Coma recovery after 19 years poses questions about Terri Schiavo

Coma recovery after 19 years poses questions about Terri Schiavo…

"And I repeat again to all clergy in My Son's House: you shall not rationalize sin. Abortion is murder, and murder condemns you to hell without repentance! Euthanasia is murder, and murder condemns you to hell without repentance! The Commandments of your God must be followed, and no changes will be made upon them to suit the basic fallen nature of mankind." - Our Lady of the Roses, November 20, 1979

LifeSiteNews reported on July 4, 2006:

On Monday The Journal of Clinical Investigation published new research on the recovery of a brain damaged man from his 19 years in a minimally conscious state, adding to the growing evidence that those with “hopelessly” severe brain injuries may be able to recuperate with therapy or other kinds of assistance.

The Journal’s research focuses on the sudden recovery of Terry Wallis, who experienced a car wreck in 1984 when he was 19 years old. The accident sheared the nerve connections in his brain, putting him in a minimally conscious state (MCS) and rendering him a quadriplegic. Terry, a young husband with a newborn child, was considered a hopeless case, especially considering that his family could not pay the $120,000 needed to consult a neurologist about any possibility of recovery. However in 2003, during one of the regular visits of his mother, who had regularly visited him at the Rehabilitation Centre in Mountain View, Arkansas, he made what seemed a sudden recovery, and spoke “mom”, his first word in 19 years.

The research indicates that Terry’s brain grew new tiny nerve connections over time, creating a new nerve network to replace the old one that was severely damaged in the car accident. While doctors and neurologists are still baffled as to ‘why’ Terry recovered, the doctors at the rehabilitation centre have indicated that Terry’s recovery might be attributed to the visits of his family, who took him out on weekends and special occasions. This may have acted as a mental therapy to help his brain recover.

“He now seems exactly like his old self,” says Jerry Wallis, Terry’s father. Over the 19 years of Terry’s coma, both Jerry and his mother Angilee had doubts at some time or another about whether or not it was better for Terry to be alive. However, now both are glad they never caved into those doubts. Since then they have seen their son make strides in his recovery with the ambition of walking for his daughter. “He very often tells us how glad he is to be alive,” says Terry’s father.

Terry Wallis’ remarkable recovery after 19 years, however, stands in stark opposition to the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who received no therapy from her philandering husband after her 1990 collapse. She was instead dehydrated to death by court order in March 2005. Although some doctors claim that Terri Schiavo could not have made Terry Wallis’ recovery since she was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), witnesses such as former nurse Carla Iyer maintained that with therapy, Schiavo, who said words like “mommy, help me”, could have indeed recovered over time.

New research on the ability of the brain to recover over time questions the hastiness of many in the medical profession to condemn patients as irreversibly brain-dead or damaged. Back in May, South African researchers discovered a drug that helps PVS patients temporarily recover to a fully conscious state. In a BBC interview Dr. Ralf Clauss, a scientist in nuclear medicine and one of the drug researchers, stated that “For every damaged area of the brain, there is a dormant area, which seems to be a sort of protective mechanism. The damaged tissue is dead, there’s nothing you can do,” he explained. “But it’s the dormant areas which ‘wake up’.”

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Many people are ignorant of the Church's teaching regarding ordinary nursing care towards extremely ill or terminally ill patients. The Church states that "decisions about these patients should be guided by a presumption in favor of medically-assisted nutrition and hydration” and that for patients, even in an irreversible coma, "all care should be lavished on him, including feeding."

Pope John Paul II, March 20, 2004:
The Holy Father emphasized that water and food, even when administered artificially, are "a natural means of preserving life, not a medical procedure. Therefore, their use must be considered ordinary and appropriate and as such, morally obligatory."
The probability that there is little hope for recovery, "when the vegetative state lasts longer than a year, cannot ethically justify abandoning or interrupting basic care, including food and hydration, of a patient." Death by starvation or dehydration carried out "consciously or deliberately is truly euthanasia by omission."
The Pope recalled the "moral principal according to which even the slightest doubt of being in the presence of a person who is alive requires full respect and prohibits any action that would anticipate his or her death. . The value of the life of a man cannot be subjected to the judgement of quality expressed by other men; it is necessary to promote positive activities to counteract pressure for the suspension of food and hydration, as a means to putting an end to the life of these patients."

