The World Loses an Amazing Medical Pioneer
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:25 pm
I got a call Friday morning from a woman in Southern California who bore sad news.
She called to tell me that a long time family friend had died. The woman should have turned 62 the day before I received the call. Her name was Margaret Ayers. I met her back in 1978 when I lived in the Angeles National Forest. She quickly became a close family friend and she is one of those people who helped shape me.
She believed in me and did all she could to encourage me to be all I could. She helped my mom push me in my education, and she once enticed my cousin and I to get a really good report card by telling us she would get us a Kick-and-Go scooter, which we did. We rode those scooters all over the forest and loved it!
She loved the outdoors and knew I loved the outdoors too, so she would take me hiking. She combined the hikes with our mutual love of science and her desire to help me with my education by taking me out fossil hunting. We found lots of marine fossils not far from our home.
For a time, she would take me to work with her on Saturdays and give me treatments for my epilepsy. I had my first gran mal when I was two hours old and it took years for the doctors to stabilize me. When Margaret first met me, the epilepsy was under control but I had to take phenobarbitol daily, and was still having petit mals regularly. Within a couple of years I went off the pheno completely seizure free and have never had another seizure since, thanks to her work.
Other people she helped have had ALS, head trauma, stroke, quadriplegia, depression, ADHD and more severe conduct problems, related issues such as sleep problems in children, teeth grinding, and chronic pain such as frequent headaches or stomach pain, or pediatric migraines, Tics, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, and the list goes on.
This is a quote from Margaret about her work with Rodney Dangerfield:
She called to tell me that a long time family friend had died. The woman should have turned 62 the day before I received the call. Her name was Margaret Ayers. I met her back in 1978 when I lived in the Angeles National Forest. She quickly became a close family friend and she is one of those people who helped shape me.
She believed in me and did all she could to encourage me to be all I could. She helped my mom push me in my education, and she once enticed my cousin and I to get a really good report card by telling us she would get us a Kick-and-Go scooter, which we did. We rode those scooters all over the forest and loved it!
She loved the outdoors and knew I loved the outdoors too, so she would take me hiking. She combined the hikes with our mutual love of science and her desire to help me with my education by taking me out fossil hunting. We found lots of marine fossils not far from our home.
For a time, she would take me to work with her on Saturdays and give me treatments for my epilepsy. I had my first gran mal when I was two hours old and it took years for the doctors to stabilize me. When Margaret first met me, the epilepsy was under control but I had to take phenobarbitol daily, and was still having petit mals regularly. Within a couple of years I went off the pheno completely seizure free and have never had another seizure since, thanks to her work.
Other people she helped have had ALS, head trauma, stroke, quadriplegia, depression, ADHD and more severe conduct problems, related issues such as sleep problems in children, teeth grinding, and chronic pain such as frequent headaches or stomach pain, or pediatric migraines, Tics, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, and the list goes on.
This is a quote from Margaret about her work with Rodney Dangerfield:
Just one person she was able to bring a bit of joy to during her life, and the attitude she shows in this quote, the caring for her patient, the caring for his family, the humor, the humility, the thankfulness, those things were seen through her whole life, day in and day out, not that she was perfect, but she did try to live that way, and encouraged others to live that way as well.Working on a client in a coma is both physically and emotionally intense. It is like working on forty people at the same time. Dr. Penny Montgomery assisted me by keeping track of monitors, collecting and keeping track of the EEG data. Rodney Dangerfield had been in the coma for over 30 days. I told Joan that the first thing we would see was his eyes staying open, then the light of life coming into his eyes, he would start tracking the coma light and his jaw would start to tighten. What an exciting process! It happened in exactly that sequence and his jaw tightened into a smile! I jumped up and shouted ?YES?. I always talk to coma clients as I know that they can hear what is said. I only do feedback for about five minutes at a time while watching for fatigue in the EEG, as coma clients get very tired very quickly. Now, how does one use humor with the greatest comedian, Rodney Dangerfield? Well, one of the many things I said was ?Rodney, if I bring you out of this coma, maybe I'll finally get some respect.? There is no greater privilege in the world than helping someone regain awareness. Rodney was able to show his love for Joan. When these precious moments of life that we take for granted are restored, I am reminded to be thankful for them each day!