More gov't propaganda

PROOF TERRI SCHIAVO WILL FEEL NO PAIN
now she can rest

((I , Mc Sparky , copied this from Congress.org ))

here is your answer--scroll down past coma to vegetative state
http://www.schosp.org/medical/sstlist.asp?st=2083&sst=245&c=86456
VEGETATIVE STATES

Questions Frequently Asked About Coma and Vegetative States

This handout includes some frequently asked questions about coma and vegetative states. It is written for caregivers of patients with a brain injury. While this information will not lessen your feelings of sadness, fears, or remove the difficulty of making decisions you are asked to make. It may help you and others in your family to better understand the nature of your loved one’s injury, and give you some ideas about what to expect.

Having a loved one suffer a brain injury is painful and devastating. Why did it happen? It may have been a brain injury or disease, a stroke or a lack of oxygen to the brain. What do I do now? Caregivers commonly experience shock, fear, confusion, and sadness. They are often faced with making decisions about managing the daily care and associated activities for their loved ones.

There is a tremendous amount of health and medical information available. It may be difficult to understand some of the information you may be receiving. We encourage you to keep asking questions.

Q: What is a “vegetative state”?
A: A person in a vegetative state has experienced damage to the brain, and may be described as being unaware of surroundings, outside things or events, usually with periods of “eyes-open.” In this state, the person actually wakes and sleeps. Important body functions continue to work, including breathing, regular heart rate, and temperature and blood pressure control, and even sometimes, swallowing.
When awake, this person does not respond in a meaningful way to people or sounds, cannot feel pain, does not talk or walk.
Is not able to control bladder or bowel.
Is unable to swallow food or fluids.
May be observed frowning, smiling, coughing, mouth sucking, or lip smacking.
Grabs your hand when you hold his/hers, or withdraws from unpleasant feelings or sounds.

Sadly, these actions often appear meaningful to hopeful families but are all automatic reflexes - not movements with a purpose. Your doctor can tell the difference.

Q: Is a “vegetative state” the same as “brain dead?”
A: No. A person who is “brain dead” is truly dead because all parts of the brain, even the part that regulates basic activities such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure, has died. A brain dead body needs a breathing machine to keep other organs working because of the loss of breathing. A brain dead body does not wake or move at all and most of its reflexes are gone.

A person in a vegetative state is alive, awake but unconscious. A person in a vegetative state may require a breathing machine for a while, but is eventually able to breathe on his/her own. He/she is still able to digest liquid food if given through a tube. A vegetative state means that the parts of the brain involved in thinking, speaking, feeling, and interacting with others have died forever, but the part of the brain that keeps the body going, continues to operate.

Q: How can doctors tell that a patient is in a vegetative state?
A: Mostly by watching to see how the brain recovers and what functions return. Doctors also consider the cause of the brain injury (e.g., head trauma, and cardiac arrest), the patient’s age, and the length of time that the patient has been unconscious. Some useful tests such as EEGs (electro-encephalogram tests) and MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging tests) often also help doctors in determining a diagnosis.

Q: What is a “persistent” vegetative state?
A: A vegetative state is called “persistent” if the patient’s coma has lasted for at least one month. A patient in persistent vegetative states occasionally improves to a state of partial recovery where some brain activity returns, but the person is often left with severe disability. More typically, however, the person progresses to a “permanent” vegetative state, or dies.

Q: What is a “permanent” vegetative state?
A: A vegetative state is called “permanent” or “irreversible” after one month of a vegetative state caused by an interruption of blood flow to the brain; and after six weeks to six months for vegetative states caused by head injuries.

Q: Do patients in permanent vegetative states fully recover?
A: No. There are no confirmed reports of anyone fully recovering from a permanent vegetative state lasting more than three months.

Q: Is a permanent vegetative state “terminal?”
A: No. Often, they are able to survive for years, relying on suction treatments to keep airways open, and on tube feedings. They are treated with antibiotics for infections, and receive constant nursing care. Since these patients are bed-ridden and unable to move, over time they often develop stiff joints of the arms, wrists and knees. However, sometimes patients in vegetative states die, despite every effort to keep them alive.

Q: Do patients in persistent or permanent vegetative states experience pain or suffering?
A: No. The parts of the brain necessary for consciousness, that feel pain or suffering, are not working. Moving their arms or legs in response to unpleasant feelings or sounds are only reflexes.

Q: What can we do once a patient has been diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state?
A: Three choices are possible: Provide aggressive medical treatment to keep the patient alive. Doctors will work to remove the mechanical ventilator, surgically implant a aracheostomy tube in the patient’s throat to protect him/her against choking and start medical nutrition (through a tube). If the patient survives, he or she will be transferred, when stable, to a long-term nursing care facility.
Try the above treatment plan for a specific time with the understanding that if no signs of recovery occurs, either some or all treatment will be stopped. Patients without any artificial treatment, including tubal feeding and fluids, usually die within 1-2 weeks.
Withdrawing artificial life-support immediately, including the breathing machine and medical nutrition (food) and fluids will allow the patient to die without discomfort. Since that part of the brain that no longer sends messages telling the brain to be aware of and experience pain, the patient will die without discomfort, usually within 2 weeks.

Q: What to consider when deciding what to do? A: Consider the patient’s wishes, if they are known. Would your loved one want to be kept in this state? Some people have strong feelings about this and have expressed their wishes with doctors or family members. Others don’t. The decision should be based on what you and others know about the patient. Does everyone unanimously agree one way or the other?
Does the treatment offer a reasonable chance for improvement that the patient will be able to appreciate? The central purpose of every medical treatment is to enable the patient to feel better. If patients can’t feel better or worse, as in persistent vegetative state, it makes sense to question the value of medical treatments that may produce bodily effects, but not benefits to the patient as a whole.
Will there be a financial crisis or a burden to family members if the patient continues to receive complete care? Will this place emotional stress on family members? Would the patient have strong feelings about this? If continuing treatment offers a benefit to the patient, then it’s easier to justify asking families to carry additional stress.

Q: Does a decision not to provide or to withdraw treatment from a patient amount to a decision to “kill” the patient?
A: No. The injury that caused the extensive brain damage is the true cause of the patient’s death in such a sad circumstance. A decision not to provide or to stop artificial life support treatment that delays death, is a choice that you have a right to make, based on the patient’s condition, his or her quality of life, and his/her known or likely wishes.

STEPS TO TAKE WHEN DECIDING ABOUT TREATMENT
1 Make sure all family members understand the information, including the patient’s condition and treatment options that the doctor has shared with you.
2 Talk about the situation together, hearing everybody’s thoughts and feelings. Make decisions together.
3 Get support services if you need it. Some families will consult religious advisors. Some families may request a second medical opinion, which may be accomplished through the primary physician.
4 To provide you with the kind of help you need, we encourage you to share your concerns with your doctor or nurse. Doctors and nurses are able to help answer health related questions. Social service workers and pastoral care staff are able to help with non-medical concerns.
5 The hospital’s Ethics Resource team is able and often helpful when families need a sounding board to sort out their thoughts and feelings, help in clarifying the choices available, or assistant in ensuring that the right and best thing is done for the patient.

The physicians nurses, and other staff at Swedish Covenant Hospital are available to help you as you consider the health and medical information and decide what to do.

We recognize that this is a stressful time for you. Hopefully, this pamphlet has given you some answers to some of your questions. If you have other questions, please ask your doctor. If you have additional question regarding this information, please call (773) 878-8200, ext. 1662.

ress.org