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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Driving Me Insane

Driving Me Insane

by John Cole|  July 11, 20057:24 pm| 14 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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So the Republican party is hemorrhaging moderate and independent support. This will probably help a lot:

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn challenged the accuracy of Terri Schiavo’s autopsy Thursday, saying he has a copy of the Florida woman’s medical file.

Coburn’s comments came during the taping of a television show for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority in Oklahoma City. He was responding to questions from a panel of journalists, including a Tulsa World reporter and Terri Watkins, a reporter from KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City.

“I have on my desk a complete medical file of Terri Schiavo, and I would challenge the accuracy of many of the statements by people involved in that case in terms of her medical condition, and I would also challenge some of the autopsy findings based on what I have on my desk in Washington,” Coburn said.

Coburn is an obstetrician and gynecologist and is not trained as a pathologist or medical examiner. He said he had reviewed Schiavo’s medical file but had not examined her body…

If remote diagnosis is good enough for Bill Frist, it has to be good enough for Tom Coburn.

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn challenged the accuracy of Terri Schiavo’s autopsy Thursday, saying he has a copy of the Florida woman’s medical file.

Coburn’s comments came during the taping of a television show for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority in Oklahoma City. He was responding to questions from a panel of journalists, including a Tulsa World reporter and Terri Watkins, a reporter from KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City.

“I have on my desk a complete medical file of Terri Schiavo, and I would challenge the accuracy of many of the statements by people involved in that case in terms of her medical condition, and I would also challenge some of the autopsy findings based on what I have on my desk in Washington,” Coburn said.

Coburn is an obstetrician and gynecologist and is not trained as a pathologist or medical examiner. He said he had reviewed Schiavo’s medical file but had not examined her body.

Schiavo collapsed in 1990,

possibly from an eating disorder, spent 15 years on life support and died March 31.

Her husband’s request to remove her feeding tube was granted after a lengthy court battle in which President Bush, Congress, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and others became involved.

Schiavo’s case touched off a national debate about how to deal with patients in her condition who have no living will or other advance directives.

Most opinion polls showed that a clear majority of Americans disapproved of Congress’ involvement in the case. But Coburn said he believes that the case “was very much misunderstood by the American public.”

“We allow every convicted murderer in this country a writ of habeas corpus,” he said, referring to appeals granted people who receive a death sentence.

Numerous court reviews of Schiavo’s case all came to the same conclusion — to allow the removal of her feeding tube.

An autopsy report released June 15 found that Schiavo suffered severe, irreversible brain damage that reduced her brain to half its normal size.

Jon R. Thogmartin, the Florida pathologist who performed the autopsy, wrote that “no amount of treatment or rehabilitation would have reversed the massive loss of neurons.”

Thogmartin studied Schiavo’s remains, reviewed court, medical and other records, and interviewed her family members, doctors and others in making his determination. The autopsy also failed to substantiate any allegations of abuse.

Before Schiavo’s death, Coburn was one of two doctors in the Senate to question her medical condition. Coburn was quoted by The New York Times as saying: “All you have to do is look at her on TV. Any doctor with any conscience can look at her and know that she does not have a terminal disease and know that she has some function.”

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who also is a physician, said in a speech on the Senate floor: “That is not somebody in a persistent vegetative state. . . . I question it based on the review of the video footage.”

After the autopsy results were released, Frist appeared on three network television shows, agreed with the findings of the autopsy and distanced himself from his earlier comments.

“I never, never, on the floor of the Senate made a diagnosis, nor would I ever do that,” he told NBC’s “Today” show.

Coburn said “the Senate probably stepped too far” in its handling of the Schiavo case.

“The question is,” he said, “do people that have impaired brain function — what’s their future now based on the rulings that we have about the Terri Schiavo case?”

Coburn spokesman John Hart said he doesn’t know what specific aspects of Schiavo’s autopsy Coburn found inaccurate.

He said Coburn “doesn’t have a plan to reopen the Terri Schiavo case.”

Coburn is in a position to comment on the case because “he has read many autopsy reports during his career of practicing medicine,” Hart said.

The OETA program, “Oklahoma Forum,” hosted by Dick Pryor, airs at 1 p.m. Sunday on channel 11 in Tulsa.

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Reader Interactions

14Comments

  1. 1.

    Doug

    July 11, 2005 at 8:02 pm

    Science apparently takes a back seat to religion with more elected Republicans than not.

  2. 2.

    jmaier

    July 11, 2005 at 8:58 pm

    I’d recommend the new medical term Fristiage for conducting a complex medical diagnosis via remote viewing.

  3. 3.

    jcricket

    July 11, 2005 at 9:59 pm

    Wow – Glad to see that Michael Schiavo keeps getting ammunition for whatever eventual libel/slander suit he’ll be forced into filing because idiots like Coburn can’t shut up.

    The OK state medical board that licensed him should really revoke his license for this kind of thing. Frist too, as his backpedaling is about as convincing as Rove’s claim that “Joe Wilson’s wife” != “Valerie Plame”.

