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Christmas miracle in Tucson

The bias in this article is palpable and the reporter even claims to quote the "renowned neurosurgeon” calling this recovery a miracle but the part that really ticked me off was this quote from the patient’s mother - "I tell everyone, if they want to call it a modern-day miracle, this is a miracle," said Regan, 59, and a Catholic. "I have friends who are atheists who have called me and said, 'I am going back to church.'"

Still amazes me how easily people can suspend reality at this time of year.

Readied To Donate Organs, 21-Year-Old Emerges From Coma

http://news.yahoo.com/readied-donate-organs-21-old-emerges-coma-204...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ian Mason on December 23, 2011 at 2:52am

The cementary is silent. You never get quotes from the millions who don't survive despite all the prayers and saints.

Permalink Reply by Rob van Senten on December 23, 2011 at 1:58pm

I'm happy for the mr. Schmidt and his family and although I do not see the hand of god in these kind of matters I can understand to some degree how these strong emotional experiences influence and enforce religious beliefs.

However, since their god is by definition good he is thought to be responsible for all the good stuff, yet when the bad stuff happens often god is left out of the equation. When you have one explanation for all the good stuff that happens "proof" is just around the corner, the good stuff proofs god by default.

The cementary is silent.

Well said!

Permalink Reply by Madhukar Kulkarni on December 23, 2011 at 3:27am

1. "I tell everyone, if they want to call it a modern-day miracle, this is a miracle," said Regan, 59, and a Catholic. "I have friends who are atheists who have called me and said, 'I am going back to church.'"

2. Schmid's doctor, renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Spetzler, agreed that his recovery was miraculous.

Being miraculuous is not the same thing as being a miracle. The good doctor's words simply express a surprise. The first remark by Reagan is sheer hypocracy and propoganda.

Permalink Reply by dr kellie on December 23, 2011 at 9:34am

So, I guess everyone who dies didn't pray correctly. Suckers.

Permalink Reply by Pat on December 23, 2011 at 11:10am

Or prayed correctly, but to the wrong god.

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on December 23, 2011 at 4:40pm

Exactly

Permalink Reply by Pirate Bard on December 23, 2011 at 12:01pm

I think it's interesting and telling of the reporter's bias that the quote:

"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."

becomes the doctor agreeing it's a miracle. Since when does "incredible" and "remarkable" become synonymous with "it's a freakin miracle! Praise Jebus!"?

Though I also found it interesting that the doctor first says "the extent of his lethal* injuries," (obviously they were not lethal considering the patient is still alive) but then the article goes on to say:

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.... what part of this was a "miracle" again? The fact that it happened around Christmas time?

Sounds to me like a rough accident, a fortunate patient to have NOT suffered "fatal" injuries, and coincidental timing of recovery.

And that B.S. line about her "atheist" friends saying they're going back to church... I'm calling shenanigans on that one. IF she actually had friends say that, they were pretty weak atheists to begin with if such a stupid story can convince them that biblegod is true and they should go back to church.

I'm not playing the "no True Atheist" card, they may well have not believed in gods for a while, but obviously that doesn't mean they learned to think rationally or critically about it. IF such friends ever really existed at all, because I'm also not ruling out the possibility of lying for Jebus, which we all know is a frequent occurrence surrounding publicity like this.

Anyway, that's more than my $.02 on this.

Peace

*emphasis by me.

Permalink Reply by G Smith on December 23, 2011 at 1:04pm

Those people who would have benefited and whose lives might have been saved by receiving the organs not donated by the recovering patient will now continue to suffer and die. It's a miracle!

Permalink Reply by dr kellie on December 23, 2011 at 1:18pm

Great point. Maybe they aren't xians.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on December 23, 2011 at 7:47pm

Among any sufficiently large collection of patients, some will recover faster than expected and some will recover more slowly. The rare case where someone recovers much faster than expected makes an attention grabbing story, easy to interpret as supporting some wish or belief. All of those thousands of other poor patients in the collection don't have "interesting" stories, lending to uplifting belief-affirmation, so nobody tells them over and over, and publishes them in the paper.

What a culture chooses to pay attention to, and what it ignores, says much about that culture. Apparently we hunger for miraculous recovery stories. We're human, with a drive for wish fulfillment, even vicariously.

Too bad we don't hunger for stories about why our perception is so biased and how to become wiser from this self knowledge. Knowing we're suckers for wish fulfillment, apparently, isn't instantly uplifting.