Re: Roosevelt Dawson
James Lubin (jlubin(AT)eskimo.com)
Sun, 01 Mar 1998 19:41:37 -0800
At 06:16 PM 3/1/98 -0800, you wrote:
> 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
I'm not judging Roosevelt's decision. He was the only one who knew what his
life was like before and after. I was 21 when I was affected by TM and
became a vent dependent quad. I had a lot of support from my family,
friends and my faith, without which I never would have made it. I was in
ICU for 2 1/2 months unable to speak. In Rehab for 6 month. It's been
almost 9 years for me and my condition hasn't changed. Most vent dependent
quads face live in a nursing home after the hospital. I am one of the
fortunate ones, but don't think it's all been easy for me or my family either.
----
Jim Lubin jlubin(AT)eskimo.com
Bothell, WA, USA <http://www.eskimo.com/~jlubin>
disAbility Resources: <http://www.eskimo.com/~jlubin/disabled>