One thing I always tell my new students is that when you are done with my courses you should have a whole new perspective of healthcare. Our healthcare has changed drastically from one centered on patient-doctor to one that involves a whole myriad of employees, administrators, and a multitude of various agencies including government.
Despite how much we have changed healthcare administratively, the core of healthcare has remained the same. An integral part of this core is that it is vast yet simple meaning that while the common purpose of the body to maintain its well-being is simple it is overshadowed by a complexity that exceeds anyone’s understanding of even a small minutiae of the human body which leads to one conclusion only – that life is the greatest miracle ever.
We see testimonies of this constantly and the following story is one of those miracles that exceeds any human understanding.
Sarah Scantlin was unable to speak after an automobile accident in which a drunk driver crashed into her, leaving her in a coma. Though doctors believed her brain was injured so badly in the accident that should would never be able to talk again and spend her life in a vegetative state, Scantlin began speaking a week ago.
Sarah’s friends and family gathered Saturday at the health care center where she lives to celebrate.
“She’s 100 percent Sarah again. The family is back together, and it’s just simply a joyous situation,” her father, Jim Scantlin, told CNN.
Scantlin was 18 when she was injured and, until last month, she was aware of her surroundings but unable to speak. Suddenly, she began talking to workers at the health care center.
“It just happened one day and nobody really knows why,” said Sharon Kuepker, administrator for the Golden Plains Health Care Center.
Now, Scantlin is forming words, counting, and remembering people and places.
“You condition yourself to be able to try to deal with something like this, and then all of the sudden, the world instantly changed from despair to joy because it’s amazing how important communication is between human beings,” her father told the Associated Press.