Terri and Sarah:  Two brain-damaged women.
What is the difference between them?

If you’ve been reading the news, you know that Sarah Scantlin shocked her parents.  After 20 years of not speaking to them, on February 8, 2005, she said, “Hi, Mom.” 

Sarah has spent the last 20 years in a nursing home after being hit by a drunk driver when she was 18.  She would blink yes and no, but nobody was even sure that she had understood the questions.  The current news reports categorize her as seeming to have been oblivious to her environment.

If you’ve been reading the news and following the non-traditional media, you know that Terri Schindler Schaivo is in a hospice, although she is not terminally ill.  She is, however, severely handicapped, being unable to communicate verbally.  Her parents and siblings report interacting with her and there are depositions on file by her nurses stating that she interacted with them and did understand what is going on around her.  However, the doctors who have served as witnesses for her husband Michael insist that she is in a vegetative state, with no such interactions possible and with no prospect of improvement.

Sarah has been fortunate.  She has had intensive therapy and doctors surmise that she has had neural regeneration, leading, first to making sounds, and then to making words.  Her memory is coming back astonishingly and she can hold conversations.  She says she is happy to be able to talk.

Sarah’s family all wanted her to recover, to enjoy whatever she could of life, however she could.  Even when they had no hope, they made sure she had all the care and therapy they could provide.  And today they are almost delirious with joy.

Terri’s  husband and legal guardian, Michael, doesn't want her to live under these conditions.  She has not been allowed to have therapy because Michael did not choose to allow it and there have been periods when she was not allowed the stimulation of visits from her parents and siblings.  He has attempted to remove her feeding tube while forbidding tests to see if she could eat and drink by mouth.

What’s the difference between the two?  Sarah’s family wanted her alive.  Terri’s husband doesn't  -  and the courts are helping him.

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Want a good summary of the case, including links with notarized statements from the nurses who provided Terri with care?  And doctors’ statements about Terri’s condition?

Check out the Wittenberg Gate at  http://dory.typepad.com/wittenberg_gate/2005/02/the_real_terri_.html

Want to know what Terri’s parents and siblings say?  Look at    http://www.terrisfight.org/

And if you want to read the statements of the two nurses directly, here is
a link to Heidi Law    http://www.zimp.org/stuff/Affidavit H Law 083003.pdf
and one to Carla Sauer Iyer    http://www.zimp.org/stuff/Affidavit C Iyer 082903.pdf

And don’t forget to rejoice with Sarah and her family in an article in the Kansas City Star.   http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0214WomanSpeaks14-ON.html

Updated on RARTL Feb 2005