblueblog/

2:10 AM
=====
Oops, forgot to add –
http://grahamlester.typepad.com/point2point/2005/03/british_study_f.html
from the BMJ – “Results: Of the 40 patients referred as being in the vegetative state, 17 (43%) were considered as having been misdiagnosed; seven of these had been presumed to be vegetative for longer than one year, including three for over four years.”

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