European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 8, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Many promises Little help for victims of multiple sclerosis nothing has been proven to cure multiple sclerosis or even convincingly slow it Down. Perhaps even worse no one knows what causes it. By Daniel q. Haney associated press during the past Hall Century Gold Snake venom and Oil of evening Primrose have Al been louled or Miil Lilc sclerosis so have yeas i Sunflower seeds and surgical implants of pig brains All the remedies have one thing in common none works in recent years scientists Havo looked at radiation pressurised oxygen and transplant drugs in search of something that will Slop the of in Corable destruction of this disease. But the answer sadly is much the same. Nothing has been proven to cure multiple sclerosis or even convincingly slow in Down. Perhaps even worse no one knows whal causes it the disease or strays the insulation a subs Lanco called my Elm. That surrounds their nerve fibres. As a result nerve messages gel distorted or fail logo through victims have trouble controlling heir movements. Often they can l walk. Symptoms can include tremors blurred vision weakness and slurred speech the realm enl in this disease has t changed dramatically in the last 25 or 30 years says or. Floyd Davis of Rush medical College in Chicago. Wove All Soen new approaches and a lol of promising things have happened but nothing has really changed the conventional Way in which we Deal Wilh this does t mean the Odds of conquering is Are entirely hopeless. Plenty of scientific research is going on there Are hints still far from proven Hal in May yet to possible to Slop the destruction by tinkering with the bodily parts that have run awry. In fact a cancer drug called clearly helps even though its benefits arc temporary and it is Loo toxic or Many patients to consider using yet i has provided the nest evidence that in s even possible to interrupt the disease. Other new studies suggest thai a natural hormone called Bela in Creeron might do Soma Good the most widely pub sized approach of recent months is a synthetic protein called cop 1. In preliminary studies in seems to Hall and even reverse the mild Early stages of multiple sclerosis. Cop 1 is especially in resling because it does t cause any Side eff oels. Bui experts generally Are Lel Ucland to gel excited about this drug until several Large carefully controlled studies prove that it works. They have Good reason to be sceptical. Time after time therapies described glowingly in Early reports have turned out. Years later to be worthless. One recent example is hyper Banc oxygen. A report four of yrs ago in the new England journal of Medicine a ird thai breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber scorned to relieve Iho disease storefront of Lyon climes opened Irp around the Counley. Of omani. A i Loir Llor a while was brisk however several now follow up studies have found no value in this trial mint. Hopes raised and smashed Are a Way of Lite for people with is they Are motivated by Hope bul they have become a Gie Al Deal More sceptical and justifiably because they Havo Boon disappointed any number of says or h Waksman of the National Mulliln sclerosis soc icly at the same Lime i think they ought to be optimistic " som Lime the disease grows steadily Dibo irom the Start Moi Eollen. Though Vilms Fullor or Ralic spurts when new symptoms suddenly flair up and then Roa rtt. One major research goal is to figure out whal causes us a crucial step for finding strategies Locure it evidence is growing Hal people May inherit � genetic susceptibility to the disease studies have Shewn Hal identical twins Are tar More Likely than fraternal twins to share the disease. Recently. Or Dessa Sadovnick of the University of British Columbia found Hal children of people Wilh multiple sclerosis have about a 6 percent Chance of getting it themselves this is 50 limes higher than the risk of the general population. Or. Floyd Davit of rms medical cottage in Chicago. Or push limits. We All live Wilh Iho fear thai if we Lake a risk we might lose something we want to hold on to but one of the common things i hear from people who have had a Brush with death is that they realize now the risk of not doing something they intend to the Mere act of survival said Ruman often entails a risk element Hal spells the difference Between life and death in a crisis situation people olten find themselves capable of sustaining what would seem to be incredible strength or courage she said. There is research into air disasters that indicates that at the Lime of an emergency those who operate with the quickest instinct s Are generally the ones who might survive. They must do things they never have done. We re ail probably imbued Wilh la Lens that we never dreamed we might have. And it seems thai in situations like an air disaster you might As Well go out but All too often an individual s survival might seem As much a matter of pure ale As gut level in Sunol. That intervention presented a complicated set of circumstances for Ken Osmond who As a los Angeles police department officer survived two shooting incidents within a one month period in september 1980, Osmond achieved a certain cult hero Stal during his teen years Lor his unforgettable portrayal of Eddie Haskell. The notorious creep of the Long running leave Illo Beaver Lel Eviston series but in his adult life he was completely Dodi caled to his Job As an l a p d officer until the narrow escapes from deals inexorably altered his perspective on the Day to Day existence of a Street cop. I d been on the Force a Little shy of 11 years Osmond Sard so you get to the Point where violence is not unusual it s the Norm. The first time my partner and i were patrolling and we d just heard a broadcast about a stolen taxicab. Just a moment after that we saw the cab. The Guy crashed got out and ran my partner had already emptied his gun a the suspect and i was still chasing him. When i came around a Corner i was standing toe to Loe with him and he fired three rounds. I was falling backwards and lived three two of the suspect s shots struck a protective Vest Osmond was wearing while the third shot struck his Belt buckle. Within Days Osmond was involved in another loot Chase when a shot lived by a Security officer behind him grazed the of of his head. Fore Long time thereafter i was not As aggressive on the Street Osmond said i questioned my own cowardice. You gel shaky. They Call it Post traumatic depression. And that really covers it. Unless you be experienced depression you have no idea what the word Means. It was a matter of withdrawing. I would spend Days at a time in seclusion would t speak. I Tell you i put my family to the real lest " Osmond began a program of psychotherapy that continues to this Day but the process of finding a suitable therapist became a painful procedure of trial and error that Ulli Malelya led to his leaving the police department two years after the shooting episodes ironically Osmond s disposition improved when he got a second Chance to take on the Rolo of Eddie Haskell first in a Beaver reunion special for Abc and currently in the new leave it to Beaver seen on Cable. I m on lop of the world n he said. Osmond s own sons Eric and Christian Are playing the sons of Haskell in the resurrected comedy. Being a alter is the hardest thing in the Osmond said. And i was not a father to them for several years due to the depression. I was t a father a Friend a husband nothing i was just there Are Olle limes a less positive aspect to surviving a near death experience said or. Ruman. There is a syndrome known As survivor guilt in which someone for example sees his neighbor s House blown away while his is still standing. There is a very powerful sense of Why me there can be a sense that the victim feels he did t do enough to help someone else. And this feeling can sometimes Manifest itself in ways that Are terribly pathological end in the Case of Frank Carbonara a 68-year-Osd eco who survived the 1971 earthquake that killed 4 people at the veterans administration Hospital in Sylmar call., there were constant memories of watching an in year old girl being crushed before his eyes just before the Lorce of the quake threw him underneath a sink where he remained for 59 hours until bulldozers could release him from a massive pile of dirt gravel and rubble. Carbonara lived for seven More years Belore cancer finally look his life bul his widow. Rose said the memory of watching a teen age girl die Mamed vivid Frank would always think of that girl the injustice of it All Rose Carbonara said his own survival was marked by a continuous deterioration of his in Sical health Hal his widow remembers As so hear i break my thai to would actually Pray for his own death i truly believe mat the earthquake dirt it to him,1 the 74 year old widow said tuesday decembers 1987 the stars and stripes Page 17
