Roosevelt Dawson
Pat & Lizz Rofe (plrofe(AT)email.msn.com)
Sun, 01 Mar 1998 18:16:22 -0800
I do not want to alarm anyone with this message, but my wife and I
thought everyone should know. Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of
a fellow TM patient this past week. Roosevelt Dawson was a young college
student whose affliction left him a quad on a ventilator. I was shocked to
learn that Dr. Kevorkian would assist in a suicide with someone who had TM.
My name is Patrick Rofe and my link to this episode is my wife. Lizz
has had TM for two years and six months. When we learned of the suicide we
knew that we had to gather support to show our outrage. Not only does it
anger me to see Dr. Kevorkian assisting in the suicide, but the ignorance
with which the media reported the incident was appalling. The reports
referred to TM simply as a "mysterious disease" leaving the impression that
there was little chance of recovery or treatment. Well, there is a good
chance for recovery and a great chance for rehabilitation.
What I ask of you is to write, e-mail, or call (at the very least) our
local media in response to this incident. We do not want Dr. Kevorkian's
message sent to anyone who may be afflicted with TM and who does not know as
much about the disease as we do. This group is a tremendous help for all of
its members as a source of information and mutual support. Why don't we
extend this knowledge to anyone else who may need to support and simply does
not know where to turn.
Please let them know that this "mysterious disease" does have a name,
and there are people living with it and families effected by it.
Please respond.
Detroit Free Press
321 W Lafayette
Detroit, MI 48226
313-222-6583
Joe Stroud (editor)
www.freep.com
Oakland Press
248-745-4620
Neil J. Munro (editor)