Get those puking smilies ready...

[progressoid]

I saw this on the tube tonight:

Woman Survives Killer Blood Clots; Miracle Recovery Baffles Doctors


Within a few hours, Marianne was airlifted to a teaching hospital in Huntington, W.Va. Tests revealed the source of the problem: A tumor inside her heart had broken apart, causing clots throughout her body and triggering a massive stroke. Doctors knew the extent of the problem but also knew they were not equipped to fix it.

snip...

Marianne was airlifted to the Cleveland Clinic, where some of the country's leading cardiologists now admit they believed her chances were slim at best. Emergency cardiothoracic surgeons were called in to remove the tumor in her heart in a three-hour operation. That was a start. Now they had to contend with the blood clots ... everywhere.

snip...

The doctors had now done all they could. Marianne was in intensive care. The strain on her family was overwhelming. In the midst of it all, her 64-year-old father, Stanley Cook, died of a heart attack in his sleep. Doctors urged the family to delay telling Marianne for fear it would trigger more complications.

Marianne's whole right side was paralyzed. The family waited by her bedside and prayed. "We believe in the power of prayer," her mother said. And there was a lot of it. Her mother called the "prayer team" at her church. From there one person called another. Word, and prayers, were relayed from church to church, state to state. Within days "we had people across the country praying for her," said Wilma.

snip...

For a week, there was no change. Then, eight days later, Marianne started to move a toe. A few days later, a foot. The paralysis was slowly fading. The recovery had begun.

Just after Christmas, Marianne was released to a nursing home. Therapists predicted it would take a year before she was ready to go home. They, too, had underestimated Marianne. Less than three months after her collapse, Marianne arrived home -- walking and talking, and ever so grateful.

Marianne lost vision in one eye and part of one toe from the lack of circulation. But her prognosis is good. She and her family say they don't know much about miracles. But this, they say, certainly comes close. Her doctors approach it much the same way.

"I cannot remember ever seeing someone with so many strokes and so many problems before surgery walking out of the hospital," said Dr. Gillinov.

"Luck? Divine intervention? Some of both."

_______________________________________________


If you can stomach it, the whole story and video is here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=5444704&page=1

ETA: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[enlightenment]

1. No, thanks. I think the clip was sufficient.

You know, there might be some potential use for this kind of 'stuff' as a diet aid for anyone who prefers rational thought.

The only problem I can see with it is that, like bulimia, all that puking will rot your teeth.
:puke:

[Az]

2. You know they use the word chances for a reason n/t

[Warpy]

3. Also miracles

I saw a few miracles during 25 years in health care, people who should have been dead meat being able to walk and talk and function normally just a few weeks later.

However, we call them miracles for a reason. They're flukes. We can't control them no matter how much we love Jesus and we sure as hell can't count on them.

[Az]

5. Our systems pretty much try to fix themselves

Even in cases where it is usually hopeless the body is trying like the dickens to fix itself. Even when the odds are absolutely stacked against it every once in a while it pulls through.

[progressoid]

6. Of course, then there is the UNmiracle of her father dying...

In the midst of it all, her 64-year-old father, Stanley Cook, died of a heart attack in his sleep.

[LeftyMom]

4. And sometimes things go the other way

and for whatever reason people die of what appear to be perfectly survivable illnesses. Considering that our understanding of the body and various disease processes and healing mechanisms is imperfect, failures in our ability to predict outcomes are to be expected.

I have no idea why people are comforted by mythologizing this, instead of just admitting that sometimes we don't entirely understand what's going on, and need to keep working at it.

[SCantiGOP]

8. excellent point

I had a very good friend who went in for a routine, non-threatening out patient procedure to have his gall bladder removed. After liver failure and a coma, he was dead six days later. He and his family went to church. Why didn't God get blamed for that if he is going to get credit for this story?

[and-justice-for-all]

7. Well, first you have to know how many other...

have not survived such an ordeal. Most likely, or obviously, she is the statical survivor based not on pray, but on chance.

As with the miracle fountain in France, some of those people are statistically going to recover from there illness while others will not.

60 "miracles" in several hundred years is not a "miracle", a miracle would be someone missing limbs and seeing them grow back right in front of you.

It is all wishful thinking.

[onager]

9. George Bernard Shaw on Lourdes...

"All those canes, braces and crutches, and not a single glass eye, wooden leg or toupee."