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

Wed Feb 1 02:13:03 UTC 2012

I hear ya  Patti!

-----Original Message-----
From: il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Patti Gregory-Chang
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 6:58 PM
To: Jemal Powell; NFB of Illinois Mailing List
Subject: Re: [il-talk] The following article shows why our work in the NFB
is soimportant.

I saw this and was really displeased with the media take on the story.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jemal Powell" <derek2872 at yahoo.com>
To: <Il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 6:44 PM
Subject: [il-talk] The following article shows why our work in the NFB is
soimportant.

----- 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\. This
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