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To: Donna Kipp I read your note about sensitvity, and understand I think. My father has had PD for several years, and initially we worried about him getting worse. My mother, his caregiver, has been through all sorts of experiences that once she would have thought couldn't happen, and hasn't had to deal with some at least so far that she worried she might. You have to take each day as it comes. However, when dealing with political and communication agencies that influence and support funding, there can be no sensitivity as only research will find the cure, and research means money. They must be made aware of the harsh realities of this disease, particularly when there are proponents of other diseases yelling loudly for their share of the funding pie. I hope you drop a note to NBC. Following is the note I sent (I got back the standard email reply): From: Brian Symonds B.Sc. M.Sc. M.D. <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Copy To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Parkinson's Your recent description of Parkinson's Disease as an "inconvenience" has left me incredulous about the veracity of your reporting. We watch the Nightly News on KINGTV in Seattle, although we do receive all the other networks. The naivete of this statement is baffling, when it would be so easy for your researchers to know the reality. Currently about 80,000 Canadians have this disease, with at least ten times that many in the US. More people have ParkinsonUs than any of the other movement disorders combined (including multiple sclerosis). This mean disease slowly and progressively cripples not only the person with the disease, but it can also cripple their caregivers and social financial resources. It has to be fought from minute to minute day in and out, mostly with love and courage since so little is known about its cause, and treatments are symptomatic (when they work and donUt cause side effects worse than the disease) and not curative. My father had to retire early with this disease, and is quite debilitated by it. My mother subsequently had to retire early to look after him, and her own health has suffered. And I have patients and their caregivers in my medical practice that suffer the physical and emotional hurt and indignity that this disease brings. This disease has certainly been more than an RinconvenienceS to them. The only plausible explanation I can think of for this ill considered remark is that you were perhaps trying to spare Parkinsonians from thinking about the progressive enfeebling nature of their disease. DonUt bother. They know what this disease can do to them. They see it every time they go to their doctorUs office or a neurology clinic, or a ParkinsonUs Support Group meeting. I donUt think that your show owes Parkinsonians an apology for this flippant obtuse remark because I donUt think that that would atone for the insensitivity that you have shown. I think that your show should find some way to help people with this disease and their caregivers maintain their dignity and hope. We and the other members of our local ParkinsonUs Support Group will be watching - for awhile.