Parkinson's

In the 1920's, Leonard Lowe is a normal ten year old boy who is attacked by a mysteriously crippling disease. The onset of the disease manifests itself in periods of what I can only term “suspended animation.” At one moment, the victim is engaging in a normal activity, and at another he appears to be a living statue. Early in the disease, these periods of suspension last anywhere from a few moments to a few hours, and eventually, the victim is trapped seemingly forever in the statue phase. Only certain specific outside stimuli obtains a physical reaction, such as catching a ball or walking. When the movie begins, they show Leonard to us as a normal and seemingly healthy ten year old boy who is afflicted with the "sleeping sickness" disease that reached epidemic proportions during that specific era. Like many others who contracted this illness, Leonard and those like him were often misdiagnosed and eventually placed in mental hospital facilities because of their apparent vegeta! tive state. Doctors who worked on the earlier cases believed the patients mental faculties to have been destroyed by the illness. Dr. Sayer (Dr. Oliver Sacks in real life) discovers that certain vegetative patients reacted to outside stimuli, such as a

We have to be accepting of people with TS, rather than rejecting them from society. Before Tourette's Syndrome was recognized as a disease, the effects could be as bad as Leonard"tms. He tries once more with milk, and obtains! some rather startling results. This can cause immense psychological harm to this child, if the child has !yet to be diagnosed. These outbursts are neither intentional nor purposeful. The "tics" are associated with misbehavior and kids are often labeled "bad". Abdul-Rauf is featured in an independent documentary "Twitch Shout" produced by two film makers with TS. In a small amount of cases, the vocalizations can include socially inappropriate words and phrases -- called coprolalia. He doses Leonard, with no initial success. Increased public understanding and tolerance of TS symptoms are of paramount importance to people with Tourette Synd!rome. The early effects of this disease included living as a "statue" and only moving when approached by specific stimuli. This is the form of Tourette Syndrome depicted with in the movie "Awakenings. The doctor discovers him in the patient's lounge area coloring in a coloring book.