Free Republic

Peggy Chun's portrait of Blessed Father Damien Rome, Italy, Oct 9, 2009 / 06:24 am (CNA).- As the October 11 canonization of the Fr. Damien de Veuster approaches, an art teacher is leading a small group from Hawaii to Rome to present Pope Benedict XVI with a portrait of the saint painted by an artist paralyzed by Lou Gehrig’s Disease, also known as ALS.Fr. Damien, a hero to Hawaiians, ministered to a major leper colony on Molokai where he contracted and eventually succumbed to leprosy in the late nineteenth century.The late artist Peggy Chun had created the artwork with...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former Air Force reservist Gale Reid received a letter from the Veterans Affairs Department that told her she had Lou Gehrig's disease, and she immediately put herself through a battery of painful, expensive tests. Five days later, the VA said its "diagnosis" was a mistake.

The grotto at Lourdes where the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette Turin, Italy, Aug 25, 2009 / 12:03 am (CNA).- A woman who suffered from a severe nerve disease now no longer uses her wheelchair and has even gone for a run, after she visited to Lourdes earlier in August. The woman credits the baths at Lourdes for the ‘gift’ of her improved health.Antonia Raco, 50, had been in a wheelchair for four years because of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. She made a trip to the shrine at Lourdes on August 5.''Ever...

Just as the Obama administration tries to reassure people that the government can manage the health-care system more competently than what we have now, one of its single-payer systems demonstrates exactly what we can expect from ObamaCare. The VA mistakenly informed 1200 veterans that they have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a 100% fatal condition. They blamed it on a “coding error” (via JWF): At least 1,200 veterans across the country have been mistakenly told by the Veterans Administration that they suffer from a fatal neurological disease. One of the leaders of a Gulf War...

Reform: If the world's most famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, is a shining example of British health care, how is it that others in the U.K. are repeatedly denied critical care and medicine?In commenting on efforts to overhaul American's health care system, we have tried to pull back the curtain and pay attention to those trying to clone the systems of Canada and Britain. But supporters of government-run health care frequently ignore some of the less-pleasant facts. Much has been made of this statement in one of our Aug. 3 editorials: "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance...

It is easy to find a clip of the speech on YouTube, consisting of just a few short lines captured on a long ago day by the television cameras. The Lou Gehrig we see in black and white at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939 is movie-star handsome: tall, seemingly strong, a New York Yankee through and through. Joe McCarthy, the Yankees manager, takes Gehrig by the elbow and leads him to a bank of microphones behind home plate. The crowd of 61,000 gets to its feet. The emotion in the moment is obvious. Gehrig - native New Yorker, two-time...

A man who was featured in ads and on TV opposing Washington state’s assisted suicide Iniative 1000 died of ALS last week. The group True Compassion Advocates says John Peyton died at home on Thursday, the same day Linda Fleming of Sequim woman became the first person to die under the "Death with Dignity" law. Eileen Geller, president of True Compassion Advocates, a group that was against the law, called Peyton a hero in life and in death. “He showed us how to live with real dignity and die naturally and comfortably. He literally gave his last breaths to advocate...

As Lou Gehrig’s disease sapped Joshua Thompson of his ability to move and speak last fall, he consistently summoned one question from within the prison of his own body. “Iplex,” he asked, in a whisper that pierced his mother’s heart. “When?” Iplex had never been tested in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the formal name for the fatal disease that had struck Joshua, 34, in late 2006. Developed for a different condition and banished from the market by a patent dispute, it was not for sale to the public anywhere in the world. But Kathy Thompson had vowed to get...

A baby who as an embryo was frozen for years at a California clinic. Obama has ordered tax money be used for fatal experiments on such human embryos. CNS/Reuters 1998 photo “ALS victim opposes stem cell research,� reads today’s PhillyBurbs.com headline. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29702445/ It tells the story of Jim McKevitt who uses what few abilities he has left — he can still move his fingers — to track the opposition: � individuals and interest groups who beat the drum to try to force Washington to approve federal funds to finance the use of embryos to harvest stem cells for research.� The...