Bishop Henry Gracida (interview with Barbara Kralis)
"Some Catholics would argue that they are simply following their conscience and that the Church allows them to do so. They choose to forget that the Church says that one can only safely follow an INFORMED CONSCIENCE, i.e., a conscience that has been formed and illuminated by the teachings of the Church. The Church has given clear and explicit guidelines regarding the removal of a feeding tube through which 'nutrition and hydration' is supplied to a sick person.
"All persons who wish to remain in communion with the Catholic Church, to receive Holy Communion and the other Sacraments, must assent to the teachings of the Church in matters of faith and morals. [3]
"If a person supports euthanasia and assisted-suicide through the illicit rejection or removal of a feeding tube, they are not in communion with the Church. They have separated themselves from the Church."

Pontifical Council on Health Affairs, “Cor Unum,” June 27, 1981:
“On the contrary, there remains the strict obligation to continue by all means those measures which are called ‘minimal’, which are intended normally and customarily for the maintenance of life (alimentation, blood transfusions, injections, etc.). To interrupt these minimal measures would be equivalent, in practice, to wishing to put an end to the life of the patient.”

Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 1985:
“If the patient is in a permanent coma, irreversible as far as it can be foreseen, treatment is not required, but all care should be lavished on him, including feeding... If treatment is of no benefit to the patient, it may be interrupted while continuing with the care of the patient.”

U.S. Bishops, Nutrition and Hydration: Moral and Pastoral Reflections:
”Therefore we are gravely concerned about current attitudes and policy trends in our society that would too easily dismiss patients without apparent mental faculties as non-persons or as undeserving of human care and concern. In this climate, even legitimate moral arguments intended to have a careful and limited application can easily be misinterpreted, broadened, and abused by others to erode respect for the lives of some of our society’s most helpless members. In light of these concerns, it is our considered judgment that while legitimate Catholic moral debate continues, decisions about these patients should be guided by a presumption in favor of medically-assisted nutrition and hydration.”

New Jersey Catholic Conference, January 22, 1987:
Another pertinent statement regarding the nutrition/hydration debate was given by the New Jersey Catholic Conference on January 22, 1987 in a friend-of-the-court brief entitled, “Providing Food and Fluids to Severely Brain Damaged Patients.” This document was in reaction to the Nancy Ellen Jobes case pending at the time before the New Jersey Court:

"The [New Jersey Catholic] Conference maintains that nutrition and hydration, being basic to human life, are aspects of normal care, which are not excessively burdensome, that should always be provided to a patient. Nutrition and hydration are clearly distinguished from medical treatment. Medical treatment is aimed at curing a disease. Nutrition and hydration are directed at sustaining life. Medical treatment is therapeutic; nutrition and hydration are not, because they will not cure any disease. For that fundamental reason we insist that nutrition and hydration must always be maintained....” (Origins, January 22, 1987, p. 583)

"No man shall murder--and it is murder, My children, when he shall give the excuse of saying an individual is no longer living or a part of the world because he has become emaciated, because he lives only with prayers and the help of all scientific means." - Our Lady of the Roses, June 5, 1976

"Who will be safe in your land, My children? You will one day grow old. Will you be a burden to your family, to be removed without heart? When you grow sick, you are ill, will you become too much of a burden to your society and they will remove you?" - Our Lady of the Roses, March 25, 1972

The awesome Bayside Prophecies... https://www.tldm.org/Bayside/default.htm
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995:

EUTHANASIA
“The time will come, My child, when those who are upon the earth will envy those have passed beyond the veil. Insanity, sin. Sin is insanity. The aged will be put to death, the crippled will be put to death, the mentally ill will be eliminated. The value of life will be gone. The value for life will be destroyed. Murderers! Sanctioned among those with the power to destroy the souls!” – Jesus, March 18, 1974

TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
"No man shall murder--and it is murder, My children, when he shall give the excuse of saying an individual is no longer living or a part of the world because he has become emaciated, because he lives only with prayers and the help of all scientific means. The Eternal Father has placed a soul in that body. That body is the temple of the Holy Spirit! No man can know when that soul must return to the Eternal Father. No man shall hasten its exit from a body by murder! Euthanasia is murder! Shall you become a judge over the living and the dead?" - Our Lady, June 5, 1976

