Frist: Schiavo Autopsy Results Ends Case

[dubyaD40web]

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a surgeon who had questioned Terri Schiavo's diagnosis during the intense national debate on whether to remove her feeding tube, said the autopsy documenting her severe brain damage brings "a very sad chapter to a close."

"She had devastating brain damage, and with that the chapter is closed," Frist said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Frist, R-Tenn., said he never made his own diagnosis but did argue there wasn't enough information about Schiavo's condition to justify allowing her husband to remove her feeding tube against her parents' wishes.

"I raised the question, 'Is she in a persistent vegetative state or not?' I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not. I did say that certain tests should be performed to determine that before starving her to death," Frist said in the interview.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050616/ap_on_go_co/schiavo_frist

[htuttle]

1. "I never made the diagnosis"

He thinks we're stupid. REALLY stupid. He's on tape making a diagnosis. He also said she was responding to visual stimulus.

He's an idiot.

[maddezmom]

4. he's becoming the ultimate flip flopper

guess he's looking forward to his run for the Prez.

Here's yesterday's flip flop:

Frist, a physician, said he agrees with Bush's 2001 limitations on the research but also said, "It is time, with advancing science, that we review where we are, review not just the president's policy, but where is science today."

Frist said he would not promote research that "crosses certain ethical guidelines."

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1552166&mesg_id=1552166

[jokerman93]

67. When are you libruls gonna get it???

When pinko commies do it, it's flip-flopping. When Christo-fascists do it, it's called creating new realities.

LOL

[ET Awful]

2. Gee Bill, that's not what this article says

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48119-2005Mar18.html

" Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."

"I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." "

[EarlG]

7. Here's another one

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1533567,00.html

Frist, the Republican leader in the Senate and a potential presidential candidate in 2008, dropped a bombshell in both medical and political circles by offering a lengthy diagnosis based on video footage that he said he had spent "an hour or so looking at" in his office.

He quoted several medical texts and concluded: "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."

Well there's one entry in the Top 10 Conservative Idiots that's going to write itself this week...

[Guckert]

27. I do love the "visual stimuli" part. SHE WAS BLIND billy. i guess the

video would not show that????

[alarcojon]

33. I believe the local phrase is "asshat"! eom

[TahitiNut]

28. The good doctor must be forgiven.

He can only base his opinions on his own experience. After all, Terry Shiavo's responsiveness was no different than the average person supporting Dr. Frist. Indeed, her evident connection with reality and ability to reason was almost indistinguishable from the average neoconservative voter.

[soup]

16. Frist's lengthy speech -

>snip>Persistent vegetative state, which is what the court has ruled -- I question it. I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office here in the Capitol. And that footage, to me, depicts something very different than persistent vegetative state. One of the classic textbooks that we use in medicine today is called "Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine." In the 16th edition, which was published just this year, 2005, on page 1625, it reads, "the vegetative state signifies an awake but unresponsive state. These patients have emerged from coma after a period of days or weeks to an unresponsive state in which the eyelids are open, giving the appearance of wakefulness." I'll stop quoting from the classic internal medicine textbook, but one last sentence, "in the closely related, minimally conscious state, the patient may make intermittent, rudimentary vocal and motor responses."<full speech here:
http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Speeches.Detail&Speech_id=174&Month=3&Year=2005

faulty memory, Bill?

[rodeodance]

19. hey thanks--

[Supersedeas]

55. breaks out his Repub Fundy Trump card to dismiss your factual analysis

[Ilsa]

3. What an asshole that Frist is.

He was really treading on unethical statements previously with his comments. At least he's willing to put this rest now, unlike the Schindler family.

I was in the hotel dining room this morning and they had Fox News on. A guest on their program stipulated to her blindness, but proceeded to misinform by not repeating what the ME said about her brain damage being pervasive to the extent she couldn't utter a coherent word, much less initiate a thought. They are trying to make this look like people with disabilities are being thrown away or put to death.

[Todd B]

10. Tennessee Dept. of Health:

Maybe we should contact the Tennessee Department of Health about this? I mean, for a practising physician to give that type of erroneous diagnosis, there has to be repercussions, right?

http://www2.state.tn.us/health/contact.htm

[NJmaverick]

26. He should have his license pulled

He is practicing very poor medicine.

