Thursday Evening, June 23rd - Email update number four

Below is the text of a general email sent Thursday evening June, 23rd.

Hello again everyone,

Tori and the rest of us had a very promising day today!! It started very early this morning at approximately 3:00am when she began attempting to open her eyes. She continued to try off and on all day and improved each time but she eventually gets upset and frustrated which causes her heart rate to increase so we have to calm her down. I just left her room minutes ago and I am totally thrilled to report that she opened her eyes, focused them on me and calmly blinked them while looking at me for at least 3 minutes!! I'm also crying again as I type this... She also moves her jaw around as she is doing this and we are really anxious to see what she can do without the stomach extraction tubes that are down her throat at the moment.

The EEG test was also given to her this morning as well and we assisted in the test by talking to her and touching her. The results show definitive brain activity that is not quite 100% but very close. Tori is also now reacting to the poke and pinch tests by voluntarily pulling away which is also incredible since this wasn't the case on Tuesday.

Maria and I also had our daily meeting with the doctors and have approved them to take level 2 life support action on Tori. The decision was an obvious one to us given Tori's progress. This essentially means we are going to take all action neccesary to prolong her life and begin to do additional life function tests and physical therapy. There are still absolutely NO guarantees on whether she truly will survive let alone recover in some fashion and the statistics the doctors keep showing us are still not in her favor. We told them that statisitcs mean nothing to us at this point and our decision is based only on our faith, 'gut feel' and confidence in Tori herself. She has at the very least earned a shot at this and we, along with many others, are praying this decision will pay off.

Tori's lungs are also continuing to improve and she was at a 30% oxygen input level at one point today. 21% oxygen is the still air level so we are very close.

Well I guess that is it for today. Tomorrow Tori will have another new test ran on her and another set of doctors will begin to provide a secondary opinion. What a roller coaster ride this has been so far!!

Thanks again for all of the support and please continue to pray for Tori. We will take an inch of progress each day for as long as this takes.

Thanks again and good night!!,
The Schmanski family

One more encouraging note. I caught the head Nuerologist(?) going home today and she basically told me the we are making the right decisions based on what she has observed thus far. It was an honest answer from her and greatly appreciated because it was personal and it would probably not have been said with the crew of doctors present.