CONDEMNS TO HELL
"And I repeat again to all clergy in My Son's House: you shall not rationalize sin. Abortion is murder, and murder condemns you to hell without repentance! Euthanasia is murder, and murder condemns you to hell without repentance! The Commandments of your God must be followed, and no changes will be made upon them to suit the basic fallen nature of mankind.
"The road to Heaven, My children, is a narrow one; too few stay upon it. For they are often carried away with the cares of the world, and the pleasures of the materialistic pursuits, and their gathering of money and prestige and power. For what? For the few short years allotted to each human upon earth. I ask you to ask yourself: is it worth it to lose your soul? Many will sell their souls to get to the head." - Our Lady, November 20, 1979

START AND EXPIRATION OF LIFE
"The Eternal Father is much distressed by mankind's actions. They must not try to control the start and expiration of a life. Abortion is murder, My children, for you bring to an untimely end a mission of a soul. The Eternal Father breathes the spirit of life into the body at the moment of conception. No man shall destroy this body until it has completed its mission as directed by the Eternal Father, for any man who destroys the mission and the body is guilty of murder. Euthanasia, untimely death, My children, man has transgressed into a form of evil far worse than in the time of Noe or Sodom. Therefore, how great shall be the punishment to mankind!" - Our Lady, June 12, 1976

GREAT CHASTISEMENT
"My child and My children, the murders of the unborn will bring great chastisement upon the United States, Canada, and the nations of the world, that are now contributing not only to the delinquency of your children and the world's children, but are condoning murder and euthanasia. Euthanasia, My child and My children, is murder!
"We have been very patient. The Eternal Father has voiced His decision within My hearing, and I tell you, My children, your chastisement is just at hand." - Jesus, July 1, 1985

DOCTORS OF THE EARTH
"I have, O woe to man, this saddest of stories: one of man against man, brother against brother, mother against daughter, father against son, in the battle of the spirits. Now, O poor aged and helpless, poor on earth, you will now be victims of your own. Doctors of the earth, what have you done to yourselves in your practices? You do not seek to preserve life, but to destroy.” – Our Lady, March 18, 1973

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D135 - Moral Issues PDF
D247 - Euthanasia & Murder

Articles...

Pope John Paul II says euthanasia "seeks to establish who can live and who must die"
https://www.tldm.org/News7/euthanasia3.htm

Links...

Are you being targeted for euthanasia? Mary Therese Helmueller, R.N.
http://www.catholictradition.org/targeted.htm

Catholics supporting the denial of 'nutrition and hydration' are not in communion with the Church, Barbara Kralis, May 4, 2005
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/050504

Half of infant deaths in Flanders, Belgium were euthanasia, U.K. Telegraph, April 9, 2005
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/09/weuth09.xml

Terri Schiavo's death was a murder says Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, April 5, 2005

http://www.earnedmedia.org/pfl0405.htm

Cardinal Clemens von Galen against Nazi euthanasia, The History Place
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/galen.htm

The Humane Holocaust, American Spectator, April 1, 2005
http://www.americanprowler.com/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7971

Martin Katz on Terri Schiavo ("We have wounded our national character. By our actions, or inactions, we have placed ourselves one notch less, above the Nazis"), The American Thinker, March 30, 2005
http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=1874

Press Misrepresents Catholic Teaching on End of Life Issues ("Food and water should always be seen as basic care"), Newsmax, March 30, 2005
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/29/222017.shtml

Cardinal O'Brien, in Easter homily, blasts culture of death, Schiavo starvation
http://www.scmo.org/_titles/view.asp?id=359

Governor Bush is just following orders: "Good" Germans followed judges and other officials in obeying the law of the land 60 years ago, James Atticus Bowden, March 28, 2005
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/bowden/050328

Nazis used starvation to kill; is a war crime, Newsmax, March 26, 2005
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/26/183127.shtml

Giant leap towards Culture of Death, David Limbaugh, March 25, 2005
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/24/211436.shtml

Archbishop Chaput calls Schiavo’s starvation an ‘attack on the sanctity of human life’, Catholic News Agency, March 23, 2005
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=3428

Nazis: Pioneers in Medicine, Patrick Buchanan, March 23, 2005
http://www.theamericancause.org/a-pjb-050323-nazi.htm

License to kill, Mark Alexander, March 18, 2005
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/markalexander/ma20050318.shtml

The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, March 25, 1995
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/JP2EVANG.HTM

"My children, My little humble children, I appeal to you as your Mother, go forward on foot, knock on the doors; bring the light to your brothers and sisters. For those who have been given great grace, much is expected of them." - Our Lady of the Roses May 26, 1976

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