Parkinson's
In the 1920's, Leonard Lowe is a normal ten year old boy who is attacked by a mysteriously crippling disease. The onset of the disease manifests itself in periods of what I can only term "suspended animation." At one moment, the victim is engaging in a normal activity, and at another he appears to be a living statue. Early in the disease, these periods of suspension last anywhere from a few moments to a few hours, and eventually, the victim is trapped seemingly forever in the statue phase. Only certain specific outside stimuli obtains a physical reaction, such as catching a ball or walking. When the movie begins, they show Leonard to us as a normal and seemingly healthy ten year old boy who is afflicted with the "sleeping sickness" disease that reached epidemic proportions during that specific era. Like many others who contracted this illness, Leonard and those like him were often misdiagnosed and eventually placed in mental hospital facilities because of their apparent vegeta!tive state. Doctors who worked on the earlier cases believed the patients mental faculties to have been destroyed by the illness. Dr. Sayer (Dr. Oliver Sacks in real life) discovers that certain vegetative patients reacted to outside stimuli, such as a pat
------------------------------------------------------------------------ tern on a floor, a tossed ball, or a television with a maladjusted vertical hold. Finally, Dr. Sayer comes across Leonard as a middle-aged man, some thirty years after he was originally afflicted with the disease. After doing some tests, the doctor comes to realize that there is brain activity and convinces his colleagues that further tests should be considered. He theorizes that a newly developed drug, L-Dopa, developed for the treatment of Parkinson's patients may benefit these patients. He doses Leonard, with no initial success. Once again he theorizes that the acid in the Orange Juice, which he had been giving with the medicine may actually be neutralizing the effects of the drug. He tries once more with milk, and obtains! rome. Before Tourette's Syndrome was recognized as a disease, the effects could be as bad as Leonard's. The early effects of this disease included living as a "statue" and only moving when approached by specific stimuli. This is the form of Tourette Syndrome depicted with in the movie "Awakenings." The "tics" associated with Tourette's Syndrome can cause a extreme amount of psychological problems such as feelings of being an outcast, thoughts of suicide and much worse. Perhaps you're riding a bus and you notice that the man next to you is blinking constantly and with exaggeration for no apparent reason. Maybe you're in the video store and a woman choos
Some common words found in the essay are:
Tourette's Syndrome, Leonard Lowe, Jim Eisenreich's, Dr Sayer, Orange Juice, TS Mahmoud's, Oliver Sacks, Louisiana University, Chris Jackson, Tourette Syndrome, tourette's syndrome, outside stimuli, people ts, dr sayer, tics associated, ten boy, living statue,
Approximate Word count = 983
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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