Gripping Lyme docudrama comes to Glen Falls, NY, on May 22
“the little things” is a docudrama based on the life of Joseph Elone, a New York teenager who died from unrecognized Lyme disease in 2013.
Announcement from Lyme Action Network:
“The little things” tells the story of what should have been a simple event — a teenager goes on a short trip to pursue his academic interests — but that trip turns into an unimaginable family nightmare. How, in this day and age, can diseases be denied; patients blamed for their illnesses; and treatment not exist?
How can the voices of tens of thousands be completely ignored? This account, drawn from transcripts as related to the author and director by the teen’s own parents, will leave you stunned, with your heart in your throat.
Writer Jeremy Davidson and his wife, director Mary Stuart Masterson, will participate in a “talk-back” session after the one-hour performance. Come meet them, talk about how and why they developed this piece, and hear from Lyme experts about this complicated and challenging issue.
Date: May 22, 2017
Location: Wood Theater, 270 Glen St., Glen Falls, NY
Time and Tickets:
Pre-performance reception: 6:00 PM – $25
Performance: 7:30 PM – $15
Box Office – 518- 480-4878
Click here for more information about the event.
Click here for LymeDisease.org’s review of a previous performance.
It is absolute criminal that physicians can sleep at night knowing this disease exists but they continue to willfully misdiagnose and deny treatment…… especially for children …. An absolute miscarriage of the medical profession.
As a “person of color”, one of the primary reasons that young Joseph Elone died of Lyme Disease is crystal clear to me. Like countless Lyme Disease sufferers, I too have been denied appropriate therapy which resulted in a persistent case of SFGR, Spotted Fever Group Rickettsia. For years, I believed that my skin color was the reason why every doctor I have seen has denied I ever had this bacterial infection, despite the fact that my IgG antibody titers fluctuate between barely detectable @ 1:64 to a high of 1:512 and the fact that CDPH-VRDL Richmond detected IgG & IgM AB rickettsia titers in my pared sera sample AND CDC-RZB detected rickettsia Rickettsia & rickettsia Akari in that pared sera sample. Apparently, having a vector-borne illness is like being a black person in America and if your are black and get a vector borne illness from a tick bite, you will most likely die from that illness due to inadequate medical care. Recently, all of my persistent blood abnormalities, Idiopathic secondary polycythemia & chronic thrombocytopenia, resolved temporarily after 10 days of Doxycycline for bronchitis. And when my blood abnormalities return after taking the Doxycycline, I predict that this basic clinical fact, which does not fit established IDSA dogma, will also be ignored by future physicians reviewing my case. People with Lyme Disease and co-infections in America are experiencing discrimination similar to what people of color have faced in this country for generations.
When I saw that Joseph Elone was black I wondered if his race played a part in his Lyme being missed too. The medical profession has just as many and probably more prejudices than the regular population.
There’s the stereotype that all blacks are urban, inner-city dwellers and that they don’t spend time enjoying nature, which is ridiculous. The doctors who saw Joseph probably thought of Lyme as a “white” disease, if they considered it at all. And when you consider that infected ticks can now be found in city parks, it makes that thinking all the more dangerous. All Lyme and TBD patients are discriminated against, probably even worse if you’re a person of color.
I’m not black but I’m on Medicaid. I’ve wondered if that had something to to with doctors refusing to diagnose me, even though I’m at risk because I work on a farm.
I would like to see this docudrama but there it’s no way I’m going to be able to make it to Glenn Falls, NY. I hope this will be available to the masses, either through a purchase or online. To the people who are correlating the subject’s skin color to the lack of care or treatment, that as a suffering for 25 years I can attest that the lack of medical care effects everyone, of every race, gender or age equally. Find the documentary “Behind the Eightball” and you will see a story about a white middle aged woman left to die. A heartbreaking story, but many I have seen over the years. Only one has to watch the “under Our Skin” series to see it. There is a tremendous prejudice against the Lyme sufferer and it makes no difference who you are and it has not improved in the last 25 years.
Trish, your comment, “There is a tremendous prejudice against the Lyme sufferer and it makes no difference who you are…” is far from the truth. The New England Journal of Medicine has stated on several occasions over the years that in America, Black people receive worse healthcare than white people.
This is America, the land of the almighty $$$$$$, why would the diagnosis and treatment for vector-borne diseases be any different that any other disease? If only Black people got Lyme and other tick diseases, would this lymedisease.org website & non-profit even exist?
I read a Washington Post article from Thursday, August 9, 2007 that President George Bush had contracted Lyme (or STARI) in August 2006 while clearing brush on his Texas ranch. Bush, being a former president, was quickly treated for his rash and had no problems finding a physician to treat him. In that WaPo article, Dr. Gary Wormser said, “…it is not known whether treatment of STARI is necessary. There appear to be no long-term consequences of either treated or untreated infection…” Yea… but Bush was treated anyway and I’m positive there was no equivocation by his treating physician regarding whether Bush should be treated or not.
Like the Senator that contracted Powasson Virus, vector-borne illness isn’t news until someone famous or rich gets it… kinda like AIDS/HIV.
Trish, in 2017, failure to administer appropriate medical care to someone that had not been sick after they return from a camping trip in a Lyme endemic area is a far different level of medical malfeasance. When a young black boy in New York state comes back home from 2 weeks of camping with his obvious Lyme symptoms and doesn’t get treated, that’s not prejudice, that’s racism. .
The CDC states that Black men statistically die more frequently from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever than other Americans that contract the disease. Rockin Cowgirl was right, “All Lyme and TBD patients are discriminated against, probably even worse if you’re a person of color.” So Trish, we are all getting screwed, some of us are getting screwed more than others.