ABC Highlights Revived Coma Patient Almost Cut from Life Support

By Brad Wilmouth | December 23, 2011 | 22:54

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Friday's World News on ABC ran a report by correspondent Dan Harris which celebrated a 21-year-old former coma patient who was revived after his doctor decided to delay disconnecting him from life support.

Substitute anchor Josh Elliot followed up with a positive item regarding religion as he recounted a recent survey finding that the overwhelming majority of Americans - 77 percent - believe in the existence of angels. (Video below)

Elliot introduced Harris's piece:

Well, it's a story that every family dreads. Sam Schmidt's loved ones were preparing for the worst after a terrible accident left the 21-year-old University of Arizona student on life support. But, just hours away from being pulled from that life support, a Christmas miracle. More now from ABC's Dan Harris.

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It wasn't Christmas, but my

Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 12/23/2011 - 11:21pm.

It wasn't Christmas, but my family had a similar experience. After my mother's cardiac arrest (she was 74), I arrived at midnight, and my father and I met with the doctor. She was in a coma, and the doctors said she had next to no chance of survival. My brother was on his way back from a business trip to Korea, and we were waiting for him to arrive so we would all be there when life support was removed.

The next morning, before my brother even got there, she woke up. It was a long recuperation, but she lived 6 more years after that.

Thank you for sharing your

Submitted by stratman on Sat, 12/24/2011 - 9:22am.

Thank you for sharing your story of love, hope, strength and the mysteries of life, motherbelt. You and your family were blessed to have more time with your mother.

Merry Christmas.

All i can think of is

Submitted by Calypso Jones on Sat, 12/24/2011 - 12:17am.

poor Terry Schiavo.

Not the same.

Submitted by The Vet on Sat, 12/24/2011 - 1:13am.

Schmid was involved in an Oct. 19 car crash in Tucson that left him with a brain aneurysm, among other life-threatening injuries. Because of the complexity of his brain injury, Schmid was flown to Phoenix

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"I am dumb-founded with his incredible recovery in such a short time," said Spetzler. "His recovery was really remarkable considering the extent of his lethal injuries."

Hospital officials are crediting Spetzler with having a "hunch" that despite an initially dire prognosis, the young man would make it. But he said it was "reasonable" for others to consider withdrawing the patient from life support.

"It looked like all the odds were stacked against him," said Spetzler, who has performed more than 6,000 such surgeries and trained the doctor who operated on Congressman Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot at the beginning of this year.

During surgery, Spetzler clipped the balloonlike aneurysm in the blood vessel -- "as if I were patching a tire," a procedure that eventually worked.

For days Schmid didn't seem to be responding, but what puzzled his doctor was that he did not see fatal injuries on the MRI scan. So he decided to keep Schmid on life support longer.

"There was plenty wrong -- he had a hemorrhage, an aneurysm and a stroke from the part of the aneurysm," Spetzler said. "But he didn't have a blood clot in the most vital part of his brain, which we know he can't recover from. And he didn't have a massive stroke that would predict no chance of a useful existence."

So while the family was given a realistic picture of Schmid's poor chances for survival, Spetzler ordered one more MRI to see if the critical areas of the brain had turned dark, indicating brain death.

"If not, we would hang on and keep him on support," he said. "But I didn't want to give the family false hope."

Schmid's mother said no one "specifically" asked if her son would be a donor, but they "subtly talk to you about quality of life."

"At some point, I knew we had to make some sort of decision, and I kept praying," said Regan.

The MRI came back with encouraging news during the day and by evening Schmid "inexplicably" followed the doctors' commands, holding up two fingers.

"It was like fireworks all going off at the same time," said Spetzler.

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Terri Schiavo's MRI showed a massive die off of most of the upper brain.

"But I am very much a big

Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 12/24/2011 - 7:25am.

"But I am very much a big believer that positive thoughts and positive energy in a room can only help.

Dr. Spetzler says "positive thoughts and positive energy."

Schmidt's mother says she prayed.

Why do I get the feeling

Submitted by Jamson64 on Sat, 12/24/2011 - 2:38pm.

Why do I get the feeling that those on the left that often love any regulation that is costly or deprives us of rights and supports such actions if it saves "just one life" will not be so willing to go down that path in regards to people in comas?

First, let me say

Submitted by Bob K on Mon, 12/26/2011 - 2:55pm.

that I am not a church goer or much into religion. But I certainly have respect for those who are, so long as they are not knocking at my front door. The thing I found most interesting about this story was my attempt to find it at the wildly popular with liberals website HuffPo, and the wildly radical liberal website Democratic Underground. Both are my must read websites for comparison of stories. LOL.

At HuffPo, a search brought up just 2 threads on the story. 42 comments on the lead thread, none on the second thread Almost all of a positive nature. At first glance you might say, that's good, at least with regard to the first one. But consider, HuffPo could run a story on the circus coming to town and they will have a thousand comments for it. Liberals fanatically avoid any topic that conflicts with their beliefs and try to pretend it does not exist.

Oh, Democratic Underground? A search brought up no mention at all. If Sam had suddenly awoken from his coma and jumped out of his hospital bed, dancing, they would still ignore the story.

Bob K

The second article was simply an update of the first article

Submitted by Jer on Mon, 12/26/2011 - 3:53pm.

and was virtually identical in content. The 42 comments were replies to both and totaled six times the number of comments on the NB report of the same news item. There were several additional links provided at Huffpo to related articles at other websites as well as twitter entries regarding this inspirational, heart-warming, and well-received story.

What exactly is a Huffpo/Lib topic? A report detailing a 33% increase in child homelessness? It elicited 14 comments.

Jer