
The Constant Invader, TB Among Older People - Rehabilitation, Program No. 4

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This is a story of a constant invader. In this day of modern medical advances how often do we forget that we hear when big when struck down by disease cannot always be cured by science alone here's a story of how we've learned to fight the emotional and economic chaos which follows in the wake of disease told to you by the celebrated actor Mr Henry Fonda. You would have liked Dr Garwood he was and is today not only a great healer of men's bodies but a man with a warmly human understanding of the troubled minds and hearts ability tried to cure this understanding led him to a momentous discovery a few short years ago in a sanatorium for the tuberculosis where he was a medical director and being a man of action he put into practice what he had learned in spite of the fact that it cost money and time and energy he did it because he believed in what he was doing knowing that someday he would have to prove that he was right for the money he spent belonged to us the people money appropriated by a board of supervisors we elected to run the sanatorium. The night he was called to account in the boardroom of the sanatorium before the supervisors Dr Garwood could even smile a little and the chairman droned on with facts and figures he had with plan for Dr Garwood was ready with a story of his own. Now you want to stand up to God I would the thought is not dissatisfied in the least with your work here at the sanatorium But to sum up your asking that we spend nearly seven dollars per day per patient when other side at Torrens are doing a creditable job and only five dollars but they patient Mr Barlow who have been spending more than five dollars but patient for the past few years no you want a full time director of rehabilitation I want to assume the cost of the one we have all rehabilitation work has been paid for hours a demonstration up to now by our county tuberculosis association but we are interested in the sanatorium in curing tuberculosis not in vocational training or welfare work the law of course we must give these fields some consideration how can it possibly justify the cost Mr Chairman gentleman I want to tell you one story which I think will speak for itself this began one day three years ago when I was called in hurriedly to see one of our patients Joseph stead a man about fifty years old with a family who decided to leave the hospital before he was killed against medical advice as he talked something became very clear to me. But what can I do Dr Heino I am sick and I've been feeling better since I've been here and I know I ought to stay but what can I do stay here and tell you Well Joe you'll regret it the rest of your days if you don't and let my family starve listen Dr I've got two girls and a boy and the wife Jo the welfare agency is providing money for them to get along on as an IT doctor listen I ain't kick and they've got to have rules and regulations for everything I guess but it's this way I'm a carpenter or I was and I saved every penny I could all easy years to buy a house of our own and then two months after we bought it with a good sized mortgage Mind you I come down with this bug and now the welfare agency says we got to sell the house while Joe don't you say not here that house is the only thing we own any part of in this world son and it wouldn't bring in much and whatever it did bring in would be eaten up and wreck no time and then the welfare agency would pay the rent but does that make sense. Oh doctor I won't show let House but I'm not going to let my family starve either not just the same Joe if they've got to hang on until you're well why well then you could go back to work at what you keep saying if I want to stay well when I'm cured I can't go back to being in a Carpenter Dr I'm fifty years old what kind of a new job can I get at this age well I don't know Joe but there must be something or nobody's told me what it is or told me how to go about getting it. Now Dr Maybe I'm taking a chance but I'm getting out of here I'm going back to work and Joe if you want to think of yourself think of the people you work with and your family well you can give them your disease I'll be careful but I can't let him starve. I'm going home. And gentlemen he did go home and back to work to support his family I had nothing to stop him with and he wasn't the first man of his age with a family I'd been unable to help I decided then that medical treatment for the book it was just was not alone my problems we realized the best solution was rehabilitation and I medicos social consultation begun the day the patients arrived in the hospital so we don't have a staff to handle it as quickly as we could hire Joe Stedman gambled away his life to go with this is an unfortunate story certainly but what has it to do with the problem at hand well you'll see in just a moment the bottle Joe Stedman came back to the sanatorium this time with far advanced T.V. Only now we didn't have just one case of tuberculosis but five four in the six months he'd been home Joe Stedman had infected his entire family now I know it's unusual for an entire family to break down but this actually happened. At all been here almost a year the night Joe died I was whether. I could stayed here the first time and got well. Better managed to support his family. If I just had some help. Doc they're going to be all right they're going to be fine Joe but Hoadley going to live when there will. Things are different all rehabilitation director Mr Tall is going to help them learn the job they want to learn and the thing they want to do and I