Comeback kid -- Pediatrics, Christmas, Metra

Borrow and Spend wrote:

<quoted text>
I guarantee you that these same scumsuckers, who I note tend to post from places like "Mundelein" and "Oak Lawn" -- wherever the hell that is -- voted for George Bush. Gladly, too, I'd wager. Therefore these same scumsuckers are directly responsible for the deaths of 4,000 of our young men and women. They simply don't care about or value human life. Like all "conservatives".

You cannot be serious. Yes I am from Mundelein (for those who are not familiar with suburbs and are boxed in your city life in Lincoln Park or the Gold Coast, Mundelein is a far north suburb). So apparently I am a "scumsucker"????? I agree with Heather. How dare you. My husband is currently serving in Iraq. Both of us grew up in Mundelein and went to high school there. Do you really believe either of us voted for Bush????? And trust me, we will not be voting for McCain in this election. Being away from your family and everything you love is difficult beyond words, and my husband and I would not wish that on anyone. Yet he proudly serves his country and does his job to the best of his ability, without ever complaining, as do most of the men and women out there. I assure you, "scumsuckers" we are not.

Getting back to Rachel, again I am sorry for what happened to her; yes it is a great personal tragedy. But if only she would realize that wallowing in self pity is only further hindering her from realizing her dreams, then I think more people would support her. Yes poor Rachel. But she has the means and the support to accomplish what she wants to accomplish. The only thing stopping her is herself.

Puggy wrote:

Ooops it was 600 million

That's right. She hit the lottery for $30 million, but the real reason she is so embittered to this day is that she "only" got $30 million when she actually had sued Metra for $600!! million. Who the hell did she think she was...the next Mozart, Beethoven and Bach all rolled into one? Kids today suffer from a delusional sense of entitlement, but RB showed that she was a girl ahead of her time when she willingly chose to hang on to her violin and expected Metra to pay for her foolishness. It's time for Rachel to leave her pity party and get on with her life.

Sorry, reading my posts may have been hard since my quotes do not stand out from my own thoughts very well. Trying again...

Vaio wrote:

This woman sounds like she is suffering physically, but again, it is just like when she refused to let go of the violin.

Because you and many others seem not to have read the story...here are some quotes.

the original story wrote:

Though she did not know it, she had become an enormous news story, the tale of a celebrated violin prodigy nearly killed because her instrument was trapped in a train flashed around the world. It soon morphed into the fiction of a violinist who sacrificed her life trying to save her violin.

It's fiction that she was trying to save her violin. She wasn't trying to save her violin, She was stuck and didn't know what was coming up.

the orginal story wrote:

She decided that freeing herself was the better of two bleak options. So she "wormed" her fingers underneath the straps holding her left shoulder to the side of the train and gave them "one good shove." As the train pulled forward, the violinist spun away from it, her glasses flying through the air, her upper body buoyed to the right, her lower body swung to the left, placing her legs in the path of the train's remorseless metal wheels.

When she realized what happened, she DID try to free herself!! She could not and faced an enormous accident. Accident, get it?

the original story wrote:

"The moment I thought I was alone in the room, I would start panicking and I would go into shock," Barton recalls. So she insisted her mother sleep on a cot next to her for months to come. Whenever orderlies rolled her into an elevator to the operating room, "As soon as I saw a door closing, I would just start to scream and freak out," says Barton, who was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.

Her panic was due to post traumatic stress. Understandable since she was dragged by the train 300 feet.

She isn't recounting this to complain or be ungrateful of what she has. She is being open and honest about the trauma she went through.

the original story wrote:

When she had arrived at the emergency room, technicians had plunged an IV into the wrist of her left arm, a disaster because that's the hand with the fine-motor skills that articulates notes on the fiddle (the other arm moves the bow).

There were many points it sounds like that Rachel faced whether she would be able to continue the life she knew. How scary!

I can understand how painful all of this was for Rachel. For people to pick apart the story and say she shouldn't be complaining and others have had it worse, etc, etc... you look at your own self before you demand better from another human.

I thought she died, anyone who would care more about something that they were carrying than their own saftey deserves to live like she is. Did she suffer any brain damage too?

Mitch wrote:

<quoted text>
That's right. She hit the lottery for $30 million, but the real reason she is so embittered to this day is that she "only" got $30 million when she actually had sued Metra for $600!! million. Who the hell did she think she was...the next Mozart, Beethoven and Bach all rolled into one? Kids today suffer from a delusional sense of entitlement, but RB showed that she was a girl ahead of her time when she willingly chose to hang on to her violin and expected Metra to pay for her foolishness. It's time for Rachel to leave her pity party and get on with her life.

YOU are just WRONG! Rachel may have timed getting off wrong and that was her mistake. BUT the train was faulted for not having safety features or what ever that would have just opened the doors and saved her.

To continue to bring up her settlement as proof as she is selfish is a bit unfair. Metra did something wrong and it damaged Rachel. Be mad at them. Or are you mad at the fact she has the settlement and you don't?