Daily Blog ALS Man: 'Don't Kill to Save Me' BY Daily Blog Monday, March 16, 2009 9:21 AM “ALS victim opposes stem cell research,� reads today’s PhillyBurbs.com headline. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29702445/ It tells the story of Jim McKevitt who uses what few abilities he has left — he can still move his fingers — to track the opposition: � individuals and interest groups who beat the drum to try to force Washington to approve federal funds to finance the use of embryos to harvest stem cells for research.� The 71-year-old, says the story, is “appalled by the groundswell of support for...

Reprogrammed cells may offer insight into neurodegenerative disease. Skin cells from an elderly patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have been ‘reprogrammed’ to generate motor neurons, the type of nerve cells that die as the disease progresses. It is the first time that an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line has been created from a patient with a genetic illness (J. T. Dimos et al. Science doi:10.1126/science.1158799; 2008). Like embryonic stem cells, iPS cells have the potential to develop into almost any of the body’s cell types and offer new disease insights. Patient-specific motor neurons, with a transcription factor called...

Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. "Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest...

Adult Stem Cells to treat ALS: UBC Study Vancouver researchers pioneer safe pathway to slow ALS using stem cells A unique pilot study has established a safe pathway for using bone-marrow stem cells to slow down and potentially treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disease without cure. The study, published in the journal, Muscle & Nerve and led by Dr. Neil Cashman, professor of neurology at The University of British Columbia and director of the ALS program at Vancouver Coastal Health and VCH Research Institute, tested the use of a growth factor stimulant in ALS patients and found...

The promoters of embryonic stem cell enterprises continue to tout soon to come “breakthroughs” accompanied by supine media coverage and inaccurate statements by “the scientists” who twist and distort scientific definitions to win a political debate. Such spin in the name of science, actually corrupts science. Latest example: Another company is claiming that “next year” it will start human ESC trials. From a column by Orange County Register “biomedical innovation” columnist Colin Stewart, who has apparently drunk the Kool-Aid. First there is his cruelly hyped headline: “ALS patients could get help from stem cells next year:” From his column:...

Please join me in prayer for a dear man of faith who was recently diagnosed with ALS. He is married, 58 years old, and has 3 kids, 10, 13, and 15. Please pray for his and his family's patience, unwavering faith, as well as guidance for treatment. Also, if anyone out there has suggestions for those of us who care about this man, please let us know what we might do to help without being overbearing but lovingly helpful and encouraging. Thank you all.

From the living room of Dr. Richard Olney's Corte Madera home, sliding glass doors offer a wide-open view of the tidal marsh in front of his house, of passing clouds and of the shorebirds that fly in and fly out. Inside, the man who once rode mountain bikes and ran triathlons sits nearly motionless in his wheelchair. He watches the world with the same intense intellectual curiosity that made him one of the nation's leading experts in ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - popularly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Since 2004, ALS has been slowly killing him. Of unknown origin,...

This is the title of an article in the current issue of Forbes. It is written by John J. Parris: Jesuit Priest and Professor of Bioethics at Boston College. The article starts with a problem. In 1999 a patient was admitted with Lou Gehrig's disease. The patient indicated she should be kept alive until she could no longer enjoy her family. She eventually became unresponsive. Her daughter refused the hospital's wish to terminate life support. A lengthy (10 month) court battle ensued. The daughter opposed but eventually was faced with the hospital taking the position (Court approved) that the daughter...

Neurologists at Jerusalem's Hadassah-University Hospital, Ein Kerem, are the first in the world to help multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients by injecting their spinal columns with large numbers of adult stem cells taken from their bone marrow and multiplied in culture. The clinical trial, while "encouraging" and "promising," remains highly experimental, as all the patients have undergone a single injection with no untreated control group for comparison. With the first patients having received it two years ago, it is too early to know how successful it will be in the long term. Prof. Dimitrios Karousis, a...

Yesterday morning 8/8/07 @ 6AM my father lost his 5 year struggle against ALS,He was very smart, and was a self made man who provided very well for his family through hard work and very shrewd stock investments.He will be sorely missed by familyand a myriad of friends.All through his struggle with a terrible disease he never lost his sense of humor.I've been helping care for him 24/7 for the last 2 years and I now have a gaping hole in my heart that cannot be filled. He made me the die-hard conservative that I am todayMy only solace is...

