The Seventh Doctor

In 1965, when I began my internal medicine training at Stanford University's Hospital,  life expectancy after treatment for a patient with acute leukemia was 69 days.  Times have changed and now I receive notes from patients whom  I treated for their leukemias and malignant lymphomas more than twenty years ago.  Millions of dollars invested in research and therapy has allowed fathers to survive and be there to parent their famiies and help their children grow to responsible adulthood. Millions invested in research and treatment has allowed women with malignant blood disorders to become active grandmothers, rather than just distant unfamiliar names in the family tree.

When I served on the national board of directors of the Wilson's Disease Association, I learned that many of our members with adolescent liver disease, severe depression, speech difficulties and neurologic disability were seen by six doctors before the seventh doctor recognized the symptoms, obtained appropriate tests, established the diagnosis and began treatment.  Early diagnosis and treatment of Wilson's Disease leads to prevention or minimization of copper accumulation in these genetically affected patients at minimal expense. Early diagnosis and treatment saves lives, preserves function and allows them to have fully productive lives at a cost of a few cents a day for safe and effective medicine.

Your interest and  investment will help to prevent a a child with Wilson Disease from dying in adolescence of liver disease, or becoming disabled by severe depression, or becoming unable to speak intelligibly, or developing  severe depression, or becoming unable to walk.   Your appropriate investment will prevent the untreated disease from proceeding to destruction of health, normal life and of economic loss.

What if, through the Wilson Disease Association public service and investment in training and education of physicians and other providers of health services (geneticists, physical therapists, psychologists,occupational therapists, nurses dieticians, eye doctors)  it was the first doctor, not the seventh who recognized the disease and prescribed proper treatment?

The Wilson Disease Association works with medical training programs and physicians throughout the United States (and internationally) to make that happen. They need your support. And the results of their work are  spectacular.

UPDATED CONTACT INFORMATION

Wilson DiseaseAssociation
5572 North Diversey Blvd.Milwaukee, WI 53217
Fax: 414-962-3886
email: membership@wilsonsdisease.org