NEVER give up.

[Esav Benyamin]

Hoping for miracles makes for a long wait, but working toward miracles can pay off. This is a great example of an unfortunately rare phenomenon, but it underscores the need to continue to support and communicate with people who may seem to be beyond help.
After 20 years of silence, brain-damaged woman begins talking

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.

After two decades of silence, she began talking last month. Doctors are not sure why.

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.

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.
* * *
Family members say Scantlin's understanding of the outside world comes mostly from news and soap operas that played on the television in her room.

Whatever problems remain, at least now that she can talk, her life is her own again.

The driver who struck Scantlin served six months in jail for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.

TANJ

 

[Daniel Moore]

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.

The driver who struck Scantlin served six months in jail for driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.

:barf: Absolutely disgusting.

I am glad to hear that she is regaining her life as best as she can and is making progress, though

 

[panella]

That's a great story. I can almost feel the parent's joy.

This underscores the depravity of withdrawing the feeding tube from Teri Schaivo in Florida. I can't understand how anyone can let a person who appears to be quite sentient, at least in some ways like responding to touch, die an agonizing death from dehydration.

No one in the Florida Supreme Court would even consider putting the most hienous criminal to death that way but they struck down Teri's Law (which they could easily have refused to rule on) by saying:

'The judges said the while understand the heartbreak of Terri's family, they must make rulings based on the law and not emotion. "Our hearts can fully comprehend the grief so fully demonstrated by Theresa's family members on this record. But our hearts are not the law," they wrote.'


Now they become strict constitutionalists.

 

[MikeH]

A couple of months after my daughter was struck in a hit and run, I stood by her bed as she lay in a vegetative state and stared blankly at the ceiling and heard the doctor say, "Don't expect any more than this. This is the way she will always be." I sat at her bedside day after day. I would hold my hand in front of her eyes and slowly make a fist and relax it, flexing my fingers over and over. At times I swear that I would see an ever so slight movement, an attempt to emulate what I was doing. The doctors and nurses to whom I told this would reply that it was only random reflex action (the same thing that Terry Schavio's doctors tell her parents about her looking at and smiling at them.) Only one doctor offered encouragment, telling me to keep right on doing it. My wife would bring boxes of various materials to the hospital, different textures of cloth, paper, ballons, etc. and rub Kim's fingers over them. We would play music to her through earphones. A physical therapist and I would sit her up on the bed and move her arms, legs, and body. She was totally limp, with her head falling forward so that her chin was on her chest. Her eyes looked off in different directions, and we were told that this was a permanent condition.

From the first night in the emergency room, she has been wrapped in prayer by family, church, friends, strangers.

Today, about 28 months later, those same hands write letters and poetry. She types E-mails and likes to prepare her own meals, do her laundry, make her bed, etc. Her eyes are normal.

The present "never wills" we are dealing with are speech therapists telling us that it is hopeless, there is too much nerve damage, and physical therapists telling us that she will never walk without assistance. We just smile and nod.

 

[shaldag]

MikeH,
well done, keep it it up--prayers are with you--
screen is a little blurry right now.

chazak veamatz.

 

[panella]

MikeH -

That's a very moving story to which I can relate. Those who have dealt with family tragedy - and the attendant doctors and therapists - know that professional predictions are often wrong. That's because no doctor can measure the spirit of the patient and the unwavering strength, committment, and love of the family. Your family is blessed to have you.

You, your daughter, and your family are in my thoughts.

Paul

 

[oz23]

MikeH,
well done, keep it it up--prayers are with you--
screen is a little blurry right now.

chazak veamatz.

What he said.

 

[MikeH]

Esav said:

Hoping for miracles makes for a long wait, but working toward miracles can pay off. This is a great example of an unfortunately rare phenomenon, but it underscores the need to continue to support and communicate with people who may seem to be beyond help.

A physical therapist who treated Kim in the hospital said, after seeing Kim recently, that she could tell which head injury patients had the best chances of recovery. She said that usually it was the ones with strong family support and involvement in their treatment.