    If moderate Republicans and independents keep voting for Republicans like Coburn (and Frist and Delay), they have no one to blame but themselves when the fate of their terminally ill loved ones becomes political cannon fodder.

    Or they can’t get medical treatment because stem cell funding is illegal in the US. Or when their kids end up idiots because the fundies ban all actual science in favor of faith-based science. Or they can’t get an abortion or birth control (don’t kid yourself, that’s on the agenda).

    Glad to see stuff like this pisses you off John. To bad the rest of your party is nowhere to be found. Wait, scratch that. They’re busy condeming Hillary. Or calling Dick Durbin a traitor.

  4. 4.

    Sojourner

    July 11, 2005 at 10:12 pm

    Don’t forget their very important work on the flag desecration bill. Just imagine the dramatic improvements in quality of life that will happen when that bill is passed.

  5. 5.

    ppgaz

    July 11, 2005 at 11:12 pm

    Maybe Frist and his pal can open an online doctor’s office. Family members and neighbors can vent their spleens, so to speak, about your illness, and the Laurel and Hardy Webclinic can supply a diagnosis and prescribe treatment, all without ever seeing you.

    “Fake-based medicine.” Hey, it’s not that different from Oral Roberts or Benny Hinn.

  6. 6.

    jami

    July 11, 2005 at 11:24 pm

    do you guys foresee republicans cleaning up their bows to special interests enough to win upcoming elections? from here (deficit, high prices, job losses, john bolton, karl rove, halliburton, iraq…), it looks pretty bad.

    most of the republican candidates i’m hearing about have voted right along with dubya, so they’re stained with most of his mistakes.

  7. 7.

    Zifnab

    July 12, 2005 at 8:47 am

    Wow. Talk about not letting a dead horse lay. I mean, is it not extremely obvious that only the most deeply religiously indoctrinated even give a flip about the whole Terri Shavio thing? When Congressional approval ratings are as close to the single digits as you’re ever likely to see, what the heck is this guy doing, beating the horse like this?

    Honestly, this is when you know the extremists have you by your rocks. When you’re continuing to show moral outrage and spewing ill-informed filth in the face of a near universal national disgust. That’s hard core.

  8. 8.

    Jeff

    July 12, 2005 at 8:50 am

    Despite being a registered Republican AND living in Philly, I actually sent a small donation to Coburn’s opponent in the 2004 Senate race. Cripes, Carson was a Democrat and he was probably STILL more conservative than i am, and he still got smoked.

    That guy Coburn, i mean, there’s “conservative”, and then there’s just “flat-out, batshit crazy”.

    What the hell is going on in Oklahoma? First they cost me $1000 when USC smoked them in the Orange Bowl, then they elect that nut.

    (Actually, they elected that nut, THEN got smoked in the Orange Bowl)

  9. 9.

    Bernard Yomtov

    July 12, 2005 at 1:23 pm

    Maybe Frist and his pal can open an online doctor’s office.

    Good idea. You could just send in a video of yourself and they would email back a diagnosis, prescription, advice, whatever was appropriate. No problem scheduling appointments, no waiting at the office, no being probed and having blood taken and having to answer a lot of questions.

    This is a breakthrough in medical practice.

  10. 10.

    sockmonkey

    July 14, 2005 at 11:11 am

    my my my the democrats remain unexplainably LAME but the GOP have gone from really mean to really stupid in about 4 months.

    i knew as soon as i saw W get on that plane to go back to DC to “save” Terry – “his political capital was spent.” the GOP echo chamber had overtaken W’s team…

    I was glad actually. The man is profoundly destructive to American values.

    oh and as a Left coast Lefty – we all knew Okalhoma was gonna be steamrolled by the mighty Trojan nation. you folks on the east coast should pay closer attention….

    we are gonna do it again this year. FIGHT ON!

  11. 11.

    sockmonkey

    July 14, 2005 at 11:12 am

    my my my the democrats remain unexplainably LAME but the GOP have gone from really mean to really stupid in about 4 months.

    i knew as soon as i saw W get on that plane to go back to DC to “save” Terry – “his political capital was spent.” the GOP echo chamber had overtaken W’s team…

    I was glad actually. The man is profoundly destructive to American values.

    oh and as a Left coast Lefty – we all knew Okalhoma was gonna be steamrolled by the mighty Trojan nation. you folks on the east coast should pay closer attention….

    we are gonna do it again this year. FIGHT ON!

  12. 12.

    Lin

    July 14, 2005 at 11:02 pm

    Unless this medical record has been made public knowledge, someone is in serious breech of HIPAA medical privacy laws. Mr. Schivo should press charges…..

  13. 13.

    Lin

    July 14, 2005 at 11:04 pm

    Unless this medical record has been made public knowledge, someone is in serious breech of HIPAA medical privacy laws. Mr. Schivo should press charges…..

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Balloon Juice says:
    October 20, 2005 at 8:44 am

    […] Good. And kudos to Coburn, someone I have had little nice to say about in the past. He really has been advancing the ball on the out of control spending fight. […]

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