Another Side Road

I went with friends to see a movie tonight. I have no idea what critics had to say about it, but I say some people in Hollywood are finally getting somethings right. This is the type of movie critics love to hate. It is a schmaltzy story about a family with two dying children and the crusade the father mounts to save them. It delivers a great commentary on orphan drugs. The drugs that are very expensive to make and do not have a large market (perhaps 10,000 world wide).

Perhaps I found this film interesting and relevant because I worked in the medical field for thirty plus years. During that time I was able to follow the development of equipment and medications that could only be found in science fiction. Just think, the eradication of polio, measles, small pox, hemeolytic disease of the newborn, the ability to produce clean drugs with bacteria in just the last forty years. I found the behind the scenes bickering of cost effectiveness versus life saving treatment fascinating because I have been exposed to both sides. Perhaps I enjoyed this film because I had a household with two electric wheel chairs. My husband was a paraplegic with two rotator cuff injuries and my eldest son had Duchesne muscular dystrophy. The movie didn't dwell on the havoc electric chairs driven by two active people can cause in houses and cars, but it did hit the nail on the head with the emotional havoc a debilitating or deadly disease can cause in a family. My son, like the father in the film, would search the Internet constantly looking for inroads in research. He was thrilled when the gene governing Duchesne was found and was frustrated when research stalled at a genetic fix or even a possibility of stopping the progression of the disease. He was very blessed in that he could get around independently in his wheel chair. Occasionally we would get a call that his batteries had died at the mall or the theater and to come get him. He was a great movie buff and his ambition was to direct movies. He would have been good, but his life ended at age twenty six due to complications of pneumonia. It was only the second time he was treated in a hospital. At the time of his death, he was considered and old man in terms of surviving dystrophy. The average life span was fifteen years.

Sure there was artistic license taken when the expected life spans were exaggerated but no matter how long or short a time one has a child, the loss is still devastating. Different people succumb to diseases in different time periods and different ways. Stephen Hawking is the premier example of longevity with any form of dystrophy. Think of the number of Hawkings that we have probably lost to these insidious diseases. Thank heaven that I am not a movie critic and do not have to dwell on the acting, writing, directing or casting of a movie. I just have to dwell on the message it is delivering, and this one has a great message.

The movie is Extraordinary Measures. If you have read the critics and are reluctant to spend money to see it in a theater, be sure and rent it when it is released as a video. By the way, I read the critics after I wrote my blog and applied my standard fare. If they like the movie, I generally do not see it. If they do not like the movie, I can't get to a theater fast enough to view it.

Me