[Ilsa]

32. Yeah, my husband was reading more news accounts

of Frist yesterday and today trying to distance himself from his earlier comments. Also, Mel Martinez is stating something to the effect that govt shouldn't be involved in these personal family decisions. :dunce: Picked a nice time for critical thinking, didn't they? When they realize that the focus of attention is gone, and their actions could later be applied to them if the legislation comes through, they decide to pull the plug on any potential for legislated interference.

[VegasWolf]

71. Frist should do brain surgery on bush. nt

[Old and In the Way]

74. He was practicing politics, not medicine.

Apparently, he's not much good at either.

He knew her condition, but he cynically used his position to feed the base and suck up to the RW religious fundies. Now that the data clearly proves him wrong....time to revise history. It's what these corrupt, moral relativists do so well...

[billyoc]

5. Oh, thanks, Senator. Can our judiciary

come out of their bomb shelters now? :grr:

[DrZeeLit]

6. Riding backwards on the horse, brushing his tracks.....

That's what my husband calls it when he's caught in poor judgement, remarks, actions.
You can imagine... sweeping the tracks away with a branch of leaves?

Actually, this is a good thing. Just more ammo when he decides to run for President. All this film, his comments, his actions -- cannot be easily wiped away.

[Malva Zebrina]

8. They must be getting quite a few e-mails at the Tennesse

board of medicine or health, questioning Frist's license to practice medicine which he currently holds in that state. A lawyer called in to Randi yesterday and suggested contacting that board about Frist's very public, irresponsible medical opinion voiced in the Sciavo case. He will have to answer to them. Apparently he has the common sense of a banana.

[rodeodance]

15. Has Tennesse even brought up the issue--to the Medical Board?

[Malva Zebrina]

31. I don't know

but I am sure after that passionate broadcast by Randi yesterday and the caller who gave the suggestion to question Frist by writing to the Tennesse board, that they will be getting plenty of inquiries re Frist and his Tennessee licensure.

another thread here yesterday with link to Tennessee contacts

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3866951

[kedrys]

9. Did he view her remains in person?

Or via videotape? :sarcasm:

Either way, he just provided us with enough ammo to hoist him by his own petard should be unjudiciously decide to make a run for the White House. I say let him keep talking.

[Evergreen Emerald]

11. So...did any "reporter" call him on his lie?

[pinkpops]

23. ABC has a medical guy, Tim Johnson, who

was always sticking by the attending physicians, against telediagnosis. After the autopsy results I did hear him say he had been disappointed in Frist's behavior.

[Beausoir]

37. Tim Johnson blasted Frist again

last night on ABC World News Tonight.

Johnson went out of his way to single Frist out by name.

Bad medicine. Plain and simple. I know Frist is a scum, but you really have to question the sanity of someone who would place cheap partisian politics over medical science and try to interfere in some poor brain dead woman's life and death decisions.

Very bad man.

[LostinVA]

39. Johnson is also a Methodist minister

Just an interesting aside. And, a reminder that not all Christians are insane!

[Montanan]

12. "The chapter is closed"? Has Frist given up on Jesus?

I thought Jesus could re-animate Terri Schiavo right now and march her down the Senate aisle if he wanted to. Oh, ye of little faith.

[Warpy]

13. Being GOP is never having to say you've slandered

Somebody really needs to rub that sanctimonious prig's face in this one, HARD.

I can't imagine any of the interns who came through all the head injury wards I worked in would have bought the premise in those cherry picked videos. They clearly showed Schindler following his daughter, not the other way around. One wonders what kind of clinical practice Frist had, and whether he might have dodged anything that didn't pertain to his future specialty.

It's just a good thing that he's not in practice now. His performance over Schiavo shows that he lets his prejudice get in the way of his diagnostic abilities, and that is not a good quality in a physician.

[rodeodance]

14. and lets not forget DeLay's comments:

from the Sunday Times art. above:

......Yesterday she began her first full day without food or water and is expected to die within two weeks unless another court overturns Judge George Greer’s ruling. The case has provoked a frantic effort by conservative politicians to keep Schiavo alive. Tom DeLay, the Republican leader in Congress, called the removal of the feeding tubes “barbarism” and “an act of medical terrorism”.

[rodeodance]

17. he takes lessions from his boss sitting in the Oval office.

