- This is a partial transcript from The O'Reilly Factor,
November 5, 2003
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- BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the Back of the Book segment
tonight, the parents of Terri Schiavo are hoping for a miracle. Their
daughter has been in a vegetative state for 13 years, as you know. Ms.
Schiavo's husband wants her to die, and so do many in the State of Florida.
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- But listen to this. In 1995, Kate Adamson was in a similar
position. She was in a vegetative state after suffering a stroke.
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- For almost 70 days, she was totally unresponsive. Doctors
finally pulled her feeding tube. And, for eight days, she was dying.
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- Then Ms. Adamson began responding on her own. Doctors
quickly put the feeding tube back in, and she recovered.
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- Joining us now from Los Angeles is Kate Adamson and her
husband, Steven Klugman. Ms. Adamson has written a book called Kate's
Journey: Triumph Over Adversity.
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- So, in the Schiavo case, Ms. Adamson, you must have very
strong feelings about that.
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- KATE ADAMSON, AUTHOR, KATE'S JOURNEY: TRIUMPH OVER ADVERSITY:
Yes, I do. I have a huge prospective on what Terri is going through.
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- O'REILLY: And what would that be?
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- ADAMSON: Well, especially after having gone through
this myself and the doctors assuming that I was in a vegetative state,
when, in fact, I was totally aware of what was going on around me.
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- O'REILLY: Could you hear -- could you hear people and
see them and all?
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- ADAMSON: I could see and hear everything going on around
me, and I had no way...
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- O'REILLY: Really?
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- ADAMSON: ... of communicating with anyone.
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- O'REILLY: So you were like paralyzed in every way, but
you could hear...
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- ADAMSON: Completely paralyzed.
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- O'REILLY: You could hear the words, you knew your husband
was in the room when he was there and all of that?
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- ADAMSON: Exactly. I knew what I wanted to say. I had
-- I was completely paralyzed. I had no way of communicating at all.
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- O'REILLY: This is amazing. It's like an Edgar Allen
Poe story. So when they took...
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- ADAMSON: It's like a nightmare.
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- O'REILLY: When they took the feeding tube out, what
went through your mind?
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- ADAMSON: When the feeding tube was turned off for eight
days, I was -- thought I was going insane. I was screaming out don't you
know I need to eat. And even up until that point, I had been having a
bagful of Ensure as my nourishment that was going through the feeding tube.
At that point, it sounded pretty good. I just wanted something. The fact
that I had nothing, the hunger pains overrode every thought I had.
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- O'REILLY: So you were feeling pain when they removed
your tube?
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- ADAMSON: Yes. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. To say
that -- especially when Michael [Schiavo] on national TV had mentioned
last week that it's a pretty painless thing to have the feeding tube removed.
It is the exact opposite. It was sheer torture, Bill.
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- O'REILLY: It's just amazing.
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- ADAMSON: Sheer torture. And they're having it ripped
out.
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- O'REILLY: All right. How did you come out of this now?
How did the doctors know to put the tube back in?
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- ADAMSON: Well, first of all, having Steven as a strong
advocate and not only being an attorney but yelling and screaming and insisting,
insisting, that they do that.
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- O'REILLY: All right, but -- so your husband, an attorney,
Steven, insisted, and you...
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- ADAMSON: Right.
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- O'REILLY: What did you get, a court order, Counselor,
to get the tube back into your wife's system.
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- STEVEN KLUGMAN, HUSBAND OF STROKE VICTIM: I threatened
to sue the whole world, and I told them that their best course was to try
to save her, and maybe they wouldn't get sued...
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- O'REILLY: OK. So they finally...
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- KLUGMAN: ... and they finally decided that was...
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- O'REILLY: ... listened to you after eight days. They
put the tube back. And then how long did it take for you to come out of
the vegetative state?
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- ADAMSON: Well, it was a matter of time, and, of course,
when you're in that position, I had no conception of time at all. I wasn't
able to start eating food again. I had to start on pureed foods and still
have the feeding tube turned on because of my weight loss.
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- KLUGMAN: There was a good week to two weeks where she
was aware, she was communicating, and I couldn't get anyone to believe
me. Just like the...
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- O'REILLY: How did you know?
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- KLUGMAN: ... the family.
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- O'REILLY: How did you know?
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- KLUGMAN: But I would -- I'd ask her to blink once if
she could understand me and she would.
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- O'REILLY: Well, I mean that's pretty obvious. A doctor
comes in, and you do the demonstration.
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- KLUGMAN: The doctor -- well, she would be so weak after
blinking once or twice, she couldn't do it again for an hour or more.
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- O'REILLY: I see.
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- KLUGMAN: These people are so weak.
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- ADAMSON: You know, Bill, I had to blink every -- that's
how I communicated, was blinking.
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- O'REILLY: Yes, but how long did it take you once they
reinserted the feeding tube into you, Kate, for you then to convince the
doctors that you were aware?
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- ADAMSON: Well, I couldn't convince the doctors myself.
I couldn't speak. I had no ability. So Steven had to be my advocate.
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- O'REILLY: OK. But how long did it take?
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- Mr. Klugman, how long did it take?
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- KLUGMAN: Two to three weeks.
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- O'REILLY: OK. So two to three weeks, she came back
on the feeding, and then she came out of the vegetative state?
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- KLUGMAN: She was never in the vegetative state. That
was just...
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- O'REILLY: OK, OK, but she came...
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- KLUGMAN: ... their description.
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- O'REILLY: When did she get cognizant that everybody
knew she was functioning?
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- KLUGMAN: She was -- she was probably always cognizant.
She was, in fact, operated on at one point, and they treated her as though
she was a vegetable, didn't give her enough anesthetic, and she felt the
entire operation.
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- O'REILLY: Wow.
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- All right. I'm going to try one more time. When did
you come out of it so that you could speak and all of that? How long did
it take?
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- ADAMSON: Well, it wasn't until I was in acute rehab
for the three months and during that whole process.
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- O'REILLY: Three months. All right.
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- ADAMSON: So, in fact, I was on a week to week basis
with -- in terms of how I was recovering whether the insurance company
would still keep me in there.
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- O'REILLY: Well, it's an amazing, amazing story, and
nobody could say whether the Schiavo case would be that way, but, you know,
to hear this makes everybody think.
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- KLUGMAN: It's possible.
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- O'REILLY: Thank you very much, both of you, for coming
on The Factor. We appreciate it.
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- ADAMSON: Thank you.
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- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102388,00.html
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