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

[Denise Avant]

Today is January 31, 2012 and these events took place in a major city right? Just checking.

There are so many things wrong with this. But one thing I see is the reporter has failed to investigate and educate her readers about what one does when faced with the possibility of losing eyesight.  Her only interest was to write a feel good human interest story. And that's really too bad in these days.
The doctor's comments are positively horrible. Even understanding that his job as a doctor is to correct physical problems, he should have had some knowledge that the loss of eyesight does not mean one is shoved into a nursing hoe.
When our family and friends question us about our involvement in the NFB and why educating people about blindness is so important, we will have this article to refer them to.




Begin forwarded message:

> From: Jemal Powell <derek2872 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [il-talk] The following article shows why our work in the NFB is so important.
> Date: January 31, 2012 6:44:10 PM CST
> To: "Il-talk at nfbnet.org" <Il-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Reply-To: Jemal Powell <derek2872 at yahoo.com>, NFB of Illinois Mailing List <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- 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 article is provided to you as a courtesy of NFB-NEWSLINE® Online for your sole use. The content of this E-mail is protected under copyright law, and is not to be distributed in any manner to others; infringement of our non-dissemination agreement is strictly prohibited. Allowing someone to have access to this material is in violation of the Terms of Use agreement that you electronically signed when you signed up for NFB-NEWSLINE® Online. Please do not forward this E-mail or its attachments to any other person or disseminate it in any manner. Thank you. The NFB-NEWSLINE® Team.
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