By Wayne M. Willoughby, Immediate Past President, Maryland Association for Justice

Recently the consuming public won a major victory in the courts. In a 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court held in Wyeth v. Levine, 129 S.Ct. 1187, 173 L.Ed. 2nd 51 (2009), that federal law did not preempt a state law claim brought by a musician who lost her arm to gangrene as a result of a defectively labeled nausea medication. The action alleged that the manufacturer’s label was defective because it did not warn health care providers of the substantial risk of loss of limb if the drug is administered by IV push. The Court specifically rejected the pharmaceutical company’s defense that because Congress empowered the Food and Drug Administration to approve drug labels, that federal action preempted state products liability laws. This major decision assures that irresponsible companies cannot misuse the laws designed to promote food and drug safety to avoid liability for producing and selling unsafe products.

Not to be undone in the public’s eye by such an important loss, the forces behind the decades old movement to protect businesses from being held accountable for corporate misconduct fired back. The United States Chamber of Commerce (acting through its benignly named “Institute for Legal Reform”) has begun to push a “Faces of Lawsuit Abuse” campaign at local movie theaters with two-to-three-minute advertising trailers before movies.

One such trailer in the Chamber’s campaign tells a story about a Rockville swimming pool business sued when a Canadian goose nesting near the store attacked a customer causing her to fall and break her hip. In order to subject the legal system to ridicule, the Chamber distorts the facts of the case and omits one tiny little truth: the defense attorney who represented the company stated that the action was NOT a frivolous case.1 The Chamber is not alone in warping reality in order to produce a compelling anti-consumer/ anti-justice message.

Last month a group with the innocent sounding name, Maryland Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (MdCALA), joined with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), to issue a joint survey claiming widespread fear of lawsuits by small business owners. Aside from the fact the study was unscientific and was comprised of only 129 on-line responses, MdCALA failed to mention that the results of its paltry survey pool were in marked contrast to a much larger survey (3,530 small businesses surveyed) conducted by the NFIB only ten months earlier. This earlier study concluded that so-called “lawsuit abuse” is not a major concern for small business owners. In fact out of 75 possible priorities and concerns, small businesses ranked the “costs and frequency of lawsuits/threatened suits” at 65th on the list.2

To the well informed it comes as no surprise when a group name containing the words Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) in its name unfairly attacks the legal system.3

The CALA movement began in the early 1990’s when the American Tort Reform Association and a Washington, D.C. law firm that represents Big Tobacco retained APCO & Associates, one of the nation’s leading “grassroots” lobbying/public relations firms, to build a network of local organizations to act as the mouthpieces for anti-consumer tort law changes.4

Masquerading as “grassroots” organizations, but bankrolled by big tobacco, big pharma and insurance companies, when CALA issues an alleged study or survey, the public should expect nothing less than another attack on the laws which protect consumers from the excesses of corporate greed. For more information on CALA and the tort reform movement in general, read, “The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law”, a report by the Commonweal Institute.5

At some point, however, the public will come to see CALA groups for what they are: Astroturf movements by powerful business and political interests that want to overpower the people’s right to justice in our courts in order to protect corporate profits no matter how those profits were obtained.

The Empire may strike back, but ultimately the truth will prevail. Until then, the Maryland Association for Justice will continue to fight for the people’s right of access to the courts, right to trial by jury, right to due process and right to equal protection under the law.

1. Tamber, Caryn. “Take a Gander at This Movie Trailer.” The Daily Record 22 Apr. 2009 Web. 12 May 2009. <http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=11409&type=UTTM>.

2. “Small Business Problems and Priorities.” NBIF Research Foundation June, 2008 Web. 12 May 2009. <http://www.nfib.com/Portals/0/ProblemsAndPriorities08.pdf>.

3. Mencimer, S.. “Blocking the Courthouse Door; How the Republican Party and Its Corporate Allies Are Taking Away Your Right to Sue.” Free Press 2006 Web.13 May 2009.

4. “The CALA Files: The Secret Campaign By Big Tobacco And Other Major Industries To Take Away Your Rights.” Center for Justice and Democracy and Public Citizen Web. 12 May 2009. <http://www.centerjd.org/archives/issues-facts/stories/cala.php>.

5. Johnson, David C.. “Th e Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law.” Commonweal
Institute 01 Oct 2003 Web. 12 May 2009. <http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/cw/files/AttackTrialLawyersTortLaw.pdf>.