This article was about her pain and suffering! What part of that don't you understand?

She has and is getting on with her life.

Now, why don't you and all your like-minded people get on with YOUR life?

Victor wrote:

I thought she died, anyone who would care more about something that they were carrying than their own saftey deserves to live like she is. Did she suffer any brain damage too?

Gah! I am going to start suggesting reading comprehension for those of you who keep posting this! She wasn't protecting the violin.
READ THE STORY. K?

Read the story wrote:

<quoted text>
Gah! I am going to start suggesting reading comprehension for those of you who keep posting this! She wasn't protecting the violin.
READ THE STORY. K?

For everyone that keeps saying "READ THE STORY", this story is biased. Rachel is pretty much the only person interviewed for the story. And her husband. Of course she is going to say she did not protect the violin. Actually, in her testimony (you can find it if you search) she admitted that she could have freed herself from the violin case straps when the train was not moving, and obviously she DID free herself from the straps once the train was moving. Still, Rachel only had about 10 seconds to "decide" what to do. I'm not sure ANYONE in that situation would have known exactly what to do, and it is possible she panicked.

That said, does it really matter whether she was trying to save the violin or not? Though, I am sure that Metra would argue that yes it matters because she should be held accountable for her own actions (and Metra should be responsible for passenger safety and precautions). The accident happened, and she was hurt.

This article is more about what she has done SINCE the accident. I don't doubt that she has PTSD. But again... she needs to move beyond the self pity and bitterness in order to accomplish what she wants to accomplish. Reading the article, let's face it... Rachel doesn't seem like a very pleasant person at this point. I am NOT faulting her for that, I am just saying that a positive attitude would make a world of difference.

In the article it said she was trapped, not trying to save the violin. I can read.

But if anyone followed the original trial, witnesses said that she didn't "prepare" to get out of her seat: she missed the stop and rushed out. They also claimed she kept inquiring about the violin, and the doctor who treated her at the ER testified that she said she "went back" for her violin. She testified herself at the trial that she could have removed herself from the violin strap, but did not, and that's why the hury found her to be 4.5% at fault for the accident. She also sued Metra for $600 million originally - what she considered her projected future career worth to be -which shows just how much she thought of herself.

I think people are making too much about the $600 million. IIRC, she sued for unspecified damages, and the $600 million came up in closing arguments. Naturally, any good attorney will inflate damages recognizing that an appellate court will only reduce, not raise an award given by a jury. Metra argued the damages were around $5 million. I'd be curious to know what each of the parties would have been willing to settle the case for, and why they didn't reach a settlement (Metra had to have figured the case was a loser from the start, given the high profile it received). Perhaps she wanted an admission of fault, which is uncommon in a settlement.

As for the article, I found it interesting. It's rare for the media to revisit even a high-profile story 13 years later. I'm a bit surprised she was willing to lay out so much detail about that day, as well as her apparently dysfunctional family life. Not many people would do that.

And yet $5 million is really a low ball here, considering the fact that most PI attorneys will go for at least 3 times the medical specials (bills) in a case like this, which were $600,000.00+, per the article. Add on the allowance for punitives, lost wages, and the permanency of her injuries...let's just say both parties seem off on this one.

Call me a bonehead but wrote:

I am sick of hearing the pathetic story of Rachel Barton. Let's look at the real issues here:
1. If the violin is stuck in the doors of a train, let it go, don't let it drag you onto the tracks.
2. Taking $30M+ taxpayer dollars when it was truly a self caused accident epitimizes the epidemic of lawsuits in the United States today.
3. Accept your injuries, don't be whining about them 13 years later. There are hundreds of soldiers from Iraq who have lost limbs defending our country who amazingly recover in less than a year.
Step up to your own mistakes and please stop complaining.

Sorry about the accident but truth be told she isn't a very nice person.

chicago girl wrote:

In the article it said she was trapped, not trying to save the violin. I can read.
But if anyone followed the original trial, witnesses said that she didn't "prepare" to get out of her seat: she missed the stop and rushed out. They also claimed she kept inquiring about the violin, and the doctor who treated her at the ER testified that she said she "went back" for her violin. She testified herself at the trial that she could have removed herself from the violin strap, but did not, and that's why the hury found her to be 4.5% at fault for the accident. She also sued Metra for $600 million originally - what she considered her projected future career worth to be -which shows just how much she thought of herself.

I might add that if she was worried about money I gave her an opportunity to make some on a high dollar recording session but she was to good to do it. Speaks volumes about her. Rachel get over it. Wanna do something good play for the troops in Walter Reed. http://www.wramc.army.mil/Pages/default.aspx

To those who have so gleefully dumped on the woman from the safety and anonymity of cyberspace - way to go. Now crawl back to from wherever you came.

Did she originate the article? I don't think so. Did she write the article? I don't think so. Is she suffering physically as a result of the accident? I think so. Does she make great, powerful music, some of the greatness rising from her suffering? I think so. Are there others who suffer physically more than she does? Undoubtedly. Have we been told THEIR stories? No.

