Another Kansas Woman Talks After Years Of Silence
ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS--"Georgi, I want to thank you for that bath you gave me last week; it was one of the best baths I've had."
That was De Glaze, a 60-year-old resident at Medicalodge North Post-Acute Care Center, talking to nurse Georgi Hollins on Halloween.
Ordinarily, such a compliment would be welcomed.
But it was a bit of a shock for Hollins: Glaze, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, had not spoken for nearly three years prior to that day.
"It brought tears to my eyes," Hollins told the Arkansas City Traveler. "It was such a long sentence."
Glaze spoke her first words to her husband, Joe.
"She said 'thank you,'" Mr. Glaze said. "It just happened suddenly, and then, wham, she took off (talking)."
"Then she started complaining."
Nobody seems to know why De started talking after all this time. She and her friends credit the power of prayer; a group of friends had gathered every Tuesday to pray for her.
"It's the miracle of my life," she said.
Her physician, Dr. David Schmeidler, explained: "Lou Gehrig's disease is a continually deteriorating disease that continues until a person dies." He added that the diagnosis "was never definitely made with De; it was a working diagnosis from the neurologist."
Glaze was the third Kansas woman in the last two years to make headlines by talking after years of silence.
In May of last year, 30-year-old Tracy Gaskill started talking for the first time nearly three years after her brain was damaged in a car accident. Gaskill was a resident at the same facility as Glaze.
Facility administrator Erik Hatten remarked, "It's just something in the water."
In January 2005, Sarah Scantlin, of Hutchinson, Kansas suddenly started speaking 20 years after a September 1984 auto accident that doctors said left her in a "near coma state".
Related:
Woman begins talking after two years of being a silent Medicalodge patient (Arkansas City Traveler)
Copyright 2006 Inonit Publishing
Article reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service. Please do not reprint, republish or forward without permission.