A couple weeks ago, Wayne M. Willoughby of Gershon, Willoughby, Getz & Smith, LLC, spoke to a class of graduate level students at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine about medical malpractice from the perspective of a malpractice lawyer who represents children with Cerebral Palsy.  The class consisted of medical students, journalists, freelance researchers and writers, and others interested in medicine. He shared the floor that evening with an OB/GYN leader the “tort reform” movement in Maryland, who was there to offer his perspective on the topic.

Given the factually erroneous and often outlandish claims made over the past several years by those seeking to limit the rights of brain damaged babies, it was surprising that the end of the doctor’s presentation with how much the doctor and lawyer were in agreement. 

The doctor candidly told the class that damage caps on pain and suffering are irrelevant to lowering malpractice premiums – a point patients’ rights advocates have been making for years.  Likewise, the doctor acknowledged that frivolous lawsuits are not the cause of high malpractice premiums, a concession previously made by Medical Mutual’s CEO to a Maryland Senate committee in October 2004 (as reported at the time in the Baltimore Sun).

The students also heard the doctor explain that the real problem for physicians in not the high cost of medical malpractice insurance. The real problem is that doctors in Maryland are nearly the lowest reimbursed physicians in the United States. Again, this is a point patients’ rights advocates have been making for years.

Fifteen years ago, the doctor received $3,000 in insurance reimbursement for an ordinary vaginal delivery of a baby, $4,800 for a surgical delivery. Today, for the same services insurance companies reimburse obstetricians in Maryland less than half those amounts. Because of the dramatic cut in his income for delivering babies, the doctor said he was unable to keep up with the costs of malpractice insurance. Thus, he stopped delivering babies.

The doctor acknowledged that if insurance reimbursements for delivering babies remained the same as a decade ago, there would have been no fight over the cost of malpractice insurance; he and others simply would have paid their premiums like any other cost of doing business and continued to delivery babies. 

So, given the recognition by this physican-leader of the “tort reform” movement that frivolous malpractice lawsuits are not a problem driving up the cost of malpractice insurance, and that damage caps do not lower insurance premiums, perhaps this year physicians will cease their annual efforts to limit the rights of babies with CP.  It is time for physicians to focus their energy on an issue that doctors and lawyers can agree on – the need to hold health insurance companies responsible to deal fairly with physicians and patients.  

Moreover, a few years ago she founded the Miss You Can Do It pageant for people with special needs and hopes that her new platform will lead to greater participation.

This young woman’s courage and determination is inspiring.  There is no doubt in my mind that she will meet her career goal of becoming a commercial airline pilot

People of all political parties and ideologies are outraged over AIG’s apparent belief that it can act irresponsibly without suffering any consequences. Yet, the actions of Wall Street and our nation’s banks that led to our current financial crisis demonstrate AIG is not alone in the belief that “accountability” is a precept inapplicable to corporate America.  

When the outrage over AIG’s arrogance and our nation’s financial meltdown subsides many questions will need to be answered, among which is the question of how America found itself in the position where corporations and their officers believe they can engage in wrongful and negligent conduct without being held responsible. The answer is rather simple.

Over the past eight years big corporations took advantage of all of us. They pushed for lax regulations, no oversight, and no accountability in almost all areas of business. Leading the charge has been Washington’s largest lobby, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The U.S. Chamber represents the biggest domestic and foreign corporations and their CEOs.  Afraid to speak out on their own, these businesses and their leaders hide behind this corporate lobby machine. The U.S. Chamber is caked in mud from all its dirty work to protect negligent corporations, lobbying for elimination of government oversight and accountability, the causes of the financial predicament stressing our nation today.

Again, look at AIG.  A recent report revealed that AIG has given at least $23 million this decade to the U.S. Chamber.  The majority of this money, $15 million, was pledged in 2003 immediately after the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley.  The goal: undo this legislation enacted in response to a series of major corporate and accounting scandals that shook the securities markets, including the scandals at Enron, Tyco International, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom.  Apparently, the U.S. Chamber and its corporate benefactors feel no need for corporate America to be held accountable for fraudulent and other wrongful conduct. 

Now five years later we are in another financial crisis with U.S. Chamber again at the center of the storm.  During these five years, U.S. Chamber has been the leader in pushing for less regulation, less oversight, and less accountability.  Their favorite target is the legal system, trying to eviscerate it at every turn so those injured by the negligence of corporations are left with no recourse.

