Nobody Responds To the Brain-Dead

Nobody Wins: Last week I picked up a book at my local library called, “Somebody’s Gotta Say It” by a radio talk show host named Neal Boortz.

I’d never heard of him.

After reading a bit, I thought he was an extremely likable very spunky conservative. He was fresh and full of straightforward opinions…my kind of guy…at least I held that view until I got to the 4th chapter. It was called, “BECAUSE SHE’S EARNED IT.” It was all about his opinions on Terri’s Schiavo’s feeding tube being removed.

His opinion---Terri was brain-dead. It was cruel to keep her alive.

Sorry Neal, if I could write a chapter in answer to your Terri Schiavo’s benevolent death wish, it would be called, “Somebody Has To Say It: Neil Boortz Sometimes Lacks A Brain Himself.”

That was nice of me…what I would really like to say is that he’s an idiot on the subject of ‘brain dead,’ but then again, so are many American doctors, who have been taught to use the word “brain-dead” just a little too often.

In my opinion, Neal owes Terri’s parents an apology…let me tell you why.

Both my parents had massive strokes. I spent years taking care of them until they died. I also spent many endless hours reading about the brain, and hanging around hospitals. And if there was one thing that drove me completely mad, it was when expert “neurologists” kept telling me that (especially with my mother) she was brain dead. We should pull the feeding tube on her. I’m getting angry just thinking about it.

I remember my husband and me arguing with the three top neurologists at the hospital where my mother kept slipping in and out of consciousness. Later we found out one of the reasons for this was not the stroke, but the fact she had a collapsed lung. (They didn’t x-ray her lungs until four days later.) We kept telling them she was having a hard time breathing.

But they just looked at her age…she was seventy-eight. It was her time to die.

One doctor said: “Well, she could live like that for another seventeen years…a vegetable. It’s your call but we think you should let her go.”

“We just talked to her! What’s your basis for determining this?”

“We held up one finger and she didn’t respond.”

“Was she in a comma at the time? Of course she didn’t respond! Where’s your common sense?” we said. “She’s talking to us!”

Oh, they said, “That’s just a “response.” (Remember, Terri’s smile was a ‘response’.)

If it were not for a better educated doctor from India, who went in and asked my mother questions, and then assured the other doctors, like we had been saying, my mother understood every word---her “feeding tube” would have been pulled at that moment.

Now, Neil admitted that he wanted Terri to die, because she was in some kind of hell.
More of the fact is: Neil was in hell having to watch her suffer.

Neil also notes that according to her autopsy, her brain had actually liquefied. Ya’ think the fact that she had not been given food or water for what…three weeks had anything to do with her brain drying up into a prune there Neil? Neil is proof that brains can atrophy even with lots of water intake.

Unfortunately, Neil falls into the scary philosophy shared by too many people that any kind of suffering is just too hard for others to watch. Life shouldn’t be prolonged by technology. It’s cruel and inhumane. In fact this “argument” has, and is now, being used to sanctify all kinds of fascist governmental behavior, it’s nothing new.

Neil also said, “Finally, Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed. Thirteen days later, she was at peace.” Evidently, according to Neil, she felt no thirst.

God--- what an idiot.

What started this? Evidently he had heard Rush Limbaugh once ask the liberals, “Why do you want Terri Schiavo to die?” As I remember it wasn’t just the liberals---but most of Congress, President Bush, his brother Jeb, and lots of Florida Judges.

Which brings me to the main point: When universal health care finally kicks in, millions of Americans, in a life or death situation, will not be given the latest technology, because some state mandated policy will decide it will be more humane to let them die, especially if they are old enough to drain the already bankrupt Medicare system. And unlike now, their families will have no say in the matter.

So, when Neil’s time finally comes, won’t he be shocked if he finds he might actually want to suffer and even live---- and yet it won’t be his call?

Terri’s soul will be waiting to give him a good piece of her mind, and I hope she does.

Well, somebody had to say it.