HOW THE SCHIAVO FETISHISTS FIGHT

Here's a story the "save Terri" crowd wants to tell you:

CLEARWATER, FL., March 14, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Saturday a rally of over three-hundred of Terri Schiavo's most die-hard supporters heard the first-hand account of the sufferings and remarkable recovery of Kate Adamson. Struck down in 1995 at the age of thirty-three by a rare double brainstem stroke, Kate, then a mother of two young girls, was completely paralyzed; she was unable even to blink her eyes. Like Terri Schiavo, the medical staff treating her questioned the merit of continuing granting Kate the most basic human right of food and water.

Terri Schiavo, although not nearly as severely disabled as Adamson once appeared to be, is slotted to have her feeding tube removed at 1:00 pm this Friday. Similarly, Kate Adamson's feeding tube was at one point removed for a full eight days before being reinserted due to the intervention of her husband (also a competent lawyer)....

Here's Adamson's Web site, where she directly compares herself to Terri Schiavo.

Here's a list of media outlets that have given Adamson a platform to make this comparison. Last week it was Larry King Live and Hannity & Colmes.

There's just one tiny problem. Here's what actually happened to Adamson in the immediate aftermath of her stroke, as described in Caregiver magazine (emphasis mine):

Her seven weeks in the ICU were terrifying and devastating. Kate experienced severe headaches and double vision, but couldn't tell anyone. She couldn't swallow, had a feeding tube surgically placed in her stomach, a tracheotomy to breathe and several IVs. Because she couldn't cough, Kate needed painful suction treatments every 20 minutes to extract fluids from her lungs. "I could hear what people were saying to me but, in the beginning, no one knew if I understood because they didn't know how much brain damage I had," she says. She was trapped in her own body, unable to move or communicate.

When her family realized she could blink voluntarily, she was able to communicate with an alphabet board. "At the end of six weeks in ICU, I blinked to my doctor, was I going to die, because I just couldn't do it anymore," she says....

Transferring to Daniel Freeman Rehabilitation Hospital was a turning point for Kate. Her neurologist, Dr. David Alexander, remarked after his assessment that he thought rehabilitation would work. "I needed to hear that and I hung on to those words," Kate says....

Here's the comparable narrative for Terri Schiavo, as it appears in the 2003 report by Dr. Jay Wolfson, whom Jeb Bush appointed to review the case (again, emphasis mine):

Theresa spent two and a half months as an inpatient at Humana Northside Hospital, eventually emerging from her coma state, but not recovering consciousness. On 12 May 1990, following extensive testing, therapy and observation, she was discharged to the College Park skilled care and rehabilitation facility. Forty-nine days later, she was transferred again to Bayfront Hospital for additional, aggressive rehabilitation efforts. In September of 1990, she was brought home, but following only three weeks, she was returned to the College Park facility because the "family was overwhelmed by Terry's care needs."

...The clinical records within the massive case file indicate that Theresa was not responsive to neurological and swallowing tests. She received regular and intense physical, occupational and speech therapies.

...In late Autumn of 1990, following months of therapy and testing, formal diagnoses of persistent vegetative state with no evidence of improvement, Michael took Theresa to California, where she received an experimental thalamic stimulator implant in her brain. Michael remained in California caring for Theresa during a period of several months and returned to Florida with her in January of 1991. Theresa was transferred to the Mediplex Rehabilitation Center in Brandon, where she received 24 hour skilled care, physical, occupational, speech and recreational therapies.

Despite aggressive therapies, physician and other clinical assessments consistently revealed no functional abilities, only reflexive, rather than cognitive movements, random eye opening, no communication system and little change cognitively or functionally.

On 19 July 1991 Theresa was transferred to the Sable Palms skilled care facility. Periodic neurological exams, regular and aggressive physical, occupational and speech therapy continued through 1994.

Got it? Adamson was communicating via eyeblink within less than two months, then responded to rehabilitation. Schiavo never manifested any signs of cognition and didn't respond to approximately three years of very aggressive therapy (nor has she shown cognition in the decade since).

Do people who hear Adamson speak know this? Does Adamson know this? Does the LifeSiteNews "journalist" who says Schiavo is "not nearly as severely disabled as Adamson once appeared to be" know this? Did Jeb Bush know this a couple of weeks ago when he asked Adamson to "join in the fight to save Terri Schiavo"? Does Larry King know this?