7/12/2006

One Terry Reminding Us of Another Terri

 ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, July 12 /Christian Newswire/ -- The publicity surrounding Terry Wallis has brought attention once again to the condition of Terri Schiavo. Terry Wallis suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1984 and was termed by some of his doctors to be in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS) and then improved to a “minimally conscious state” (MCS).

Similar to Terri Schiavo, doctors predicted that Terry Wallis would last indefinitely in this condition and not improve. Researchers are now confident that, “Mr. Wallis's brain is healing itself by forming new neural connections since 2003”, according to the New York Times.

“This new finding will hopefully save many lives, as we are repeatedly seeing a growing number of people being incorrectly diagnosed as ‘PVS’ which is essentially a death sentence,” stated Robert Schindler, father of Terri Schiavo. “Sadly, this only confirms the subjectivity of the PVS diagnosis which according to a recent study by the British Medical Journal is misdiagnosed 43% of the time. As in Terri’s case, the PVS diagnosis is too often used as criteria to terminate life and common sense dictates that it should be abolished.”

Many in the media have cited doctors that are quick to attempt to draw a difference between Terry Wallis and Terri Schiavo. In reality, the only difference between Terri Wallis and Terri Schiavo was that Terri Wallis was afforded therapy and rehabilitation.

This new revelation about Terry Wallis’ brain healing reminds us that in Terri Schiavo’s 2002 trial, Dr. William Maxfield testified that he believed that part of Terri’s brain was improving (available upon request). Furthermore, the autopsy conducted on Terri Schiavo confirmed that Terri’s frontal temporal, temporal poles and insular-cortex demonstrated relative preservation. This meant that Terri’s cortex retained function and that her brain was more normal in the area that controls higher-level thinking.

“Less we forget that more than 40 medical affidavits submitted to the court stating either that Terri was not in a PVS or with the new medical advances regarding the brain, that Terri could have been helped with proper treatment, just like Terri Wallis. Sadly, no one will ever know how much Terri would have improved because she was warehoused and denied any form of therapy or rehabilitation for over thirteen years”, said Robert Schindler.

About the Schindler Family: Mary and Robert Schindler as well as Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo and Bobby Schindler now work for The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, Center for Health Care Ethics in St. Petersburg, Florida, an organization dedicated to ensuring the rights of disabled, elderly and vulnerable citizens against care rationing, euthanasia and medical killing.