
The Constant Invader, Old Treatment vs. New, Program No. 8

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This is a story of a constant invader. There is still no easy road to victory in the battle we're waging to save lives but today there are more frequent signposts to show the way in this tale of two men an old fighter and a young one and you'll see what those signposts can mean a story told you now about a celebrated star Mr Vincent Price. It arrived at the place the old man in an ambulance is wrinkled leathery face showing neither fear nor. If you would seem you would have noticed only a momentary flicker of recognition that he was perched on a stretcher through the door kind of. Where the old man been here before. Rap the noted the changes made in the years he had been away and your ring on the. More pleasant coat of paint on the antiseptic off the bed he would find the place still didn't seem the same as the agree membered he gave only a half hearted nod the younger man in the other bed in the room introduced by the doctor someone named Dick right. Then the medical problem in Aries over he was left alone until the younger man spoke to him. Mr Parsons. You feel like talking and talking to Bob The only thing I do feel like doing something oh you might just as well start right off call me Dad OK Dad but you come from Arizona the past twenty five years before that I came from around here I've lived here all my life You got it bad or don't you know yet son I'm a real loner had TB for over twenty eight years the first three of them I spent right here in this TB hospital trying to get over it I mean you've never been well in all those years you know I don't know him but I held my own till just lately when living in a shack in the mountains where is Rhona but the bugs kind of caught up with me in the last few months for you to if I was going to die I'd like to see my sister here once more collapse two days after I get home my sister got in touch with the TB Association and they range from me to come here all I I'm sorry Mr Parsons No No need to be. The only thing I never thought to get me back into this hospital when I walked out on him twenty five years ago I swore I never can make you laugh before you were cured Well I gave it a try for three years son they didn't do nothing for me but keep me in bed outdoors mostly your me first to death and we're going to how you stand it's how they don't do that anymore Dad we sleep indoors but they stuff your full of food the good balanced diet is all right now then was a days that's all I did for you figured I could do that much myself so I went to Arizona like you are a of a doctor Warren says climate has nothing to do with curing TB He says I can stay right here did you see Dr Warren that the flu came in here with me. There was no Dr Warner in Macon this is the sun. I see robbery don't do no more for unis Oh man good for me how long you been here I'll just over two weeks why because you just M. realize what you're up against Edsels and you just hadn't realized. In the days that followed that found instead of the object of a more concentrated got a body in power. Any ever could have imagined. He was given chest X. rays and Barbara Tory tested many kinds of new technique that he had never remembered from the OED. It seemed to him they were taking a lot of trouble with a man who would only come there to die and then one morning Dr Warren came to see him. I guess you wondered when we were really going to do something for us for our sins Well a test or all and we held a conference yesterday and now I can tell you what we plan to do like there yak if you're trying to cheer me up thanks because I know what the verdict is without all rigmarole you've been going through I don't think I understand what you mean I mean there will be carrying me out of here someday your daddy tried to kill me want to ask but you ran out on him What do you say that was I'd like to look up those records someday may have nineteen twenty eight May. You must of had spring fever metaphors and you know I was in the only one or two other fellows made the break same time I did and I think you made a mistake even though bedrest was about all they had to offer in those days my dad had a lot of cures to his credit and I got nothing against him and did the best he knew how much after three years my patience ran out look at me I'm right back to bed rest and it's still basic to give your body a chance to fight back but we've added a few new tricks I want to hear about him and I'm still kickin enough to be curious Well we're starting it today on streptomycin and P.A.'s that what Dick is going to get the same thing I've been getting said to Dr almost Parsons I don't want you to get the idea that these drugs kill the TB germs in your body but they do inhibit their reproduction so your body has a better chance to fight back and then when you've gained some weight and your general health is better we think a lot back to me as indicated what a resection an operation to cut out the disease lobe of your lung is being done more and more successfully every day going to cut it out that's right when a doc anything more no that's about it then I'll make a deal with you. You keep me alive long enough to go through that operation and you've got my permission to do it that's Parsons people don't come to TB hospitals to die anymore they come here to live. And I think we're going to prove it. You know what the doc tells me this morning Dick I have gained twenty pounds and I only three months too and that's great that I am gaining too but not as much as you are and I don't know why I weigh more than I have or thirty years feel better to you know I might make a general never believe that after all the years has the doctor mentioned you're there Operation lightly now who is in a word you know I'm not so sure I'm going to have an operation that's a sure unaided I never held but I'm alive. But doctor I'm not gaining weight the