As he examined data on a computer one day last fall, drug-safety reviewer Ralph Edwards saw something that concerned him: Of 172 people in his database who developed Lou Gehrig's disease or something similar while taking prescription medicines, 40 had been on statins, the huge-selling cholesterol drugs. Dr. Edwards, director of the World Health Organization's drug-monitoring center, has amassed about four million reports of medical problems experienced by people taking prescription drugs. His job is to sift through these so-called adverse events, looking for "signals" of potential side effects. The number of Lou Gehrig's cases associated with statins struck Dr....

Register executive editor on the holiday passing of his mother and the website, www.AllForSuzette.org , that he created to promote her dream of seeing a church in her tiny Arizona town. This year, we didn’t even wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start celebrating Christmas. We set up my mom’s wheelchair next to the piano, and my brother sat down and started playing Christmas carols as soon as Thanksgiving dinner was done. We were never the most liturgically correct family on the face of the planet in the best of times, but this time we had an urgent need...

Recent successful tests of neural prosthetics bring the devices closer to widespread use. Paralyzed patients dream of the day when they can once again move their limbs. That dream is making its way to becoming a reality, thanks to a neural implant created by John Donoghue and colleagues at Brown University and Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. In 2004, Matthew Nagle, who is paralyzed due to a spinal-cord injury, became the first person to test the device, which translated his brain activity into action (see "Implanting Hope," March 2005, and "Brain Chips Give Paralyzed Patients New Powers"). Nagle's experience with the prosthetic...

Physicist Hawking to star in movie: report Sat Oct 14, 6:31 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - Acclaimed British physicist Stephen Hawking will reportedly trade in scientific journals for the big screen by starring in a movie. The film, "Beyond the Horizon," aims to explain some of the complicated theories backed by Hawking and his fellow physicists, including the idea that space has up to 11 dimensions and the cause of the big bang. The 64-year-old Hawking, famous for his 1988 international best-seller "A Brief History of Time," will also narrate a soundtrack which explains cosmological concepts. "Beyond the Horizon" centres...

How does a hairdresser meeting a comedian equal a Freeper working to assist in the battle against Lou Gehrig's Disease? Oprah made me do it.Not really, but she is part of this story. Confused? I am too, at least at the way that seemingly small events in one persons life can add up with events in anothers to become something very important. Its a strange and winding path to where I am today, let me show you the way thus far, I think you might wish to continue this journey with me... Tim Pfaffendorf was the owner of a hair...

OUTBACK artist Pro Hart has died at his Broken Hill home after battling motor neurone disease. The 77-year-old was diagnosed with the debilitating disease that causes muscle wastage late last year but his condition began to fail last week. His family decided to cease his medication on Friday and the legendary artist died at 2.45am (AEDT) today, Pro's family said in a statement. Pro Hart became a household name for his unconventional and diverse art works - which at one time featured in a popular carpet-cleaning advertisement. He was "a truly remarkable Australian and one that will be sadly missed",...

Hello all. My 75 year old father has ALS and has only very limited use of his left hand. I'm looking for any ideas for input devices for his computer. I bought him a wireless mouse that has help quite a bit, but he would like to usethe pushbutton feature of the center wheel. It makes it easier for him to scrollusing that feature. I was hoping that some of the wise Freepers here would knowof some interesting input devices for the handicapped. Many thanks

Greetings fellow Freepers!I just recently convinced my father (Age 75) to drop AOL and go broadband (It only took 3 years).He is really happy about the change. Just as a background: he was diagnosed with A.L.S. 2 years ago. This is probably going to be his last Christmas, God willing I hope he has many more. I have 12 years experience with the internet but have always been AOL-Phobic. Are there any tools out there for completely ridding a PC of AOL?Perhaps some kind of Registry Scrubbing tool?Many, Many Thanks in advance :)

Albania Seizes Assets Of Bin Laden Associate TIRANA (AP)--The Albanian government has seized the assets and bank accounts of a man who allegedly worked with Osama bin Laden and others to provide support to terror networks in Albania, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. Abdul Latif Saleh, who holds Jordanian and Albanian citizenship, was placed on a U.N. sanctions list in September, requiring all U.N. members to impose a travel ban on him and block his assets. Albania earlier had blocked 33 bank accounts in three commercial banks as well as assets and investments in Saleh's businesses and civic organizations he...

