Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.—Gustav Mahler

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Time To Open Ears, Open Hearts

For those of us who prayed our hearts out for Terri Schiavo and are still traumatized by our inability to save her, a sort of prophetic answer seems to be arriving piecemeal. One after the other, people who have suffered from brain damage long thought to be irreversible are having amazing recoveries.

The most recent is firefighter Don Herbert of Buffalo, N.Y., who suddenly began conversing this Saturday morning after nine and a half years without that ability. Note that the press is covering up the fact that his case, like Terri's, involves a spouse who defeated his parents in court and got a Do Not Resuscitate order posted on his bed almost seven years ago.

This case follows on the heels of the Miami Herald front-page story of a man who recovered his mind more than nine years after a traffic accident. The Herald article followed Terri's death by only a few days, so they compensated by headlining it: Delayed Recovery A Rarity.

The sad part is that this pattern began before Terri's killing, with the amazing recovery of speech by Sarah Scantlin in Kansas after 20 years! This occurred on Feb. 12, 45 days before Judge Greer in his wisdom allowed Terri to be starved.

Will we finally hear the call? How loud does it have to be before it penetrates to the heart?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The difference, of course, is that a CAT scan revealed that Terri Schiavo's cerebral cortex had been completely destroyed and replaced by spinal fluid. The poor woman didn't have a brain to recover.