[il-talk] The following article shows why our work in the NFB is so important.

Wed Feb 1 02:11:55 UTC 2012

Sounds like these folks need some serious education on how life can go on
after blindness.

-----Original Message-----
From: il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Constance Canode
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 7:54 PM
To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List
Subject: Re: [il-talk] The following article shows why our work in the NFB
is so important.

I also have two words, but they are not able to be spoken on this list.
That had to be one of the most sickening pieces of garbage I have ever read.

At 07:05 PM 1/31/2012, you wrote:
>I have two words, oh, dear.
>
>Connie
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
>Behalf Of Jemal Powell
>Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 6:44 PM
>To: Il-talk at nfbnet.org
>Subject: [il-talk] The following article shows why our work in the NFB 
>is so important.
>
>
>
>
>----- Forwarded Message -----
>From: NFB-NEWSLINE Online <nfbnewsline at nfb.org>
>To: Jemal Powell <derek2872 at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 7:01 PM
>Subject: Article from Chicago Tribune News 2012 01 22
>
>
>An unexpected torch in the dark \ Nearby friends brighten life of woman 
>whose world was dimmed by vision woes. By Vikki Ortiz Healy, Tribune 
>reporter. Last month, in a third-floor unit of an unremarkable beige 
>brick apartment building in Schiller Park, Janice Gurvey was going blind. .
>Doctors had earlier warned her that cataracts would gradually take her 
>eyesight, but the fog moved in quickly. Within weeks, the woman, in her 
>mid-40s, had to stop cooking and driving. Within two months, she fell 
>in the shower, unable to pick herself up. That was when her neighbors 
>revealed themselves as the kind of people few, perhaps, are lucky to 
>experience. The family next door took out her garbage and took Gurvey 
>hot meals. A friend a short drive away visited daily to do laundry and 
>feed her cats. Another down the street drove her to doctors 
>appointments and called every hospital and eye center in Chicago, 
>desperately searching for somebody who could help. I don't know
>  what usually happens to someone who has no money and no insurance and 
>can't see and has no family in the area," said Dr. Brian Proctor, an 
>ophthalmologist at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, who said he'd never seen 
>anyone so young lose vision so quickly. Society, I think, would've just 
>put her in the nursing home to get her out of the way," Proctor said. 
>But they didn't. Her neighbors took care of her. Gurvey and officials 
>at the Melrose Park hospital hope the story will spread a little warmth 
>during the cold days of winter. There's not enough words in this world 
>to make up for what they did," she said. In the last few months of 
>2011, Gurvey felt her life sink deeper and deeper into a hole. Once a 
>vibrant cashier at a grocery store, she was let go when her failing 
>eyesight led to mistakes reading customers' coupons, she said. Her 
>longtime live-in boyfriend, who covered the bills, offered to pay for 
>surgery to repair her vision. But in October, a stroke left
>  him unable to move his left side. He, too, had to stop working and 
>moved into a nursing home for rehabilitation. Gurvey was left alone in 
>their one-bedroom unit, where her eyesight deteriorated rapidly. She 
>began counting the stairs in the building -- 13 for the first flight, 
>12 for the next -- to keep from falling. She ate lunch-meat sandwiches 
>for every meal because she no longer could see the dials on the stove. 
>Unless people were 6 inches from her face, she couldn't see their 
>expressions, Gurvey said. It's the worst feeling," she said. For 45 years,
you're so used to seeing stuff.
>I would sit here and I could have all the lights on, but it would be 
>like pitch black. Cataracts are a common condition in which the lens of 
>the eye becomes cloudy, leading to loss of vision that typically 
>worsens with age, Proctor said. Although most cataracts begin about age 
>60, they can happen sooner, said Proctor, who has been in practice for 
>17 years. Most people have
>  the condition repaired with routine surgery, in which the damaged 
>lens is replaced with an artificial one. Proctor does 10 to 15 surgeries a
week.
>Doctors detected early signs of cataracts in Gurvey's eyes in October 
>2010, but her condition rapidly deteriorated a year later. Stress, 
>which reached a high in Gurvey's life after her boyfriend had the 
>stroke, is known to speed the deterioration, Proctor said. Without a 
>job or health insurance, Gurvey knew surgery that costs $3,500 an eye 
