Beat me with a wet noodle later, but definitions are in order here.

I just listened to Randi Rhodes for over two hours. People throw around the terms "brain dead" and "brain damaged" a lot, but they mean different things, and no one is specifying which, if any, apply to Schiavo's case.

Brain dead: Brain death is defined as a complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity. Absence of apparent brain function is not enough; evidence needs to be available that the condition is irreversible.

A brain dead individual has no electrical activity and no clinical evidence of brain function on neurologic examination (no response to pain, no cranial nerve reflexes (pupillary response (fixed pupils), oculocephalic reflex, corneal reflexes), and no spontaneous respirations). It is important to distinguish between brain death and states that mimic brain death (eg. barbiturate intoxication, alcohol intoxication, sedative overdose, hypothermia, hypoglycemia, coma or chronic vegetative states). Some comatose patients can recover, and some patients with severe irreversible neurologic dysfunction will nonetheless retain some lower brain functions such as spontaneous respiration.

In a brain dead individual, the brain tissue itself is necrotic (dead).

Thus anencephaly, in which there is no higher brain present, is generally not considered brain death, although it is certainly an irreversible condition in which it may be appropriate to withdraw life support.

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/brain_dead

So. According to this definition, Schiavo is NOT brain dead. Brain death includes being unable to respirate on one's own. She can. She simply has no higher order brain functioning because her cerebral cortex is missing. Let's look at the definition for brain damaged.

Brain Damaged: Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells.

Brain damage may occur due to a wide range of conditions, illnesses or injuries. Possible causes of widespread (diffuse) brain damage include prolonged hypoxia (shortage of oxygen), poisoning, infection or neurological illness. Common causes of focal or localized brain damage are physical trauma (head injury), stroke, aneurysm or neurological illness.

Severe brain damage may result in persistent vegetative state, coma, or death.

(same website as source)

It looks as if, according to these basic, standard definitions of the terms, that Schiavo is brain damaged, not brain dead. You should not attach "better" or "worse" qualifications to either of these terms, as they are quite different.

I would say there even needs to be a more accurate term in Schiavo's case that would be along the lines of "cerebral cortex MISSING" since I have seen people misinterpret "brain damaged" to mean the brain is still there, just damaged. Which leads them to the idea that she can be "treated" or "rehabilitated." But you cannot treat what isn't there. HER brain damage has been so extensive, that what little is left of her brain only controls involuntary reflexes and processes in her body.

Go to this link and look at the illustration of a normal, healthy brain. All Schiavo has is the cerebellum and medulla oblongata (as pictured in that illustration). Everything else in the drawing belongs to the cerebral cortex.

http://health.allrefer.com/pictures-images/brain.html

Here's another illustration showing all the lobes of the cerebral cortex. Imagine missing all of this:

http://health.allrefer.com/pictures-images/lobes-of-the-brain.html

Here's a CT scan of a normal brain:



Here is a CT scan of Schiavo's brain:

... it's not in a 4th grade vocabulary. :shrug:

It's not even in DU's spelling checker ... so it's not in a DUer's vocabulary, either.


http://www.answers.com/topic/anencephaly

From what I've read about anencephaly, she WOULD be diagnosed as such, except that anencephaly is almost always used to refer to a *congenital* lack of brain hemispheres, not a lack of brain caused by injury, stroke, etc.

But still, "anencephalic as a result of severe brain damage" is about the MOST accurate description you can give of her state.

as opposed to the emptyheadedness of the Repukes in Congress

bill of attainder
n. pl. bills of attainder

A legislative act pronouncing a person guilty of a crime, usually treason, without trial and subjecting that person to capital punishment and attainder. Such acts are prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

and still fail to understand why you posted it. Maybe I'm just not making a connection?

Sorry! Are you referring to what they did in Congress last night?

I was going along with the overall theme of your opening post that we need to get clear/define some terminology when discussing the Schiavo case.

:hi:

I didn't know that term, so I learned something new today.

:hi:

:hi:

American Heritage for gosh sake. You would also be wise to review case law that intrepets the "Bill of Attainder" Clause. (U.S. Constitution's Article 1 Section 9, C.3 states: 'No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.")



It is also suggested that when a lady law professor states that she believes that this resolution inflicts punishment on Mr. Schiavo, you might want to believe her or at least do better research than quote from the American Heritage Dictionary. I mean at least use Blacks Legal Dictionary!







http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0433_0425_ZO.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3305346



You may want to improve your research skills and realize that court's often interepet the strict definitions and expound upon the definitions in their decisions or opinions.

:hi:

in the front, on her cranium there?

Is that from a surgery or is that part of the damage?

that looks like a hole within the skull, I don't know. I noticed that, too, and wondered what it was.

scan.

I guess sinus cavitiy would make sense.

Definition

Persistent vegetative state (PVS) usually occurs after a severe head injury. The term is used to describe a person who has lost cognitive neurological function, meaning that the upper part of the brain that controls the more sophisticated functions such as speech, movement and thought, has died. People in PVS are able to breathe unaided as the lower part of the brain (the brain stem) is still functioning.

Although people in a persistent vegetative state may make sudden, jerky movements or even open their eyes, evidence suggests that they do not have any awareness of their surroundings and are unable to make any voluntary movements. PVS is different from a coma or catatonic state: people in PVS have had a permanent loss of cognitive neurological function that cannot be reversed. This means that they will never regain full consciousness.

There is no treatment for PVS, although medical professionals may be able to make patients in this condition more comfortable by turning them to prevent pressure sores. People in PVS are not able to swallow voluntarily and have to be given food and drink either through an intravenous catheter (a thin plastic tube that is placed in a vein under the skin), or through a nasogastric tube (a tube that is put down through the nose and runs into the stomach).

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/en.asp?TopicID=606

Edited to add better link

This is what most people clamoring about 'recovery' don't get. Popular jokes about somebody (oh, Bush, maybe?) being 'brain-dead' or Pink Floyd's song "Brain Damage" have so diminished the understanding and seriousness of those terms, they get bandied about interchangeably with other things like 'comas' and the gross 'she's a vegetable'.

Having PVS defined properly will help in the interminable discussions still to come here and elsewhere, while the Repubs and the morons like Limbaugh keep bloviating about poor Terri Schiavo.

malnutrition and rheumatoid fever. While they are able to make some movement and oral utterances, there is no consciousness there. It's hard for me to say this, but the young woman and the child I worked with would be no worse off if they were to pass away, although it would have been very hard to see them go.

The child eventually died of an infection that caused a fever that led to a terrible seizure. I was there, and it was a terrible thing to see, but I never saw her look more relaxed than after the end came. This was a 7 year old, btw.

God bless you E**** as you take comfort in God's embrace, and may Terry someday enjoy the same release.

dead.

Brain damage is a disability. I think that should be taken into consideration.

She is not brain dead!

she is disabled. The reason I say that is that when people think of "disabled" they think of a wheelchair, or a walker, or maybe deafness, or blindness or something like that.

Schiavo is disabled to such an extent that she has no consciousness and is not considered sentient by doctors.

So, yes, she IS disabled. But it still seems far too mild of a word to use to describe someone who has no awareness of anything, no brain capacity for awareness.

I do not agree with re-inserting the feeding tube. In fact, I think the courts orders should have been respected in the first place. She has no chance of recovery. I just posted a thread about an article I read about PVS that was pretty eye-opening.

Hang on I'll get the link.

Edit. Here it is. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3317297#3317346

I agree that this is beyond "disabled."

Many common people mistake braindead with brain-damaged. The doctors and courts did not.

her brain damage is NOT a disability.

IOW, she is not disabled!