If there has ever been a calamity that demonstrates why we need a strong civil justice system to hold wrongdoers accountable, our current financial situation is it.  The American people were lied to and investors were duped.  CEOs are walking away with multi-million dollar golden parachutes while employees are left jobless and retirees see their savings and 401ks obliterated. 

This is the kind of justice that U.S. Chamber and other corporations subscribe to but definitely not the justice the American people want or need.

So, what has the Chamber proposed to do about the financial crisis?  In 2002, U.S. Chamber CEO Tom Donohue stated, “There is no right for business to go to government to take care of their follies and their errors.”  Well, that was then and this is now.  The U.S. Chamber has been one of the loudest voices begging for a government bailout to fix the follies and errors of corporate America.  The government listened.

The cure being dispensed for our financial ills is government borrowing of astronomical sums of money, effectively mortgaging away our children’s, grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s futures, so government can intervene to undo the damage caused to the American people.

To be clear, the issue is not whether a government bailout is good or bad, was needed or not.  The issue is one of unrestrained corporate greed, a philosophy of valuing profit over people that ultimately resulted in the loss of the former and injury to the later.

In other words, the present economic catastrophe has reinforced the importance of holding corporate and other wrongdoers accountable so they will act responsibly and not chase profit at the expense of people’s lives and wellbeing.

U.S. Chamber has been on the wrong side of the accountability issue time and time again but the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association has not.  The MTLA has always fought to hold corporate and other wrongdoers accountable for the harm they cause.  We believe in valuing the lives of people over the profits of corporations.

We hope with this latest crisis, the days of negligent corporations trampling over the rest of us are finished.  Yet, hope is not enough.  The Maryland Trial Lawyers Association will continue to fight for the rights of people to a fair and just legal system.

One such group is California-based Pacific Research Institute. Like other tort reform groups, PRI is funded by tobacco, oil, and drug corporations, all wanting to ensure people have no legal recourse when harmed by their misconduct.

When PRI issued its annual “state tort index and rankings,” MTLA knew something was “fishy”. How can one put a price on a legal system, or rank the various states’ legal systems? Well, an analysis issued this month by three leading law professors “blows” PRI’s arguments right out of the water.

Tom Baker of University of Pennsylvania Law School, Herbert Kritzer of William Mitchell College of Law, and Neil Vidmar of Duke Law School authored, “Jackpot Justice and the American Tort System: Thinking Beyond Junk Science.” This is a scholarly work I highly recommend reading as it sheds much-needed light on the intellectual dishonesty of these tort reform groups.

The professors levied multiple criticisms on PRI, calling their report “advocacy disguised as science,” “pure fiction,” “lack[ing] scientific merit,” and containing “highly dubious extrapolations.” PRI’s claim that families are somehow paying a “tax” for the civil justice system is also exposed - its origins are from a discredited study by insurance consultant Tillinghast Towers Perrin. In the sea of highly dubious numbers flowing through the report, the law professors concluded that, “Not one of the numbers included in the table of tort costs in the report comes from a ‘prestigious academic publication’ or was subject to peer review by independent experts.”

The heavy criticism levied upon PRI’s authors does not just speak to this one report, but is an indictment of the corporations and the front groups they have created to try to chip away at the civil justice system. For years, these phony think tanks and “academic institutions” have relied upon silly anecdotes, fuzzy math, and a slew of other disingenuous tactics to plant a solution for a problem that never existed.

Look no further than Maryland’s so-called Medical Malpractice Crisis of 2004, a local example of how fuzzy math and anecdotes were used to attach a non-existent problem of the legal system. During 2004, Annapolis was inundated with dubious studies, reports and projections selling the “snake oil” of tort reform. The result was a special session of the Maryland General Assembly which produced a bill leading to the transfer of over $84,000,000 in state taxpayer money to Maryland’s largest physician liability insurer.

However, by 2007, the projections of doom and gloom were convincingly proven to be patently untrue. The insurer was so profitable it announced plans to issue a $68,000,000 dividend to its physicians. This prompted Maryland’s then new Insurance Commissioner, Ralph S. Tyler, to intervene causing the insurer to refund the $84,000,000 in taxpayer money back to the state and issue physicians nearly $14,000,000 in credits against future malpractice premiums.

