- LONGMONT - Laura Shepherd
stared forward from her wheelchair, her mouth open, while the machines
that keep her alive clacked and whooshed behind her, as they have for the
past 15 years.
-
- "We have to be careful about what we say in front
of her, because she understands," said Linda Evans Shepherd, as she
bent down to her 17-year-old daughter.
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- "When the doctors first saw her, they said there
was n-o-h-o-p-e," Shepherd said, quietly, then quickly switched subjects.
-
- "We like to keep the conversations happy around
her."
-
- Shepherd said her daughter's situation has many differences
from that of Terri Schiavo, a comatose Florida woman whose case has become
prominent nationally, as her fate teeters among the arguments of family
members, the judicial system and the state legislature.
-
- But, Shepherd said, she sees the connection - and a larger
concern - with what she perceives as misconceptions about severely disabled
people.
-
- "My daughter has even more tubes than Terri,"
Shepherd said. "My fear is that society decides that someone like
Laura isn't worth the effort or expense, or even worse, that she should
be left to die."
-
- Since a car accident in 1987 when she was 18 months old,
Laura has spent her life hooked to the machines. She has 24-hour home nursing
care, and cannot move below her neck. Severely disabled because of brain
damage, she cannot speak, but signals "yes" or "no"
with her tongue.
-
- Eleven months after Laura was first brought to the hospital
- after Shepherd says doctors deemed her in a "persistent vegetative
state" and asked the family to consider disconnecting her life-support
- the little girl emerged from the coma.
-
- Today, Shepherd says she still sees "the same kid"
in teenage eyes.
-
- "It's easy to look at the handicap, the chair, and
the tubes, and think, 'Well I wouldn't want to live like that,' "
Shepherd said a few minutes later, out of earshot of Laura. "But she
seems to be doing what she wants to be doing, which is to live."
-
- Using a portable respirator and other equipment, Laura
attended public school in Longmont for a few years, where a former teacher
said her presence broke down barriers among the elementary school students.
Though she's home-schooled now (primarily due to fear of childhood illnesses),
her friends still come to visit, and often read to her.
-
- "She even has her favorite books. She's fascinated
by stories of Harriet Tubman. We just found her a (biography), and she
loves to hear it," Shepherd said, looking down at her daughter.
-
- "Don't you? You love to hear how Harriet helped
all those people find freedom?"
-
- The girl stuck out her tongue.
-
- "That's a 'yes,' " said Pam Hyink, Laura's
speech therapist, who has worked with her since 1988, helping to develop
her basic skill to communicate through a series of yes or no questions.
-
- "I've learned that it's not about ability, it's
about love," Shepherd said. "And just because someone isn't as
skilled as someone else, it doesn't mean they don't have a purpose. I think
Laura was left here on this Earth to be an inspiration, and her spirit
has touched a lot of people."
-
- Minutes later, the 17-year-old's eyelids fluttered and
dropped, and she fell asleep to the whooshing of the respirator, and the
tinkling of a nearby music box playing Don't Fence Me In.
-
- <mailto:sheelerj@RockyMountainNews.com>sheelerj@RockyMountainNews.com
or 303-892-2561
-
- http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2375394,00.html
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