Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Revelations in a Wheelchair

In late 2001, I heard Daniel Gottlieb, a psychologist and best selling author, talk about an experience he had while waiting in the hallway to give a keynote lecture at a prestigious conference. Gottlieb had been in a serious accident years before and was left quadriplegic. He was sitting in his chair outside of the lecture hall, a coffee cup resting on briefcase on his lap, looking down at his notes. A woman walked by, eyes averted and thinking that he was begging, put a dollar in his mug.

Nolan Ryan Trowe tells a similar story in an Op-Ed piece in the Sunday, November 25, New York Times entitled: “Revelations in a Wheelchair: A recently disabled New York City photographer gets an education in the discrimination that people like him must face.”  You may find it worth reading.

 

Rad Resilience

In 2005, as a 19 year old college student, Krysten Chambrodt lost her left leg above the knee in a motor vehicle accident.  Now a food writer/editor at the NY Times, she is planning on running the NYC Marathon. Her article in the October 16^th NY Times is worth reading.

I started running as an amputee seven years ago, when, on a whim, I swung by a running workshop for lower leg amputees held at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan and organized by the Challenged Athletes Foundation. I didn’t know what to expect, but what awaited me surpassed even my wildest expectations: Little boys bounced forward on their blades, stumbling over themselves with unadulterated joy and determination, and strong, fit adults, men and women alike, who’d even gone on to participate in Ironman triathlons.

A dear friend, who’d spent a large part of her life grappling with illness and knew what it meant to be young and to face a long road to recovery, once gave me the best advice. “Seeing yourself heal is pretty amazing,” she wrote barely a month after my accident, and just a couple of years before her death, “I know it seems impossible right now because you have a long way to go, but it’s already started, and as time goes on, just watch how rad it is to discover what your body is capable of.”

Read: Training for the Marathon on 1.3 Legs.

Wounded Healers

There was a moving essay in the NEJM this week by a young woman, studying for a doctorate in psychology, who received chemotherapy while doing medical research on a gap year between college and graduate school.

“I stuck Post-It notes on the wall behind my bed, revealing data unrelated to my chronic illness but vital to my humanity, such as “I am a big sister” and “I climbed Machu Picchu” and “I like cupcakes” — so that anyone coming to round on me could see who I was, under the hospital gown…”

Her illness enabled her to recognize that “provisions for a supportive companion might make an enormous difference in patients’ experience of care. As a researcher, I wanted to do something about it. So I decided to write a grant for chairs in the infusion unit.”

“’The chair grant,’ as I came to refer to it, seemed to encapsulate the chimera that I was the fusion of patient and researcher. “

“It was not about chairs: to me, it was about comfort, compassion, dignity, and support. It was about not being only a patient or only a researcher…”

Many of you will be inspired by Jennie David’s short essay. Here is the pdf: Download The Chair Grant

The day after reading Ms. David’s memorable piece, I saw an article in the NY Times on “Doctors with Disabilities,” that is a fine lagniappe to Jennie David’s poignant viewpoint.

A few of you may be interested in these articles. The Wounded Healers is a big and important topic.

Notes from "the annals of the poor"...

We all have friends for whom where they or their kids went to college is the gold standard of success.  Harvard, Princeton, Williams, Stanford.  WTF! 

In Elegy in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray counters with:

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.

In last week's NY Times there was a moving obituary.  "Larry Selman weighed three pounds when he was born on April 2, 1942, and was not expected to survive the day. He rallied, though, grew to become a friendly, husky boy and attended public school until he was about 16, when a teacher explained to him that he would probably never earn a high school diploma because, by all measures, Larry was — in the parlance of the 1950s — mentally retarded...."

[Mr. Selman led} an eventful and in some ways remarkable life, filled with the daily struggles of a man whose I.Q. was said to be 62 but who was determined to live independently. He managed to achieve his goal, in a sense, by taking responsibility for other people: those more vulnerable than himself.

This moving obituary is a source of inspiration and enlightenment. You may be moved to see the 2002 documentary about him, “The Collector of Bedford Street” (trailor).

Related articles

Larry Selman: He Showed Us the Power of a Dollar

Report: Larry Selman, 'The Collector Of Bedford Street,' Dies At 70

Miracle Boy

Today's NY Times has an important Op-Ed piece by Ben Mattlin: Suicide by Choice? Not So Fast.  Our role here is not to swing anyone's vote -- but just to give voice to others.

Mr. Mattlin's book: Miracle Boy Grows UP looks interesting and his promo video is worth viweing.

 

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