The analysis by the three law professors debunks just one report in an ocean of misinformation. But it illustrates how truth is on the side of the civil justice system, and now more than ever, we are fighting back against those seeking to undermine it.

The research is published today in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study also found that all users are at risk, and the more you smoke, the more your brain shrinks.

Doctors have known for years there is nothing “soft” about the drug cannabis. Professor Jon Currie is the director of addiction medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.

“This is a very exciting study because it proves for the first time what we have been really worried out. That brain problems are real and that people who smoke cannabis over a long term do get problems.” he said.

The study conducted at the University of Melbourne took MRI pictures of the brains of 15 men who had smoked more than five joints daily for more than 10 years.

It found the parts of their brains that regulate memory and emotion, the hippocampus and the amygdala, were significantly smaller than those of non-users.

The abnormalities were equivalent to those caused by a mild traumatic brain injury or premature ageing.

Researchers found the men aged in their late-30s had the memory function of men in their mid-50s.

The amount of damage corresponded directly to the amount of cannabis smoked.

Indiscriminate

And the researchers say the results show that cannabis can adversely affect all users, not just those in high risk categories like the young or those susceptible to mental illness, as previously thought.

Professor Currie says the results reflect what he sees in practice.

“If you’ve got heavy cannabis use over a period of time, you don’t have to have pre-existing diseases. It is not just for people who have got schizophrenia, everyone who smokes cannabis for a long period of time, is at risk,” he said.

But the executive director of the Australian National Council on Drugs, Gino Vumbaca, approaches the study with caution because of its apparently small sample size.

“I think in scientific studies we need to see this sort of work repeated and the results verified again in other studies,” he said.

Mr Vumbaca says while studies like this are helpful, cannabis use has already halved in the last decade, reflecting what he sees as a recognition among users that the drug is harmful.

“It has gone down from people aged over 15. It was peaking at around 17, 18 per cent 10 years ago and it is down to just over 9 per cent now,” he said.

“A lot of people don’t see cannabis as a benign drug anymore. They understand that all drugs cause problems. Particularly if they are used on a regular or a heavy basis, that you are going to encounter problems with those drugs.”

But Professor Currie still hopes this study will provide new impetus for people to quit.

“My hope is that this can be used as a very, very clear warning to people. Get help, seek medical help, try and stop smoking, ” he said.

Parents turned pictures of their autistic children toward the gathered media as the song ‘Long Time Coming’ played.

Those parents are urging the government to eliminate what they call toxins, used as preservatives, in childhood inoculations.

The march was led by Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son, and her boyfriend Jim Carrey.

Studies estimate that 1 in 150 kids has autism, and that figure includes familes with autistic children right here in East Texas.

One mom who agrees with the ‘Green Our Vaccines’ movement spoke with KLTV 7 News, and she says there’s no doubt that there is a link between mercury-based preservatives that used to be in vaccines, and her child’s diagnosis of autism.

For two years, 19 year old Danny Matteucci has worked for Goodwill Industries on their assembly line. It’s a job his mother never thought he’d have.

“Danny was supposed to never be able to talk, and through years and years of hard work, we got him to where he is now,” says Debbie Matteucci.

“I remember him sitting in the bathtub and that was always our play time, and I couldn’t get my baby to look at me or speak to me anymore.”

A change, virtually overnight - a change Debbie says came after starting his vaccinations, specifically ones that contained Thimerosal, a mercury based perservative.

“I truly do believe while it might not be the only cause of autism, I do think it has some effect.”

Dozens of parents agree with Debbie, including their lawyer, Randy Roberts, who is representing 50 clients suing vaccine manufacturers. “They’re not against vaccines,” he explains. “Vaccines are a good thing. What they’re against is putting mercury in vaccines. Mercury is not a cure for any disease, it doesn’t prevent any diseases.”

But some doctors aren’t so sure.

“Our vaccines are very safe. They’ve been extensively researched, especially when it comes to any association with autism, and there has been no association found,” says Dr. Melanie Wick, a pediatrician at Trinity Mother Francis hospital.

Since 2001, vaccines have not contained Thimerosal, a comfort to Debbie, but certianly not enough. “I do think we have to look at how many, and how often we’re giving them…had we been aware there was a possible link at the time, we may not have had to deal with this at all.”

Since Thimerosal was taken out of the vaccines, autism rates have continued to rise, leaving medical experts to consider the case against Thimerosal settled. But Randy Roberts’ cases are not settled yet. His clients’ trial dates should be set this fall.