[underpants]

18. Bizarro

truly strange

[rodeodance]

20. Rupugs just like to 'move on'--forget the past (unless they use it for

their own agenda)---they want us to move on about the war lies (and some Dems in the center have said that also)--time ot move on --just like Frist did with his comments--this chapter is closed.

[rodeodance]

21. so--lets email this thread to all media--friends--keep it alive.

[LeahD]

22. He STILL has it wrong.......

"'I did say that certain tests should be performed to determine that before starving her to death,' Frist said in the interview."

What???!!!

The coroner ruled that she died from dehydration. She did NOT starve to death!

[Lerkfish]

24. what about the death threats to her husband that Frist

did nothing to dispell?
what about the death threats to the judiciary that others brought up because of this case?

should not there be charges, and serious ones, brought to bear?

I am no lawyer, but If I were mr. schiavo, I'd be rich, I think.

[NJmaverick]

25. He is a PERFECT example of the dishonesty of republicans

This guy is the world's biggest quack or just a perfect example of how low republicans will sink to make their point. Lying about a patient's condition and medical fact is pretty low. Then again when your position is contrary to logic, reason and moral norms; lying MUST be your number one tool.

[Felix Mala]

29. "Case closed," i.e., no need to revisit his incompetent pandering

[AlGore-08.com]

30. It's official. The press will let the cat killer get away with murder.

Off to write my LTTE to the WashPost now...

God, I miss America...

[kskiska]

34. "starving her to death"

Not an MD's terminology, especially when the ME specifically said she did not "starve to death." She died of dehydration, not starvation. But "starvation" is more incendiary, isn't it.

[gratuitous]

35. Is anyone surprised?

Of course Frist went on record with his diagnosis. And he knew that his words would carry great weight, based on his history as a doctor and a heart surgeon. He was exploiting this poor woman and the members of her family who couldn't let her go for his own political gain.

Now that it's blown up so completely, and he stands there open-handed, with soot covering his suit and his face, smoking tendrils drifting up from his body, he'd like to pretend the whole sordid episode never happened. "It's all over, nothing to see here. That's the end of it."

Well, "Dr." Frist, you were one of the folks most instrumental in turning this sad situation into a full-blown national circus. My verdict is that you don't get to just walk away from the mess you made, the emotions you stirred up, and the people you played for your own sick, twisted, perverted pleasure. Be a man for once in your miserable life, and admit that you were playing political games with people's lives, deceiving desperate people so that you could get in front of the cameras and stoke your oversized ego.

Bill Frist, you are a rotten, heartless bastard.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

36. So you mean he FLIP-FLOPPED

[Inland]

38. It's only over because he lost in his desire to keep it going forever.

IF he had had his way, she would still be in a state of living death.

But he pretends to be satisfied with the result. What a dick.

[antonialee839]

40. Frist isn't a doctor, he just plays one on tv

and badly at that.

[BrightKnight]

65. He should have his license revoked.

We don't permit quacks to practice medicine.

[Olney Blue]

76. Quack! Quack!

Frist is a quack and Dubya's a lame duck.

Birds of a feather.....

[Maddy McCall]

41. So, will the Schindlers sue him next?

Seems like they could get a healthy malpractice settlement off of him.

[xxqqqzme]

42. '...Is she in a persistent vegetative state or not?'

I never made the diagnosis,...'

Don't look now, billy boy, but I think your pants R on fire!

[The_Casual_Observer]

43. Is it impossible to say you were wrong, frist?

frist was wrong, is was a blunder, he was irresponsible and a fool.
Fuck it frist, say you were wrong.

[FourStarDemocrat]

72. "Being a cat-killing fundy means never having to say I was wrong!"

(Quotations mine) B-)

[Maestro]

44. Hey Frist, in regards to whatever you say...

[BenDavid]

45. Excuse me, but

when I watched the doctors report on the autopsy, most of their comments stated the diagnosis made early on by those doctors back then were correct.....but when you got a zealot like Frist, saying that he " had not made is own diagnosis" that in itself is a lie. He did! Because he believed the diagnosis of all those doctors were wrong.

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. Hey Dr. Bill -

What about her BLINDNESS??? Didn't you say something about her responding to visual stimuli?????

