Tuesday July 4, 2006
Coma Recovery After 19 Years Poses Questions About Terri Schiavo
A Tale of Two Terries
By Peter J. Smith 
Mountain
View, Arkansas, July 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Monday The Journal
of Clinical Investigation published new research on the recovery of a
brain damaged man from his 19 years in a minimally conscious state,
adding to the growing evidence that those with “hopelessly” severe
brain injuries may be able to recuperate with therapy or other kinds of
assistance.
The Journal’s research focuses on the sudden recovery of Terry Wallis,
who experienced a car wreck in 1984 when he was 19 years old. The
accident sheared the nerve connections in his brain, putting him in a
minimally conscious state (MCS) and rendering him a quadriplegic.
Terry, a young husband with a newborn child, was considered a hopeless
case, especially considering that his family could not pay the $120,000
needed to consult a neurologist about any possibility of recovery.
However in 2003, during one of the regular visits of his mother, who had regularly visited him at
the Rehabilitation Centre in Mountain View,
Arkansas, he
made what seemed a sudden recovery, and spoke “mom”, his first word in
19 years.
The research indicates that Terry’s brain grew new tiny nerve
connections over time, creating a new nerve network to replace the old
one that was severely damaged in the car accident. While doctors and
neurologists are still baffled as to ‘why’ Terry recovered, the doctors
at the rehabilitation centre have indicated that Terry’s recovery might
be attributed to the visits of his family, who took him out on weekends
and special occasions. This may have acted as a mental therapy to help
his brain recover.
“He now seems exactly like his old self,” says Jerry Wallis, Terry’s
father. Over the 19 years of Terry’s coma, both Jerry and his mother
Angilee had doubts at some time or another about whether or not it was
better for Terry to be alive. However, now both are glad they never
caved into those doubts. Since then they have seen their son make
strides in his recovery with the ambition of walking for his daughter.
“He very often tells us how glad he is to be alive,” says Terry’s
father.
Terry Wallis’ remarkable recovery after 19 years, however, stands in
stark opposition to the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who received
no therapy from her philandering husband after her 1990 collapse. She
was instead dehydrated to death by court order in March 2005. Although
some doctors claim that Terri Schiavo could not have made Terry Wallis’
recovery since she was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS),
witnesses such as former nurse Carla Iyer maintained that with therapy,
Schiavo, who said words like “mommy, help me”, could have indeed
recovered over time.
New research on the ability of the brain to recover over time questions
the hastiness of many in the medical profession to condemn patients as
irreversibly brain-dead or damaged. Back in May, South African
researchers discovered a drug that helps PVS patients temporarily
recover to a fully conscious state. In a BBC interview Dr. Ralf Clauss,
a scientist in nuclear medicine and one of the drug researchers, stated
that “For every damaged area of the brain, there is a dormant area,
which seems to be a sort of protective mechanism. The damaged tissue is
dead, there’s nothing you can do,” he explained. “But it’s the dormant
areas which ‘wake up’.”
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