There are stories hitting the press now (being widely spread by the right-wing and fundamentalist press) about a woman in Kansas, who, two years after being seriously hurt in a truck crash, has recovered from “Terri-Schiavo-like” symptoms. The symptoms? Brain trauma and a feeding tube.

What kind of brain trauma? Not mentioned. Was the woman missing her cerebral cortex, which was replaced by spinal fluid? Almost certainly not. Was she in a persistent vegetative state? No mention.

But she had a feeding tube! That means Terri Schiavo could have recovered too!

Oy vey.

But that’s not all they point to. There was this firefighter in Buffalo, New York, mentioned in the new articles, who recovered after ten years! That’s a lot closer to how long Terri Schiavo was out! She could have recovered, too!

But was he missing his cerebral cortex? Um, well, no. In a persistent vegetative state? Well, almost! The doctors said he was “close to a persistent vegetative state.”

For crying out loud.

Apparently, every person who recovers from brain trauma is somehow just “like” Terri Schiavo. As if there was only one kind of brain trauma, or that being “close” to one aspect of her condition is somehow worthy of comparison.

Now, if someone had been in an actual (not “close to”) persistent vegetative state for many years, confirmed by a number of doctors, and was missing their cerebral cortex, and then woke up and started to recover, I’d be impressed. But that’s not what’s happening with the Kansas woman or the Buffalo firefighter.

But the people furthering these stories hope that readers will not note the discrepancies or catch on to how the cases have no relation to each other. They hope that you’ll read that they were brain damaged, like Terri, and sometimes had feeding tubes, like Terri, and that means that Terri could have recovered but we let her die. The problem is, scores of people will buy into these stories. Which, of course, is why they’re being pushed in the media.

So take these “Terri-Schiavo-like” reports for what they are: political agendas masquerading as news stories, with no substance or relevance.