Des Moines, February 24th, 2005 - His unique style and perspective have drawn readers to the Des Moines Register for years. Today columnist Rob Borsellino wrote about his own life and how he's dealing with the diagnosis of a deadly disease. Rob Borsellino went public with a very personal struggle. He announced in his column on Wednesday that he has been diagnosed with Lou Gherig's Disease, a terminal, neurological disorder also known as ALS. How do you tell people you have a fatal disease?. If you're Des Moines Register columnist Rob Borsellino you write about it. "I was having trouble...

Why soccer would be a risk for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a mystery. But a new study has found that Italian professional soccer players get the disease at a rate nearly six times as great as the general population. The study, led by Dr. Adriano Chiò, a professor in the department of neuroscience at the University of Turin, was inspired by the work of an Italian prosecutor, Raffaele Guariniello, who was investigating soccer players' use of illegal drugs. As part of his inquiry, he ordered a report on the causes of death among 24,000 men who played professional or semiprofessional...

Why is a small area of South Alabama home to such a high number of cases of a rare disease? In part one of our investigative report, we talked to two families who have never met, but have been affected by the deadly disease called ALS also called Lou Gehrig's disease, which attacks the muscles. The peaceful waters along the eastern shore are calm and tranquil. But could Mobile Bay, and the air and soil around it somehow be factors in the unusually high number of ALS cases? Susan Calhoun: " Here he is, he's worked all his life. He's...

SAN FRANCISCO - Dr. Richard K. Olney steers his motorized wheelchair toward the front door of the A.L.S. Center at the University of California, San Francisco. Like other patients who visit the center, he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that destroys the nerves that control movement, trapping the victim in an increasingly inert body. It is inevitably fatal, often within a year or two. Dr. Olney knows these bleak facts better than most because his name is on the door of the center, which he founded in 1993. As a neurologist and A.L.S. researcher, he has written more than...

Massachusetts General Hospital said it will remove a 79-year-old woman from life support next week - against the wishes of her daughter - despite a court ruling last March saying the daughter had the right to decide when to pull the plug. Barbara Howe, 79, formerly of Dorchester, has advanced-stage Lou Gehrig's disease and has been in a hospital bed on a breathing ventilator since 1997. She cannot speak and can barely move her mouth and one remaining eye, but her daughter said she still is mentally alert. ``Her face lights up when you talk to her. I visit her...

A Chinese neurosurgeon in Beijing has aroused controversy for his use of cells from aborted foetuses to help "cure" patients affected by spinal and brain damage. Neurosurgeon Dr Huang Hongyun has been criticised for not having been subjected to medical trials and peer analysis, and because his use of cells from human foetuses raises serious ethical questions. Nevertheless, many foreign patients have been travelling to Beijing to be treated by Dr Huang, whose operations cost $20,000. "Our neurologist told us that he had 12-14 months to live," Antonia Shoal, whose husband Bob was last year diagnosed with ALS - Motor...

This would be consided a vanity post I suppose.My Step-dad has just been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) and this will probably be his last X-Mas. There are some web support groups out there, but I'm wondering if there are any Freepers out there who have had to deal with this, and could possibly share some personal insight and advice. It would also be a great help to my mom whom I'm teaching how to use e-mail, and someday I shall convert her into a Freeper :). We worked as poll checkers together for the Bush Campaign. Many, many...

John Winchester is running out of time. The simplest of tasks -- like taking a breath -- is becoming more and more difficult. The Medina man is literally dying a little more every day. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- or Lou Gehrig's disease as it is more commonly known -- has already robbed the 36-year-old, once-active former college football player of the use of his legs. Winchester uses a wheelchair; his arms are heavy and now rest at his side most of the time. He is forced to rely on others, like his wife, Megan, for help. When he tries to...

<p>DALLAS &#8212; An unusually high number of young Gulf war veterans have been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, two studies show.</p> <p>A study published in yesterday's issue of Neurology shows that veterans of the 1991 war younger than 45 have developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal motor neuron disease, nearly three times more frequently than normal.</p>

European researchers said on Sunday they had identified a new gene that, when mutated, almost doubles the risk of developing a paralyzing disease. People with the mutations had 1.8 times the risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease (news - web sites), they found. Peter Carmeliet of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues also found that mice bred with a similar mutation were unusually prone to paralytic disease. The gene they looked at, VEGF, had not previously been associated with ALS, which affects between 1 and...