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Dig A Hole: Dr. Michael DeBakey, the man who saved Jerry Lewis’ life

July 12th, 2008 by Scott Marks

In 1982 I was working the dispatch office for Cablevision in Oak Park, Illinois. The phone rang and instead of some irate jerk in Cicero shouting that his Playboy Channel was out it was my friend David Elliott. The call came in at around 7 am San Diego time, an unthinkable hour of the morning for the then childless Mr. Elliott.

My first thought was that a member of the family had taken ill and in a sense I was right. As soon as Dave heard my voice he hit me with, “Jerry had a heart attack.”

Dr. Michael DeBakey was Jerry’s personal physician. The two men met in 1970 when Dr. DeBakey joined the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Scientific Advisory Committee. From 1972 to 1991 Dr. DeBakey served on MDA’s board and had stayed on as MDA national vice president since then.

Jerry and the Doc quickly formed mutual admiration societies, each man carrying pictures of the other in their wallets. It was Dr. DeBakey who first diagnosed Jerry’s addiction to Percodan. During a 1978 visit to Houston, Jerry collapsed and Dr. DeBakey’s first thought was that he had a heart attack. X-Rays revealed an inordinately large bleeding ulcer which were masked by the pain killer Jerry had been addicted to. After two grueling weeks of spinal injections the ulcer showed signs of healing and it was Dr. DeBakey’s nurturing words that helped Jerry kick the Percodan habit.

The attack that Jerry suffered in 1982 was so sudden that it prevented Dr. DeBakey from personally performing the open heart surgery, although he did act as a consultant. In 1992, sawbones DeBakey was once again called upon to help rid Jerry of prostate cancer.

Continue reading Dig A Hole: Dr. Michael DeBakey, the man who saved Jerry Lewis’ life

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Stem Cell Research may lead to treatment of muscular dystrophy & epilepsy

June 5th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Gene Pool

I know Emulsion Compulsion is a movie site, but it’s Jerry-related so bear with me.

You don’t have to study the heavens tonight to know that the stars are in their courses.

Timpani…

On the same day disability and civil rights attorney Harriet McBryde Johnson died, scientists at London’s Newcastle University announced the creation of a stem cell technique designed to offer a treatment for a series of genetic conditions, including some forms of muscular dystrophy and epilepsy.

OH, YEAH!!!

Earlier this year a team that’s a hell of a lot smarter that you and me created the first IVF embryos to contain DNA from one man and two women. The technique can create a child “with three parents” and could prevent a host of deadly hereditary diseases. Scientists believe that this can all be achieved within three years.

Is this the same stem cell research that Jackanape in Chief George Bush wants outlawed?

I credit 1968 as the first year that I began watching the Telethon with regularity. This year marks the 40th year that I don’t leave my house on labor day. From 1972 to up until around ten years ago when Jerry started taking nap breaks, I logged as many hours per year as humanly possible. The advent of VCR’s made it much easier to enjoy all twenty-one-and-a-half hours of the annual love-in.

In spite of it’s annual one-day shelf life, the Telethon means almost as much to me as the movies do. The man behind it is the first (presumably) non-animated artist ever to punch my memory card. As early as five-years old Lewis was on my radar and I hunted down each one of his new releases. His pictures splattered all over the movie section made it easier on a kid just learning to read.

The Chicago American TV Guide was my first Bible and every Saturday night I scoured its pages for Jerry Who Else’s? name. Even though I had no conception of what a telethon is, Jerry’s name was above the title so count me in. The first syndicated Telethon was broadcast Labor Day weekend, 1966. At a family get-together, my cousins watched some noxious sporting event while I stole away to the back bedroom to see my first glimpses of Jerry the humanitarian. Two years later I had one of the older kids on the block buy me a pack of No-Doz to help me make it through the night. I was hooked!

As much as I would like to tell you more about today’s scientific breakthrough, who am I kidding. I could barely make my way through this story let alone the latest issue of New Scientist magazine.

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