covici@ccs.uucp (John Covici) (04/02/91)
Index Number: 14592
Following from New Federalist V5, #12
MAN RECOVERS AFTER EIGHT YEARS IN
``COMA''--PROVES ``EXPERTS'' WRONG
AGAIN!
CLUB OF LIFE
by Linda Everett
In 1982, doctors told Effie and John
Holbrook it would be better to let
their son die. For eight years, doctors
labeled Conley Holbrook
``semi-comatose'' and in a ``persistent
vegetative state.'' Then, one recent
morning, he turned to his mother, who
had never given up hope, and said,
``Mama.''
In November 1982, Conley Holbrook,
18, of Linwood, N.C., was found
unconscious after a reported fight.
Doctors at the North Carolina Baptist
Hospital/Bowman-Gray School of Medicine
in Winston-Salem performed brain
surgery to relieve pressure, but Conley
remained in a coma in the hospital for
two months. Doctors said, ``Just let
him go.'' But Effie Holbrook told them
plain and simple: ``The Lord and me
don't see it that way.''
So, Effie and John took their son
home. There, they, and another son,
Glenn, have cared for Conley ever
since. Never an easy task, it was all
the more difficult because medical
insurance through John Holbrook's job
as a furniture-maker expired for Conley
when he turned 18.
- A Lying Label -
Conley, like thousands of others,
was tagged as being in a ``perisistent
vegetative state''--an unscientific,
non-medical label created by the
medical faction of the death mob to
build a bias against treatment of those
with severe disabilities and brain
injury. Instead of regularly evaluating
an individual's capabilities and
charting a therapy program, as you
would with any disability, there is
only one bleak choice open to you, once
you are catagorized as in a
``vegetative state'': Either you are
``allowed'' to die by starvation, or
you ``vegetate''--unless your family is
like the Holbrooks.
There was no aggressive physical
or occupational therapy available to
Conley, but Effie Holbrook never gave
up. She worked with Conley, who had
very limited ability to move his limbs,
with exercises to keep him limber. She
and her husband John would just ``load
'im up in a wheelchair, bring him in to
sit with us in the living room.'' Then
Conley did some very
un-``vegetable''-like things; for
example, eating solid foods. Although
Conley did have a stomach feeding tube
for the first two and half years, Effie
started feeding him orally with pureed
foods. For over five years now, he has
been eating regular food. And, for
nearly six years, he has been
communicating with his family by blinks
and handsqueezes.
- He Comes Out of It -
About March 1, while at a local
hospital being treated for pneumonia,
Conley spoke his first word in eight
years: ``Mama.'' When Effie started
screaming, the nurses came running.
Conley told them who attacked him,
adding that he had wanted to tell Effie
that and much more--for years. Shortly
thereafter, he checked on old business,
asking a former girlfriend if she still
had that Harley-Davidson he had given
her nine years earlier. Now, he's
itching to walk. 34AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET (Bill Gorman) (04/10/91)
Index Number: 14648 For a somewhat different perspective on this whole subject I suggest the film "Awakenings" starring Alan Alda.