The Irony of a Hero

This is Dr. Richard Olney a professor of Neurology at the University of California San Francisco. I met this man 16 years ago as a 29 year old single mother of two young girls. He was a gentle, compassionate man who had the horrible task of diagnosing me with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease. This man was the founding director of one of the 1st ALS clinics on the west coast. He spent the last 29yrs focusing on a cure. I signed up for one of his two year drug trials. It was a blind study where no one knows who is getting the real medicine, you are monitored monthly and had injections twice a day. I really got to know this man and knew someday he would find a cure. You don't sign up to be in a drug trial for ALS to be cured, you do it to help future patients. ALS has a 3-5 yr. mortality rate.

The irony is Dr. Olney was diagnosed with ALS in 2004 and is in his last few month's of life at age 57.

"That's the internal horror for all of us working in ALS and who know Rick, " said Jeffrey Rothstein, a Johns Hopkins University ALS researcher who spoke at a December symposium held in Olney's honor. "ALS and pancreatic cancer are probably the two worst diseases you can have."

He is currently signed up in a drug trial he formulated, it is too late to help him but not future patients.
The bittersweet irony of this disease and this doctor haunts his wife of 30 years. "He's famous for dying from a disease rather than finding a cure for it, " says Paula Olney.

Before the ALS would steal his speech, the doctor made sure his wife would always know how he felt, programming the computer to say, "I love you, Paula."
It's the legacy of a good doctor, who is still making a difference.

I sent Dr. Olney pictures from my recent wedding in Kauai hoping he would be so proud of my health and happiness, back in February 2004. He was thrilled and full of hope for me. He had just found out he had ALS, but never said a word.

MY HERO

You were a doctor yet so much more
you grieved with the families and
held your patient's hands

You have seen this insepid disease
steal the lives of people you cared for
and fought everyday to save us all

You are my hero and I will never forget
the dedication to the fate you have met
you have done your job now you can rest

God is with you and oh so proud
your work will live on and save many
I will miss you and you will not be forgotten