So why dump on the woman? Because you can and because you like to do it. As I said, way to go. Now go away.

I remember when the accident occured and I remember reading about her a few years after that and she was discussing doing some work with Mark O'Connor. I would be intrigued to find out how that turned out.

And her fixation with Metallica will pass.

Mark wrote:

These are some very messed up people. They need to be in therapy and carrying it out in a public forum is disgusting.

Your post was HATEFUL, so you have no leg to stand on to tell anyone how "messed up" they are.

When the therapist's office opens, let me suggest that you be the first in line for an appointment.

RB is a gifted violinist. She is a flawed human being. We are all flawed human beings. RB has some responsibility for what happened because she ran off the train as the doors were closing--almost missing her stop. Metra has some responsibility for what happened for lacking safety features. RB spends a lot of time thinking about "What if...", and quite honestly, what writer on this thread hasn't done that? It is the human condition to ponder our life, our decisions, and question what path we might have been on had circumstances been different. There is no way to tell what RB might have done if she hadn't been involved in this horrible accident. She is talented, but there are many more talented violinists around. The field is crowded and there are more soloists available than concerts. RB has performed with two top notch orchestras in the Chicago area, but not lately. She is known for being difficult,(even before the accident) and many managers don't want to deal with her--or any other artist--unless it's worth it for the audience/ticket sales. There are far too many gifted performers out there who are pleasant and eager to work.

It's time to drop this thread. None of us know exactly what we would do if we had been in her shoes (isn't there something written somewhere about casting the first stone?), so we shouldn't judge her. I wish RB the best and hope that she will be able to find some inner peace for the future.

As a society, we deperately want to harbor the fantasy that people who suffer terribly are somehow extraodinarily "courageous" and "strong." Therefore, we reassure ourselves, catastrophe is not so hideous. It pacifies us to believe that those are undergo hardship are somehow blessed with rare capacity to endure those adversities. When we find that someone like Rachel is much more like us than we wish to believe, it unsettles us. That goes a long way toward explaining the hostile remarks that have been posted. Sometimes reality can be very threatening- especially when it dispels some of our most comforting misconceptions.

Tough Love wrote:

<quoted text>
Dude, anyone who racks up those kind of international prizes is FAR from average. But maybe a two bit booking agent of wedding gigs isn't capable of seeing anything that is above average...

Maybe be she was exceptional when she was younger, but she may have also reached her peak at that time, which very well could have made her average at best as she got older. No one really knows for sure how good she would have been. All I know is that I would have never heard of her if it wasn't for the accident.

People are involved in tragic accidents every day.
Some people rise above it and overcome; others use it as an excuse to be bitter.
From reading the article it sounds like she falls into the latter category.

Every day people get their dreams and hopes shattered by events beyond their control. Very few of them have the kind of financial cushion to fall back on that she has.

I hope that at some point in her life Ms. Barton realizes that.

Call me a bonehead but wrote:

I am sick of hearing the pathetic story of Rachel Barton. Let's look at the real issues here:
1. If the violin is stuck in the doors of a train, let it go, don't let it drag you onto the tracks.
2. Taking $30M+ taxpayer dollars when it was truly a self caused accident epitimizes the epidemic of lawsuits in the United States today.
3. Accept your injuries, don't be whining about them 13 years later. There are hundreds of soldiers from Iraq who have lost limbs defending our country who amazingly recover in less than a year.
Step up to your own mistakes and please stop complaining.

I'm pleased to see this was the first comment. I didn't even bother reading this story; it'd be hard to think of a less compelling figure, and I'm disappointed that the schmaltz-oriented media has inserted her back into my consciousness.

Thank you Mr. Reich for a well-written article. It's obvious how much work you put into it. I have to admit, I was one of the "let GO of the violin already!" crowd, until this article showed another angle. If I were trapped by a strap to a huge moving Metra train, I doubt I - or any of the more cruel posters here - would have done any better.

The meanness of some of these comments leaves me aghast. For her entire adult life, Rachel has been in and out of surgery (FORTY surgeries!), fighting chronic infection, and in almost constant pain. I don't think she comes across as negative in the article at all - instead, she struck me as very strong, continuing with her music despite the obstacles. I am currently battling cancer, and sometimes, yes, I cry. How does that somehow diminish the times when I am positive, or diminish the work of our veterans?!(I'm still trying to figure out how THAT line was drawn.)

I agree with another poster who mentioned that perhaps her family difficulties being mentioned only gave fuel to the fire of people hellbent on crushing her. The whole story isn't being told, nor should it - it's NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. As such, some folks should withhold judgement and shut their mouths.

This article clearly showed the long term, broad-based effects of catastrophic injury. It affects psyche, career, and family, not just the body. Apparently some readers (I use that word loosely) can only handle life situations (or news articles) in which everything is easy and smooth. I pity you your fragility.