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8430908&nav=1TjD

ways of solution may all be regarded as facilitation
factors. Factors could also include good organisation, the
daily routine and the equipment. Motivation promoting
activity, and rhythmic intention, i.e., speech accompanying
movement also have a facilitative effect. (Kozma, Hári)
These elements are closely connected to each other in
everyday practice and are simultaneously achieved in the
system. Their role and intensity in the process may be
different. Even the latest theories of learning (Pólya) share in
the view that the way of attaining new pieces of knowledge is
always the following:
• Motive
• Interest
• Comprehension
• Conception, planning
• Solution-controlling
In conductive education the same path has to be followed.
As a result of external or internal motivation, the dysfunction
individual is supposed to want to perform the particular
actions, to want to achieve a certain goal, to understand the
task to plan the necessary action and to apply it with the
correct solution, with control. Motive (goal) promoting to
want, anticipation and intention. If intention is there but help
is lacking the motor disabled person may develop pathological
movements that will hamper the intention.
FACILITATION is the necessary help given to the person to
make the correct implementation of the intention possible.
Facilitations are primarily of human character. (M. Hári)
The disabled person is facilitated by conduction guidance
along complex series of information, to fi nding the coordinated
way, providing experience to discover the right intention. The
different techniques in the habilitation and rehabilitation of
handicapped children, e.g. the disease specifi c correction of
movement functions form both the aim and the result but as
far as the order of the achievement is concerned, we must rely
on the fi ndings of pedagogy and we must make use of those
facilities which give optimal help to the learning process.
For this reason C.E. contrary to the different aspects of
rehabilitation is governed by pedagogic practices. From the
point of view of activating the disabled child in a way which
leads to optimal learning, therapy is only part of the equation:
insofar as whether or not the teaching/learning process will
lead to the correction of the function.
It is our belief that whatever the healthy child learns, the
disabled child will also acquire through learning. For this
reason we wish to secure the optimum conditions for learning.
In the concept of C.E. the problem solving person has to be
helped and not his/her functions. The person is constructing
his orthofunction. (M. Hári)
Types of facilitation:
• Operative observation
• Educational, social facilitation
• Guiding/conducting tasks
• Manual or equipment facilitation
• Postural facilitation
• Neurological facilitation
• Rhythm
• Mechanical (environmental) according to the child’s
human dimensions
The operative observation as facilitation
The operative, comparative, progressive observation is a way
of facilitation in a continual and systematic way. (M Hári) As
every pupil is unique, the solution of their problems follows
in different ways and the conductor has in mind the special
purposes depending on the subjects own qualities over time
and stage. There will be variability in means to the same and
they reach the same outcomes of tasks in different ways.
Educational and social facilitation
To provide activity and the positive attitude to life-providing
readiness imagination, motivation (M. Hári)

Every motivation is a valid educational activity. Intellectual
motives - regardless of the children’s age - are given by
advice, proposal hint, proof, and discussion. Emotional
motives are given in an interesting, emotionally preferable
way, through trust, success and self-respect. The preferred
facilitation is the system of the whole educational program,
with its multidisciplinary actions. These programs include
emotional, social, perceptual, cognitive, academic,
communication elements with simultaneous interconnections
(M. Hári). Every factor of the development is connected and
interrelated. The disabled people are not passive recipients
of stimuli; facilitation is given by the target itself which
becomes the goal of the individual.
Assistance can be in the way of people or equipment. It
can be direct or indirect. Assistance can be educational,
neurophysiological or mechanical.
Assistance is appropriate if:
• The person can build into his/her own activity
• It helps get over a deadlock
• It helps make the goal tangible
• It helps maintain the results already achieved
• It is not more than necessary but enough to achieve the
maximum of success
Trevarthen (1995) describes Vigotsky’s theory about the
aura of potential effectiveness that lies just beyond a
child’s current level of achievement as the ZPD (Zone of
Proximal Development) revealed when a sympathetic helper
gives appropriate support, and offers a glimpse of future
developments. The child’s current knowledge and skills
can connect with new experiences and new opportunities
for acting with the guidance and help of others. A child
with disabilities who is attempting to act on the world will
experience persistent barriers and disappointments. In spite
of brave determination, the task becomes not worth the
effort. That is why it is important that the natural desire to be
part of the team collaborating with a helper, who can make
a task possible, remains ready to receive encouragement
and enablement. The importance of dynamic interpersonal
contact is acknowledged in CE as the fundamental basis of
the child’s development. The group, interpersonal relations,
motivation and the performance of activity are regarded
as educational facilitation. The prevention of expected
mistakes and demonstration help correct ways of solution.
For example, children are reminded how to hold their
arms and feet before a concrete task, i.e. instructions are
given. Incorrect postures are prevented. For example, the
maximum extension of the elbows in a sitting position is
helped by placing the chair to be held at such a distance that
it can only be reached by extended elbows.
• Guiding/conducting task as a facilitation.
Facilitation through task series. The goals translated to
targets in the tasks which can be approached in a cognitive
way by controlled feedbacks. These serve as additional
clear informations provided controlled input coordination
becomes controllable. Through this indirect approach
analytical goals can be achieved.
Each disabled person has different abilities. The various
procedures of facilitation are chosen according to the

