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

Wed Feb 1 15:29:14 UTC 2012

I agree.

-----Original Message-----
From: il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Denise Avant
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 10:42 PM
To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List
Subject: [il-talk] Fwd: The following article shows why our work in the NFB
is so important.

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
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