For the night-shift, re: my Stephanie Tubbs Jones thread

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

My thread about Stephanie Tubbs Jones is old and cannot be edited at this point. Since it contains some replies made while there was some controversy about her condition I want to offer a snap shot of how the reports came in during the day. She has now been officially declared dead, and I don't want people to see replies from this afternoon and be confused as to the siyuation.

She suffered a massive brain hemorrhage last night. The hemorrhage was deep in the brain... described by the doctors as "inaccessible." A source at the hospital described her to a Cleveland TV station as having been essentially dead when admitted last night.

This morning she was assessed by a panel of neurologists who said she had only "very limited brain function." Their report to the family led to life support being discontinued around noon.

As a result of that, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer announced that she had died. But then the hospital later said she was in critical condition, and everyone retracted stories that she was dead.

The news agencies were not maliscious, in my opinion. They took "brain dead and taken off life support at 12:19 pm" as equaling death without realizing there had been no official technical finding of death.

A person can lose most brain function but continue with autonomic functions that are governed down by the brain stem. (breathing, heartbeat) So it's not unusual for a person to be taken off life support and continue to "live" in terms of heart death. And they will not be pronounced dead until the heart stops which can takes hours or years. A sad, sad situation.

This evening her heart finally ceased, and she was officially declared dead. :cry:

[CakeGrrl]

1. CNN is now again reporting that she *has* died. n/t

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Thanks. Edited OP

[Bluzmann57]

2. Thanks for the report

Just got home from work a little while ago and hadn't heard this awful news. DU can be a godsend, if I may say that. News source extradordinaire.

[ruggerson]

3. What a loss

[Skidmore]

4. MSNBC has just reported her death.

[Arnold Judas Rimmer]

5. It's official this time. She's gone

Rep. Tubbs Jones dies after hemorrhage

First black woman to represent Ohio in Congress suffered brain aneurysm
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 4:21 p.m. PT, Wed., Aug. 20, 2008

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier Wednesday, media outlets, citing "sources familiar with the situation," erroneously reported that Tubbs Jones had died. Her doctor said a short time later that she was in "critical condition" at a hospital in East Cleveland, Ohio.

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio - Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday, a Cleveland Clinic official said.

Tubbs Jones, 58, died at 6:12 p.m. after suffering a brain hemorrhage that caused an aneurysm that burst and left her with limited brain function, spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said

"Throughout the course of the day and into this evening, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones' medical condition declined," Sheil said in a statement from the clinic and Tubbs Jones' family.

<snip>

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26303502/