personality and problem solving ability; naturally, taking the
goals to be achieved into account. Facilitation changes and
decreases as the person develops. Facilitation integrated
into the personality of the individual assist him to become
orthofunctional. It is important for the assistance to be
minimal, to increase independence and for it to be used
in order to achieve a maximum performance. When
selecting and applying facilitation one must remember that
it should not inhibit individual activity and that it should
promote application of what has been learned. Continuous,
operative observation by the conductor helps the above.
It is not enough to recognize halting or inability. The way
an action is performed must be observed, thus facilitation
is determined. The above mentioned types of facilitation
can be used before, during and following task solution.
The conductive educational programme naturally includes
facilitation procedures and possibilities. It is refl ected in the
consecutive sessions, the structure of task series, the selection
of individual tasks and their ways of solution. For example,
the same task during the daily programme will be executed
in different positions, the active fl exion and extension of
the knees are learned in lying, sitting and standing positions
and when walking. By breaking down, simplifying or
complicating tasks, we ensure that the disordered person
solves the task and gains positive experiences.
• Manual or equipment facilitation
Manual or equipment facilitation is used if it helps over
a deadlock or helps to achieve a position. An important
principle is that it can involve only a distal section of the
active part of the limb. The disabled person will learn to
use facilitation and in time will include the assistance of
equipment and mechanical or physiological effects in his
own activities.Variety and the feel for a varied problem
solution are to be considered when applying the various
methods of facilitation. Uniformly applied assistance over
a long period of time is incorrect.
• Postural facilitations
So-called position facilitation is applied when the task
is to be executed in the most advantageous position for
the disabled person. For example, if task solution is not
successful when lying in a supine position then the task can
be temporarily solved while lying on the side.
• Neurological facilitations
Synergetic and successive effects and conditioning can
be regarded as neurological facilitation. Simultaneous
movement of the lower and upper limbs, simultaneous
fl exion of the feet and hands or simultaneous movement
of the upper or lower limbs in case of hemiplegia all have
a synergetic effect. Successive effect is achieved when
fl exion is preceded by extension or standing up is begun
from a squatting posture. Conductive education makes use
of neuro-physiological facts. They are to be applied as a
means subordinated to educational goals in order to achieve
functions. The disabled person is made aware of how to
achieve the performance of an activity and how he can
make his own movement easier.

