|
"She apparently lost track of her dog & was trying to retrieve it off the side walk & her chair got stuck in the sand. She yelled but with the air conditioners on, no one heard her. She got out of the chair & crawled to a shady spot under a tree. She had breathed in sand & smothered & died.
KK"
Thanks KK!
And to Stephanie ... yes she was found dead in the park in the sand and they took her to the hospital. But because it was a mysterious death ... they took her straight to the hospital [usually normal routine] and then to the morgue for an autopsy.
Dr G. found out that there were scrapes and scratches on her forearms [which pointed to the fact that she could have possibly tried inching her way to get under some shade]. They did a lot of video on Shannon and it showed that she was able to move herself around fairly well after a lot of rehab and continual use of the muscles in her arms that she DID have. You could see that she did not have much finger movement, if at all, but she could slide board herself into bed, etc.. So the "scooooching" was a possibility especially since she was such a thin girl.
Dr. G. also found during the autopsy that Shannon's throat, trachea and beyond were PACKED with sand. This is where things begin to not add up too much for me. As we all know, a quad's lung capacity isn't the greatest. And Shannon would have also been able to turn her head sideways to breathe. Why would someone bury their face in the sand when they could have turned their head a little bit sideways for continuous airflow? even though my neck is used and I can not move it from side to side very much at all .... I am still able to just enough where I would not have to be completely facedown. The video of Shannon also showed that she had pretty good head movement.
YET SHE WAS FOUND FACE DOWN WITH ALOT OF SAND "JAM PACKED" INTO ALL AIRWAYS .... that it didn't make total sense to me. I can see myself turning my head a little to breathe [or get air]. And even as I could not ... I could easily see myself suffocating and choking extremely easily on very little sand and no air. But Dr. G. was relating the facts to the audience as if there was so much sand stuffed into her several bodily airways ... it was though it was forced there but not by gasping for air.
At first, Dr. G. was going to consider that she simply died from suffocation. But then she received a call from Shannon's Rehab Dr. and the rehab Dr. told her that Shannon had autonomic dysreflexia. Like - DUH!!!! We were very disappointed to find out that such a professional medical pathologist [Dr. G.] was unfamiliar with AD.
So then Dr. G. theorized that, after Shannon got stuck in the sand with her electric wheelchair, she made a valiant attempt to throw herself out of the wheelchair and tried to scoooch herself to some type of safety [shade, help, etc.]. But it was 93° in Florida that day during the day ... and that ultimately she died from heat exhaustion from AD.
The other thing that strikes me peculiar is that even during my first year as a quadriplegic I knew my limit as far as the heat goes. I lived in the Northeast so I did not have the oppressive heat that is found in Florida but I knew, with a little common sense, not to go out in intense heat ESPECIALLY BY MYSELF AND NOT TELL ANYONE WHERE I WAS GOING. Yes, even in New York State, they can get very very hot during the summer. Nor would I go out in the wintertime always from home, not telling anyone, for the opposite reason.
I have spent the last five years in Arizona and I love going everywhere on my smooth, quiet, neighborhood streets. But I NEVER go out strolling in the middle of the summer days BECAUSE OF the intense heat. My batteries could give out or any number of things. Even when I head out in comfortable weather ... I always tell my husband approximately where I will be in case I do not come back say, within 45 minutes, for whatever reason.
We also have 107 homes in our small subdivision so I always feel quite comfortable that there might be someone always around out in front of their house or driving by in their car, etc. etc. etc.. But often times too ... I will go out and not pass a soul!
And FURTHER, FURTHER ..... it says that Shannon went off the sidewalk to POSSIBLY have gone after her dog. But that seems a little crazy as well because common sense would tell her that there would be a great potential that her tires are going to get stuck in the sand and/or dirt. It would make much more sense to go looking for some human help around IF the dog wandered off.
FURTHER, FURTHER, FURTHER .... apparently when the mother got home [keep in mind this is a 93° humid day in Florida!] The mother did not find her home but eventually the dog came home! AND STILL that event did not tell the mother to go looking "right then and there."
When they showed the "recreation of the events" on the program ... it looked as though Shannon was in someone's back yard because it shows the exact type of 6 foot walls that are found in almost all of them homes around here. It did not show anything at all that resembled a park area.
And I imagine the only reason that there would be absolutely nobody at this park ... would be the same reason that Shannon should not have been there [or even going there] --- because of the intense heat that almost no one can stand during the day outside in it for a period of time .. let alone a quadriplegic!
I don't know ... there were way too many unanswered and mysterious questions that I do not think Dr. G. delved into and SHOULD have.
Lori
-------Original Message-------
Date: 6/25/2006 2:37:08 PM
Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] Dr G. [Medical Examiner] and the circumstances surrounding a quadriplegic's death in Orlando, Florida
She apparently lost track of her dog & was trying to retrieve it off the side walk & her chair got stuck in the sand. She yelled but with the air conditioners on, no one heard her. She got out of the chair & crawled to a shady spot under a tree. She had breathed in sand & smothered & died.
KK
On Jun 25, 2006, at 2:44 PM, S. Dial wrote:
What did happen to Shannon Johnson? I don't get that channel but I did google her and went to the DHC website but it didn't specify what the findings were. It also said she died in a hospital? I thought she was found lying dead in the sand?
Steph
| 
