USA TODAY Cites Neurologists

In a process that could take days, weeks or longer, the lack of food and water will cause chemical imbalances that eventually will shut down major organs such as the kidneys, and that ultimately will trigger heart abnormalities or other fatal problems, says Roger Albin, a neurologist at the University of Michigan.

Florida courts have ruled that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, a condition caused by extensive damage to the cortex and other parts of the brain that are responsible for consciousness, higher thinking, memory or even sensations such as pain, hunger and thirst.

"She's not experiencing hunger - she's not experiencing anything," Albin says.

Patients in such a state don't get better because the body is unable to repair such a massive injury to the brain, says James Bernat, a neurologist at the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H.

"If you're in a state like this for three months or more, you're chance of recovery is zero," Albin says.

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Albin COULD be wrong about zero chances for some recovery. No doubt, his massive ego permits him from admitting that.

MIRACLES HAPPEN
KING: Wouldn't it be ironic, Michael, if it were pulled and suddenly something happened and they found something that cures or aids people in this condition, and they can live at least a partial life again? Wouldn't you feel terrible?

SCHIAVO: There's nothing out there that's going to do that, Larry. Let's be realistic, Larry. You can't regrow a brain.
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WRONG!!!!!!!!!

Rabies Survivor Leaves Hospital

Remarkable recovery allows teen to return home a month early
By DARRYL ENRIQUEZ
Posted: Jan. 1, 2005

An athletic and mentally tough Jeanna Giese, who defeated the deadly rabies virus, started her new year Saturday by leaving Children's Hospital of Wisconsin a month early and going home to a waiting holiday celebration.

The 15-year-old Fond du Lac girl is said to be the first person in medical history to have survived the disease without having received a vaccination after becoming infected through a bat bite.

Equally as impressive is Jeanna Giese's recovery. Her body is undergoing a "rebirth," physicians said Saturday. Nerves ravaged by the disease are reconnecting to muscles and organs including her heart, a phenomenon that the medical community will monitor for years to come.

The physician who led her treatment team during almost 80 days of hospitalization said he had never seen an "evolution of healing" like this, nor had his colleagues at other national and international medical institutions.

"She's one of a kind," said Rodney E. Willoughby, the pediatric infectious disease physician.