Oh well, I guess since Terri wasn't a CAT, you had no idea what you were doing when you diagnosed her. :rofl:

[XemaSab]

47. Cat Killer needs to shut his cakehole

the END to the case should have been the last judge's ruling.

drop the curtain and turn on the lights, because the show's OVER.

[demokatgurrl]

48. Anxious to pull his ass out of tha tone isn't he? n/t

[stanwyck]

49. Let's be grateful this man is a Senator

and not our family doctor. True, he does a lot of damage as a Senator. But he's such an inept physician, his patients may not survive. Remember, this is the guy who wasn't convinced tears don't cause AIDs.
Another Republican who has failed up.
What a crew. Tom "Bugman" Delay. Newt "I couldn't get tenure" Gingrich.
When all else fails, become a rightwing loony and run for Congress.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

50. Another lying NeoCon...our tax dollars at work.

[Disturbed]

51. It is mind boggling that this lying scum was an MD.

He claims that he is going to resume his MD career. I wouldn't want anyone incl. myself to be a patient of his. It is really insulting that he blatantly lies when there is ample evidence of his lying. It just boggles my mind when these creeps do this.

[Olney Blue]

77. Maybe he went to a medical school...

that administered a "hypocritical" oath.


:dunce:

[mountainvue]

52. Trying to cut his losses. n/t

[zara]

53. A miracle could have regenerated her brain!!!

You never know!
You never ever never can really know
that a miracle couldn't have brought her back.
Oh yeah and her husband was a bad man, did I forget to say that?
Could any evidence ever convince the felon Randall Terry's of the world that their righteousness is anything but?????

[BiggJawn]

54. Flip-Flop Frist...

FLIP-FLOP! (slap-slap) FLIP-FLOP! (slap-slap) FLIP-FLOP!

(slap-slap) (slap-slap)
FLIP-FLOP! FLIP-FLOP!
(slap-slap-slap)

[Pacifist Patriot]

56. Stupid ass.

Glad that quack isn't practicing medicine. Very sorry he's practicing politics.

[mondo joe]

57. We should have had a QUACK campaign and sent him DUCKS

in the mail!

[BrightKnight]

73. Duckie Necklaces - $2.95 per dozen

http://www.orientaltrading.com/otcweb/application?namespace=browse&origin=searchMain.jsp&event=link.itemDetails&demandPrefix=15&sku=24/891&mode=Searching&searchDestinationJSP=/search/searchMain.jsp&D=duckie&mr=SearchMainMerchThemes&Dx=mode%252bmatchallpartial&Ntx=mode%252bmatchallpartial&Ntt=duckie&N=0&in_merch=1&Ntk=all



I can imagine his staff wearing them.

[RalphReedsWreckedEm]

58. What a pathetic redneck jackass

This moron got caught up in the fundy circus and though (wrongly) that it would last forever. Thank God he was never my doctor. He makes me fear to go to any doctor. I think I'll start asking doctors what party they belong to before I'll let them touch me.

[ronnykmarshall]

59. Is he going to apologize?

Hell no!

[dxstone]

60. .

[deadparrot]

61. The chapter will be over when your license is pulled,

Cat Killer.

[smoogatz]

62. Nothing like making a total ass of yourself in front of God and everyone

But then, Frist and the rest of the fundie pander division do that every time they open their mouths.

[burythehatchet]

63. It would not be a bad idea to never let this thing go.

Frist is a dangerous man but he's not too bright. We should make sure this is enough to sideline him forever.

[BrightKnight]

64. Faith based diagnosis = quack !

He is a quack. He had to know that the diagnosis he gave was wrong. You can not get through medical school practicing faith based medicine.

He should have his medical license revoked. A license could be abused while working for an insurance company, in public policy position, or treating patients.

[0007]

66. This guy makes me so dizzy with his double talk that I think

I'm drunk.

[deacon2]

68. Big Greasy Frist... LIAR n/t

[iwantmycountryback]

69. I really hope this guy is the Repub nominee

He is really pathetic at this point, I'd love to crush him.

[RareLubbockDem]

70. This just in! Frist says Ronnie Milsap is "a big faker"

sorry, couldn't resist.

[mainer]

75. Tweety gave a smirk about Frist's latest comments

Played a video clip of Frist's "diagnosis" two months ago, and then got the Republican consultant guest to admit that Frist was trying desperately to make it all go away.