I came upon this movie, Lorenzo’s Oil, in my science elective class. It tells a story of a little boy, Lorenzo, suffering from adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), losing all his basic functions like: memory, sight, hearing, mobility and swallowing of saliva and etc. In his time, none of the ALD boys survived after the 24 months diagnosis and there are no treatments to this disease. The symptoms are very similar with 1 Litre of Tears if you say so but for ALD case, it only happens to boys who inherit the defective genes from the mother. This defect has cause the body not able to reproduce enough enzymes in the body. Hence, the very long fatty acids cannot be broken down and then build up in the brain.
Life is hard enough at times. Facing genetic problems that can never be controlled, i couldn’t picture how badly one is facing such a pressure. Devastated, helpless and anguish may even not be adequate to describe their feelings in the journey they are embarked on.
Augusto Odone, father of the Lorenzo, said this to his wife in the movie, “Michaela, the doctors are in the dark. They’re groping in the dark. “And this is how i feel every time i came upon these medical related movies. Damn right we are helpless with the medical knowledge we have and no where to turn to except the doctors. It reminds me of ancient priests and nowadays doctors analogy. I am not saying they are con man too. But science is still on this kind of experimenting, statics results protocol. They never say they are heading the right way, they are merely experimenting. Their diagnosis are purely base on what they know. How about the beyonds? How many lives are in dispense in order to know more about the disease? Or this is how nature outwit the advancement of science?
In terms of involving a life and a body, science just pulls me off the list.