way Daddy is why what's the matter with me I'm younger I ought to get well faster you've made progress a lot faster progress than you would have years ago the combination of drugs we've given you is done there but it's not enough is that it we hope to get away without surgery in your case but now it looks like well Dick you're a sputum is still positive and that cavity hasn't closed that much. We think you should have an operation No I don't want to Doc I I'll get better give me a chance I will make it. Bullet. Engines and you're still a free man you're going to right to do what you want I did and I'm still alive and I feel fine now but the doc says I still got positive sputum says I could give my jams to my wife and kid if I go home but I Could Be careful I could watch a show you could I'm going to leave I'm going to get out of this place I don't want to do any operation on me I'll get well by myself I'll do what you did go away for a while take care of myself I got a ride I I'm going to leave. Dick I want you to reconsider now if you do this thing it'll be the worst mistake you've ever made in your life I feel OK Now doctor I don't think I need that operation I could get well at home I go away someplace to a better climate out west so you've been feeling in his head full of nonsense that you must Parsons and in return when I did it soon I'm Elaine and he listened to me both when people have been running away from tuberculosis for centuries Sure sometimes they lived but mostly they died died because they wouldn't finish the treatment that has proved successful in saving men's lives from T B. Mr Parsons you say you took off for our a zone and you're alive today but what kind of a life have you had in the past twenty five years Lynne and I you know to expect me to make my mark in the world when I was sick till you hit yourself away you never worked you never married or raised a family do you think your life was normal maybe not but I'm alive you could have been more than just alive you could have lived really lived if you followed your cured of the finish you can't prove that either parsons do you know do you know two men named Abu a hernia and Charlie Proctor had Charlie. Had married those names in years the two left the hospital it seemed the I did you know when I looked up your record I found there's you know what happened to them he'd heard of them since well a hern died a year after he left the hospital Charlie Proctor was smarter than either of you he came back two weeks after he left spent two more years getting well and I know Charlie Proctor he got married had two kids boys in college right now build a business of his own Charlie Proctor is a wealthy healthy man now a man who beat his TB and has lived a full life can you say the same. Is you can't and you want this young fellow here to follow the road you took. And say enough and he's going to make up his own mind Dick. Has any of this made you change your mind. I don't know Dr I. I've got to think about it I want you to be convinced that you've got to follow through with TB you've got to win all the way or you don't win a tall Well I it's not that I'm scared of an operation you have everything to gain nothing to lose but if you put it off now you may slip back. And I can't give you any assure all right doctor I'll have that operation I'll have it now. Son. You awake oh hello dad yeah I'm awake honey feels fine I didn't want to Bania talking when they wheeled in here national I feel fine Dad fine and feeling better every day of the two weeks since my operation you know it's like coming home being back here with someone to talk to you know I keep track of how you are making out to the nurses who was a little suspicious when they didn't bring you back here right away doc said you need to be alone not talking or anything until you get back your strength. And I wasn't sure I could believe him how you can believe him Dad I don't know why I ever doubted him about the operation the doctors know best dad don't you realize that now and have had a lot of time to think since you've been gone they want me to have that little back to me operation that poor thing Carson No I don't think there are you feeling fine Dr and that's Parsons What do you think of this boy looks pretty good to me Dr Ali ought to I thought you'd like to know that that last few them test of yours was negative the negative from I'm getting well really well now that I think you're on your way. You want to be able to say the same as far as I'm. Then I guess a deal's a deal Dr what I mean when I came here I didn't think you could keep me alive long enough to have an operation you did it in you showed me how crazy you have been all these years. And I want an operation doc you name the time and the place not be there. I figure now that the truth against TB is not enough. If you really want to live you're going to have a victory. In the last fifty years tremendous progress has been made against the killer of man tuberculosis new techniques of surgery new drugs that help the body fight the TB germ offer greater hope than ever before that someday death from TB will be a thing of the past but with all our knowledge and our miracles of modern medicine the deciding factor in the battle is still the patient is will to live his will to follow the long fight through to final victory but it is still the human body that decides the issue a body under the control of the human mind if you ever find you have to be remember there are still no shortcuts to winning again but remember too that you can win again in a TB hospital where all our knowledge and all our weapons martial the game. A constant in beta. Girl or are. Good. Narrated by Vincent Price written and directed by Hugh change with musical direction by Ben the low this series as presented by our debarking loss' Association knowledge is power against T.V. what you know about this disease that strikes thousands of Americans each year may someday save your life.