>was not an option. She said she had fallen behind on rent and began 
>having panic attacks wondering what would happen to her. You live by 
>yourself and you're used to feeding the cats and taking a shower and going
to work. And I couldn't do any of that by myself,"
>she said. I eventually thought I'd have to go to a nursing home. About 
>that time Agnes Zak, who lives next door, noticed Gurvey scrambling to 
>catch her cat Buster when the pet escaped into the hallway. Zak's heart
>  ached as she watched Gurvey grab at thin air because she couldn't see 
>the pale tan animal. After Zak helped retrieve the pet, she began 
>regularly dropping off hot meals such as pork and sauerkraut. She told 
>Gurvey to leave her garbage bags at their doorstep so she wouldn't have 
>to stumble to the garbage bin. And Zak's husband gave Gurvey rides to 
>visit her boyfriend. I was raised that way, to give, to help," said 
>Zak. I would expect someone to help me if I was in that situation. 
>Similar reasons inspired James Staublein, of Des Plaines, who knew 
>Gurvey through her boyfriend. Staublein checked on her as he drove by 
>her apartment a few months ago. His timing was perfect. Gurvey had just 
>slipped in the shower and was lying there frozen in fear until 
>Staublein called on her cellphone. After Staublein let himself in, he 
>vowed to visit her almost daily to feed her cats, clean her apartment 
>and give her rides wherever she needed to go. As Gurvey's eye condition
>  worsened, Staublein and his wife, Dianne, took her into their home so 
>they could look after her around the clock. Staublein knows other 
>people might not have gone to the same lengths, but he said there was no
other option.
>Gurvey was in distress, he said: "We helped her out the best we could.
>Another friend, who did not want to be named for this article, made it 
>her mission to find a doctor or eye center in the Chicago area that 
>would perform cataract surgery at a discounted rate under a payment 
>plan. She called dozens of hospitals and centers, pleading Gurvey's 
>case until she reached Jeneen Santucci, the office manager at Gottlieb 
>Eye Center, in Melrose Park. She knew what she was talking about," 
>recalled Santucci. You could tell she'd been researching. Although 
>Santucci wondered if the friend was exaggerating, she spoke with 
>Proctor, who agreed to see Gurvey for a consultation on Christmas Eve. 
>Minutes into the examination, Proctor said, it was clear
>  that Gurvey needed immediate attention. He discounted his fee by 50 
>percent and told Santucci to ask the hospital to lower its fees. And he 
>squeezed her surgery into his packed end-of-the-year schedule. It's 
>very unusual for me to see someone with cataracts that are that dense," 
>Proctor said. To let somebody walk around like that, I think, is cruel. 
>She needed to be taken care of, and that was just the right thing to 
>do. Proctor said his staff members had tears in their eyes when they 
>saw Gurvey's spirits lift almost instantly. Shortly after the 15-minute 
>procedure, the colors that jumped out at Gurvey from the tile floor 
>made her heart pound, she said. On the drive home, she pointed out 
>signs for hotels near O'Hare International Airport that she could read 
>again. A second surgery this month restored Gurvey's vision in both 
>eyes to 20/20. Back to health, she recently began working again two 
>days a week as a runner at a restaurant. Gurvey's surgeries
>  were paid for by contributions collected by her friend and by 
>strangers on Facebook. At night, she returns to Apt. 3D in that 
>nondescript beige brick building, where she is overwhelmed whenever she 
>thinks about all the people who helped her stay there. And this month, 
>she celebrated her 46th birthday with perfect vision. I was able to see 
>my cake, candles and the faces of my friends," said Gurvey. I didn't 
>know what to wish for as I blew out the candles, because I knew my wish 
>had already been granted." ---------- vortiz at tribune.com 2012 0009 120122 N
S 0000000000 00002586. ILLUSTRATION:
>Photo(s). Photo (color): Janice Gurvey, right, 46, got a helping hand 
>from neighbor Agnes Zak, center, with her daughter Dominika, 10. Zak 
>and her husband cooked, cleaned and ran errands for Gurvey. Photo 
>(color): Dr. Brian Proctor says of Janice Gurvey's situation: "I don't 
>know what usually happens to someone who has no money and no insurance 
>and can't see and has no
>  family in the area. ... Her neighbors took care of her. Photo (color):
>Janice Gurvey was going blind before getting surgery for a rare form of 
>cataracts. She now has 20/20 vision PHIL VELASQUEZ/TRIBUNE PHOTOS\. 
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