13-02-2005 05:35									#1
	Brain-Damaged Woman Talks After 20 Years Remove this text

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...ecovering_woman

quote: Brain-Damaged Woman Talks After 20 Years 59 minutes ago Top Stories - AP By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer HUTCHINSON, Kan. - For 20 years, Sarah Scantlin has been mostly oblivious to the world around her — the victim of a drunken driver who struck her down as she walked to her car. Today, after a remarkable recovery, she can talk again. Scantlin's father knows she will never fully recover, but her newfound ability to speak and her returning memories have given him his daughter back. For years, she could only blink her eyes — one blink for "no," two blinks for "yes" — to respond to questions that no one knew for sure she understood. "I am astonished how primal communication is. It is a key element of humanity," Jim Scantlin said, blinking back tears. Sarah Scantlin was an 18-year-old college freshman on Sept. 22, 1984, when she was hit by a drunk driver as she walked to her car after celebrating with friends at a teen club. That week, she had been hired at an upscale clothing store and won a spot on the drill team at Hutchinson Community College. Scantlin still suffers constantly from the effects of the accident. She habitually crosses her arms across her chest, her fists clenched under her chin. Her legs constantly spasm and thrash. Her right foot is so twisted it is almost reversed. Her neck muscles are so constricted she cannot swallow to eat. A week ago, her parents got a call from Jennifer Trammell, a licensed nurse at the Golden Plains Health Care Center. She asked Betsy Scantlin if she was sitting down, told her someone wanted to talk to her and switched to phone over to speaker mode: "Hi, Mom." "Sarah, is that you?" her mother asked. "Yes," came the throaty reply. "How are you doing?" "Fine." "Do you need anything," her mother asked her later. "More makeup." "Did she just say more makeup?" the mother asked the nurse. Scantlin started talking in mid-January but asked staff members not to tell her parents until Valentine's Day (news - web sites) to surprise them, Trammell said. But last week she could not wait any longer to talk to them. The breakthrough came when the nursing home's activity director, Pat Rincon, was working with Scantlin and a small group of other patients, trying to get them to speak. Rincon had her back to Scantlin while she worked with another resident. She had just gotten that resident to reply "OK," when she suddenly heard Sarah behind her also repeat the words: "OK. OK." Staff members brought in a speech therapist and intensified their work with Sarah. They did not want to get her parents' hopes up until they were sure Sarah would not relapse, Trammell said. Scantlin's doctor, Bradley Scheel, said physicians are not sure why she suddenly began talking but believe critical pathways in the brain may have regenerated. "It is extremely unusual to see something like this happen," Scheel said. Jim Scantlin understands that Sarah will probably never leave the health care center, but he is grateful for her improvement. "This place is her home ... They have given me my daughter back," he said.

Well that's nice.

	13-02-2005 05:49									#3
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Wow.

	13-02-2005 05:57									#4
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good!

	13-02-2005 05:58									#5
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Wow

	13-02-2005 06:52									#6
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I didn't know brains could regenerate after being so badly damaged. I always thought brain tissue was like nerves. Once gone they were gone.

	13-02-2005 06:55									#7
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I bet she was just pretending to be brain-damaged the whole time

	13-02-2005 06:57									#8
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They do not regenerate as such, they reform neural networks to bypass damaged sections, usually it would happen much quicker, or not at all, to do so after so long is truly amazing.

	13-02-2005 07:23									#9
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This begs the question... what would your first words be after 20 years?

"Get me a beer!"

	13-02-2005 14:00									#10
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Actually , the first words of a guy who came out of a coma after 20 years were something to do with Pepsi .

	13-02-2005 14:17									#11
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What a heart-warming story. Certainly puts things in perspective...

	13-02-2005 14:17									#12
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just got done reading this story.

all I can say is wow.

	13-02-2005 14:19									#13
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let me be the first to spark the debate though.

euthanasia. If it was legal, this woman would not be alive possibly. Although this woman is still disabled, and will never be able to hold a job. It is still heartwarming to hear that she can talk.

	13-02-2005 14:21									#14
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the point of Euthanasia is that she should be able to choose if she wants her life to end or not...whether she can talk 20 years later, while amazing and certainly inspiring, doesn't make a difference....if she would want her life to end 20 years ago, she should have that choice (although there is some grey area with someone who is perhaps not in a position to make an informed decision about Euthanasia). If she chooses to stay alive, all the power to her! She is living proof that hope should always be kept alive, even if it's the hope for something that everyone else takes for granted.

	13-02-2005 14:32									#15
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident let me be the first to spark the debate though. euthanasia. If it was legal, this woman would not be alive possibly. Although this woman is still disabled, and will never be able to hold a job. It is still heartwarming to hear that she can talk.

Yeah, god forbid we make one mistake.

What's the current count on how many we're wrongfully fried on the chair again?

	13-02-2005 14:48									#16
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quote: Originally posted by alva Yeah, god forbid we make one mistake. What's the current count on how many we're wrongfully fried on the chair again?

so because mistakes happen, it's okay to make more purposely?

I think not.

I'm not against euthanasia mind you. But I'm against it in cases where the person being euthanized has no say so. And I don't agree with spouses making the decision as in the case in Florida. I can't help but be suspicious about that.

	13-02-2005 14:53									#17
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Of course it isn't OK but at least in the first case the intention is to help, both the patient and their families.
In the second case it's because of barbaric revenge or politics.

	13-02-2005 17:57									#18
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quote: Originally posted by orange the point of Euthanasia is that she should be able to choose if she wants her life to end or not...

Except in the Netherlands euthanasia has already become a "doctor's option," with as many as 10,000 cases where consent of relatives was not sought.

Yes, giving doctors power of euthanasia is how the Nazis introduced their pogroms.

	13-02-2005 18:21									#19
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Do you have any idea how much old people cost and how many we have and will have. Put them down I say.

	13-02-2005 18:29									#20
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quote: Originally posted by alva Do you have any idea how much old people cost and how many we have and will have. Put them down I say.

We should put down people who advocated killing people without their consent

	13-02-2005 18:30									#21
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No problem.. but can you wait, say another 40 to 50 years?

	13-02-2005 20:13									#22
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As I recall the deal with this woman was that she was never a total vegetable. As the article says she was able to communicate using her eyes and I think she was able to breath on her own.

In a case where the person is totally on the machine and is unable to communicate at all with the outside world (ie. brain dead) I think the option should be left up to the family.

The whole nonsense about doctors making that decision scares me. Doctors can be incredibly smart people, but they are just like everyone else. And quite frankly after dealing with them at my last job and meeting a few that my mother works with, well, I wouldn't want those cowboys making any decisions on pulling the plug.

I do agree that there is a point though where a family must decide that it's better to let that person go than lie in state.

	13-02-2005 22:12									#23
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Whatever. We have plenty of drain bamaged ppl posting here! They're called commies