We Deserve Better - Dorrin Rosenfeld

Dr. Robert M. Woolery is a survivor of the most trying circumstances. He came down with spinal meningitis at 3 years old. He was feverish for 2 weeks with temperatures as high as 107 degrees. He was given an experimental drug from some dirt in NJ which decreased the fever. (The drug was later named streptomycin.) Because the drug was new in the 1940's, the authorities never realized too much of it caused deafness. As a result, Bob has no hearing in his Lt. ear, but he survived. He had to start his "growing up" all over again, due to the trauma to his developing nervous system. Then when he was 10, he was a passanger in a major truck accident (before seat-belts were common in passanger cars). He was left with a gaping hole in his head, a shattered Lt. leg, and some other minor injuries which continued to plague him years later.

I met Bob, when he decided (in his 40's) that he needed a change after a career of steamfitting; where one of the hazards was severe poisoning while working in Chemical Plants. He was retreading himself as a Doctor of Chiropractic. Due to his career in the industrial trades, he was a favored model in the practical classes, as he certainly could use the adjustments given by instructors and the practice by students.

As another head-injured student, I could definitely relate to him (and we've been married for almost a quarter century.) During this episode, he will discuss his life as a handicapped individual from early childhood, what he's learned, and how he deals with the persistent and nagging problems we all face as brain damaged individuals.