well help them to learn it right here in the sand as soon as he's able to me is going on to complete high school right here you know wife decided that she might like to learn dressmaking Sally's not sure yet but Mary she says she's the smart one Mary Mr Toad is covered she has talent show and she's going to have every chance to develop it she's going to be able to take care of myself when she's While I know there wasn't any Mr toe when I was here before was that you know Joe but there's going to be a mess to toll from now on from now on. It's good. Joe. But Joe Stedman God and I took a special interest in the rest of the family now we could give them the help that we could give the father it was Mary the oldest girl was ready for us to put our new plan into action and this time I was ready to answer her question. Those last X. rays of yours are very encouraging Mary I'm going to put you on one hour activity beginning today. How do you think of that. Night. You don't seem very excited young lady nice to know that you're getting well but. I worry too much I guess I mean about after I am well what I'm going to do. Somebody's got to support the family and I'm the oldest how we're going to do something about that mistletoe tells me that you have a lot of talent for drawing That's right like to do with how can I will it make any money who you trust most of top is going to make some plans with you and he's going to start today. Tomorrow. There you are Mary what do you think of that drawing board paper and pen and made total attach right to your bed now let's see what you can do without our activity the doctors giving them a toll was going to pay for all is now we have a rehabilitation plan to take care of you just concentrate on putting something down on that paper then we'll see where we got married. Mary I had a letter from the state rehabilitation agent this morning and he's gotten some good opinions on your drawings and he likes them to tell. The told Mary how would you like to work toward being addressed designer I could be right I got so much to learn I'm never happy last time Al the state board of okayed funds to give you that correspondence course you and I discussed two months ago and with a three hour activity Dr guy would just give you well how about it. Mr told I've got something to live for another. Week before he was to leave the hospital I called Mary Stedman into my office for a conference with Mr Tolle only a week Dr Garwood and then. I'm afraid Dr what you have nothing to be afraid of Mary you know well and you've learned how to live with your. But you losses what I want pleases me most is that I think we've given you something to live for my word yes but I'm not ready yet I don't know enough Mr Carr It seems to me that your cue Mary you remember when the state rehab agent talked to you a month ago well on the basis of your progress and rest designing he recommended last week that tuitions be supplied to carry on your training you mean even after I leave the second your tuition is going to be paid at the Harper School of Fashion Design and you'll be given enough to live on for the entire six months course it won't be much of course but I can believe that and when you finish your studies the rehabilitation office will help you get a job in the work you've been preparing to do will have make you proud of me you'll see Hank thanks. Maybe it's mother in to me in a healthy get well soon to how I can take care of. That he would have liked. But I couldn't even have had the chance if it hadn't been for you talk to God and you to tell. You did more than make me well. You made me want to live. And showed me how. To. That was three years ago gentleman today Mary Stedman is a successful designer of women's clothes with their own business and I mean come that most of us wouldn't only last year her brother Tim died in the Santa time but our mothers sisters are also to a degree self-supporting and they could easily be taken care of by Mary if the need arose today. Well. That's my story gentleman. Dr Garwood you mentioned some figures in this case oh yes here they are most of all why this adds up to nearly fifty thousand dollars of a lot of money and all because we were not prepared at that time to show Joseph Stedman how he could live once he was card unprepared to give him the assurance he needed that his family wouldn't suffer while he was getting well besides the cost in money and remember our lack cost to human lives Gentlemen do you ask me to return to this farm a state of affairs. The chairman will entertain a motion that the budget as presented by Dr God would we be approved I wish that commotion all those in favor signify by the usual sign I opposed. Would you have your rants. Heard. Stop a moment and think if you were to discover that you have tuberculosis at this minute after the shock of realizing that you had a battle to fight for your life with the thought of what would happen to your family what the future held for you and them overwhelm you our doctor to found that rehabilitation and medical social aid I lifesaving weapons in the treatment of those who have TB You cannot deny human being his sense of duty his will to future independence to help him fight his disease we must help him find his other battles as well as no other way if we ever hope to win the final victory against the constant invader. The constant invader as narrated by Henry Fonda produced and written by Hugh Jane with musical direction by Ben Ludlow your tuberculosis association brings you ladies programs to show you how the job of beating tuberculosis is the task of all of us knowledge is power against this disease remember it can happen to you.