raveneye

You know there are a lot of people in our lives who are on the edge of life and death, including people in their prime, who seem perfectly normal and happy.

I used to be a rehearsal pianist for a dance company, and I saw many dancers, both sexes, who were grotesquely anorexic. I heard later that two of them had died, which made me feel guilty, because I did nothing. At least I could have talked to them and expressed my concerns. For some of them it seemed like a miracle that they could even walk, let alone dance.

I'm thinking about this because here in Florida, Terri Schiava is once more in the news, because the courts finally decided that her life support can be turned off, after a battle between her husband and her parents, who want her kept alive at all costs.

Not many folks are aware of the reason Terri has been in a coma for several years. The reason is she had bulimia. One evening she binged, and then started throwing up. She vomited so much, her electrolytes went way down in her blood. Her low potassium caused a heart attack. The heart attack prevented oxygen from reaching her brain, and a large part of her brain basically died. She's been in a coma with a feeding tube ever since. She went from healthy to essentially brain dead in a matter of 5 minutes.

It doesn't take much to kill someone with a severe eating disorder, and these disorders are more common than people realize.

If you suspect that someone is suffering, don't just let it happen. They may not listen to you, but the least you can do is sit down and tell them your concerns. We're all in this together.