Terri Schiavo (1963 - 2005)
Yes, this poster is shocking. Is it in bad taste? Perhaps. Is the message true? Absolutely.
The case of Terri Schiavo garnered international attention. Many who followed the legal battles swirling around the case regarding the removal of Terri's feeding tube were unaware that Terri had struggled with her weight and suffered from bulimia for years. In fact, the consequences of bulimia are what put her in her vegetative state.
As a child, Terri was chubby. She lost 65 pounds on a diet as a young woman but found it difficult to keep off. It was then she became bulimic, attempting to survive on liquids.
"She [Terri Schiavo] would drink between 15-20 glasses of iced tea each day and may have been purging additionally. Before she was 18, she weighed 250 pounds, and then, with her loving mother, decided to lose weight. She did - and went down to about 150, at which time she met Michael [Terri's husband]. She continued to lose weight aggressively, and got down to 110 before she had her accident. At the hospital, her electrolyte imbalance was profound, causing the cardiac arrest. That imbalance could have been caused by the extreme amount of fluid intake. Now, she weighs about 150." ~ Dr. Jay Wolfson
Terri in 1990 after her cardiac arrestOn February 25, 1990, at the age of 27, Terri's bulimia produced a potassium imbalance causing cardiac arrest, which in turn shut off blood flow to her brain. As a result, most of her brain died, subsequently filling her cranium with spinal fluid, not brain matter.
The dark butterfly area in the centre of the photo on the left shows Terri Schiavo's cerebral cortex has been replaced by spinal fluid.
Electrolyte imbalance among bulimics is a common occurrence, and can be deadly. As well, gastric rupture often occurs in bulimics. A case in point is the young girl in this post here:
BULIMIA KILLS.....WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES
In perhaps what is the greatest irony of all, Terri was starving herself to death prior to her cardiac arrest. And in the end, it was the State of Florida who ordered the removal of her feeding tube on March 18, 2005 causing her death by starvation on March 31, 2005.
The autopsy on Terri revealed that her brain damage was even worse than experts had expected. Her brain "weighed about half what a healthy human brain weighs, damage that left her unable to think, feel, see, or interact in any way with her environment. There was no chance she could have recovered..."
May she rest in peace.
Links:
www.ebaumsworld.com
www.cbc.ca
www.michaelschiavo.org
www.obsidianwings.blogs.com/
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57781-2005Mar22.html
www.nndb.com/people/435/000026357/
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