Mother's Day
| Mothers have always played a special role in the health care of their children. Here, we examine two special cases where many lives were saved because these moms cared so much. In 1975 it was two alert and dedicated moms who helped unravel a major illness. One of the moms was the wife of a physician whose daughter had been diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). She called the state health department to notify them that there were, in her neighborhood, 12 cases of JRA, including her daughter, newly diagnosed. A few days later the health department got another call from a mom relaying the same information but with the opinion that it might be an infection causing it rather than JRA. From there an epidemiologist at Yale University pieced together the facts that the illness was more common in June through September and that a rash was sometimes present. The town was Lyme and the illness, now bearing the towns name, was a result of an infection borne by a deer tick. It was however these moms and not some maven who led the way. Recently in another situation the NY Times reported about the mothers of Nepal. In the midst of a deadly measles epidemic these moms made the difference. In the isolated town of Lo Monthang situated high in a mountain pass a cadre of women working together helped to vaccinate and treat the children of the region. In a country where the status of women is low they organized on a ward level getting the message out door to door. They worked tirelessly with no monetary reward explaining about the vaccine and then working to get the children out to the vaccination centers. Their efforts saved many children’s lives. Many health care workers had come up the 13000 feet from Unicef and other organizations bringing the supplies and expertise. In this town of no cellphones or television, success was ultimately made by the women of Nepal. Love and concern are fundamental forces in the health and well being of any people. Mothers suffering in these two instances saved many other mothers from a similar fate. Happy mothers day 2006! | ||||||||||||||||||||
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