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Limb & Spinal Major 
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TITLE |
Jenifer (2001) (TV Film) |
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ALT__TITLE |
The Jenifer
Estess Story |
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DISABILITY |
Limb
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Lou Gehrig's Disease |
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NOTES |
Jenifer, 35
years old, is shown as a very busy theatre |
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producer
coping with other people's problems. She has a full |
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social life.
At the beginning of the film her mother and her two |
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sisters are
making comments to the camera. |
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Jenifer
begins to feel tired and in pain and eventually goes to |
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the
doctor's. A cat scan of her head reveals no problems. |
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There is a
problem with diagnosis until the doctor decides she has motor
neurone disease. He explains there are many |
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variations
and he can't say anything with certainty. Her elder |
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sister goes
on the internet to learn more and discovers that |
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ALS is fatal
within two to five years. |
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The doc's
final test is to ask her to get up off the floor which |
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she can't.
There is no mention of a biopsy. She is sent to a |
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specialist
(therapist) who lays out the future very bluntly. She |
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gives her
leaflets but no sympathy or support. |
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She starts
to use a stick. A friend says "You can beat this." |
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To which she
replies, "There's no medicine, no treatment, |
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there's
nothing". The sisters say the experts know nothing |
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and are
doing nothing. The sister finds a doctor on the |
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internet who
is offering treatment. But then their doc says |
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Jenifer gets
a walker and then shops for a wheelchair like |
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she's buying
a car. There's no mention of physiotherapists |
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who
specialise in fitting chairs to people. The process of |
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adaptation
to her disability is shown as negative with people |
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always
telling her what to do. |
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When she
tries to get on a bus the bus driver doesn't want to |
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take her
until threatened with publicity by her boyfriend. This |
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is New York
if she were in say Portland, Oregon all the buses |
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are
wheelchair accessible. In London most of the taxis are. |
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Later we are
shown the boyfriend dragging her and |
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wheelchair
up a flight of steps. |
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Claiming
that nobody cares about the disease she and the |
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sisters
start an organisation called Project ALS. A speech is |
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given
talking about "a woman of courage . . . Leading fight |
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against
disease." And "If we work together we can change the face of
modern medicine." The sisters badger everyone they can and see a
medical researcher about using stem cell technology. One asks "could
stem cells replace neurons in motor neurone disease?" To which the
researcher replies "You're the first person to ask me that." The
sisters immediately jump to the conclusion that stem cell research is
the answer. The sisters raise money for the research and then proceed
to bully along the researchers.
Meanwhile Jenifer is using a breathing-pipe and has a full-time
assistant
At the end the researchers say they have been successful with
experiments on mice. And of course we can assume the next step is
humans.
This film appears to me to highly biased. The sisters after a couple
of hours on the internet claim to know more than the experts. They
appear to be ignorant of what is happening in the field of ALS
elsewhere in the world. And like many people with a little education
from a small amount of evidence they make huge assumptions. I don't
think there is any reference to the A.D.A. which would support action
to make transport and buildings accessible. However though I suspect
the sisters were heavily involved in this film (one of the co-writer)
I think it's melodramatic elements might obscure the real good they
are doing.
Laura San Giacomo does a good job of portraying Jenifer.
Jenifer is now 40. |
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Notes
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