“You don’t know how dynamic it is as a parent of a CP
child, to be able to actually see and touch many of the items
available to help these children,” said Anna Marie. It is
much more benefi cial to see and touch wheelchairs, adaptive
bicycles, positioning aids and bath seats than looking a
catalog or magazine. The conference was a signifi cant success
and we look forward to making it an annual event.
Reaching for the Stars is currently mobilizing parents, family
members, friends, doctors and therapists across the country
in a letter writing effort to the members of the United States
Senate Subcommittee on Health and Human Services and
the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Health, Human Services, Labor and Education.
“These are the two primary congressional groups who control
funding to the CDC (Centers of Disease Control),” said Gray.
Basic research as to the cause of and ways to prevent cerebral
palsy are well overdue, especially in light of the fact that
currently more than 764,000 children and adults are affected
and yet cerebral palsy has not been studied in a meaningful
way at the national level. The timing is right to change this.
“We can’t afford to let these children be forgotten,” Gray
explained. “Lawmakers are waiting for us to speak up on
behalf of these special children.”
RFTS intends to target senators and congressmen in 36 states
in an effort to raise public awareness and support for cerebral
palsy research among key lawmakers.
“Our goal is to reach senators and congressmen with as
many letters as possible,” Gray said. “We need to make sure
that these lawmakers understand that this is important to the
hundreds of thousands of families impacted by CP”.
Contrary to common belief, about 80 percent of children with
CP have no well-defi ned cause for their condition. Despite
the introduction of modern prenatal testing, better obstetric
care and improved newborn intensive care, the prevalence
of CP has remained virtually unchanged over many decades.
Children with CP are at risk for other problems including
epilepsy and a variety of disabling conditions including
orthopedic deformities, vision and hearing loss, swallowing
and nutritional diffi culties, respiratory diffi culties and chronic
pain. All of these secondary disabilities exact a signifi cant
cost – both fi nancial and emotional – from our communities
and society as a whole. Some of these secondary disabilities
are potentially preventable, but have not been adequately
studied. The goal of RFTS is to change that.
Founded in 2004, RFTS, a national 501 (c)(3) non-profi t
organization, is committed to driving research to serve the
needs of children with cerebral palsy and their parents and
caregivers.
Reaching for the Stars is a world-class research foundation
started by and for the parents of children with cerebral palsy
centered on the belief that leading-edge pediatric research
can lead to cures and new treatments for cerebral palsy and
deliver measurable improvements in the lives of affected
children and their families.
“Research for cerebral palsy, particularly in children, is
under-supported and severely under-funded. This slows
progress towards new regenerative neurological discoveries
and limits the public awareness of Cerebral Palsy in
children,” explain Champion and Gray. The powerful
techniques of brain imaging and genetic epidemiology, used
so effectively for other conditions, have not yet been fully

utilized to investigate the major problem of CP among
our nation’s children, they say.
Still a new organization, RFTS is gearing its letter-writing
campaign as an important step in building awareness
of CP and increasing research to benefi t children and
the next generation of children. This is particularly
important since the CDC reports the incidence of CP in
children is much higher than childhood cancer, hearing
and vision loss, cystic fi brosis, and on par with the rate
of autism in children 3-10 years old – yet no comparable
study of CP exists.
“The goal of this campaign is to persuade specifi c
members of Congress that parents of children with
cerebral palsy do have a voice and are speaking up
regarding national cerebral palsy research. We are asking
that all family, friends and health care professionals will
contact their congressman and senator,” Gray says.

usually caused by brain damage occurring at or

before birth and marked by muscular impairment.

Often accompanied by poor coordination, it

sometimes involves speech and learning diffi culties.”

One with Cerebral Palsy: Cerebral Palsyblessing.

An alteration given to a person and

in turn gives the person the power of change.

To a doctor, Cerebral Palsy means just another

day on the job. To a teacher, Cerebral Palsy means

more work to fi t the student’s modifi cations. To a

teenager, Cerebral Palsy means wondering what

is wrong with that person… But to me Cerebral

Palsy means just another hurdle that requires

just a little bit more force needed to jump over it.

I was diagnosed with Mild Cerebral Palsy just

after my fi rst birthday. Since then I have faced

many different kinds of obstructions that just

need to be moved to the side of the road… the

road to triumph. During my fi fteen years of life,

I have been confronted with bullying, mocking,

defeat and torment in all ways shapes and forms,

but the way I look at things it has only made my

life better. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve also

had many accomplishments come my way. For

example, in the 7th grade, I was elected Vice

President of the Student Council, in the 8th grade

I received the Presidents Volunteer Service Hour

Award for earning over two-hundred service hours.

Also during my 8th grade year I was also able to

appear in a commercial for a museum where I

volunteer, and most recently, I was elected 1st Vice

President of the Class of 2009. To coincide with

all of that, I am also in the Nations 2nd best High

School Marching Band; The Ronald Reagan High

School Marching Band. But I personally believe

that being a teenager with Cerebral Palsy has only

helped me achieve such great accomplishments.

To a normal person, the thought of having CP just

makes them think of how horrifi c their life would

be. But to someone who suffers from CP, they think

of it not as an impairment but of fortuitous blessing.

It teaches them to persevere through things, to not

let anything stand in the way of achieving their

goals; it teaches them to not let something so small

ruin a beautiful day. But most importantly, it teaches

them that life is not all that bad, and at the end of the