Newspaper Page Text
Griffin Daily News Friday, July 7,1972
Page 6
Severely retarded child
exists in non-world
Tender care works
By DAVID HENDIN
ST. LOUIS, Mo.—John, 12,
is a hydrocephalic. His head
is more than twice as large
as normal because fluids
have accumulated to an ex
cess and have, in effect, de
stroyed much, if not most, of
his brain.
Because of this severe
damage to his nervous sys
tem John is little more than
a “human vegetable,” dis
tasteful though the term
may be. His IQ is essential
ly 0— no intelligence — al
though it is difficult to mea
sure accurately in this ultra
low range.
John is one
of about 3 to
5 per cent of
the nation’s
six million
mentally re
tarded who
are classified
a s severely,
or profoundly
retarded.
Most of them
are not am-
V, jE
HENDIN
bulatory and can do noth
ing but lie in bed and make
grotesque noises.
They are “crib cases” who
have been found drugged
into a stupor and closeted in
the back rooms of newly in
famous institutions such as
New York’s Willowbrook
State School. In under
staffed, underfunded institu
tions like Willowbrook or
Letchworth Village in up
state New York, huge rooms
hold wall-to-wall steel-sided
“cribs” which are more like
cages with tranquilized chil
dren as their prisoners.
In such state institutions
the staff-to-patient ratio is
often so miniscule that it
allows only one or two min
utes for an aide to feed a
child each meal. Every week
youngsters die of food aspi
ration and subsequent suf
focation or infection.
Apologists have argued
that the profoundly retarded
youngsters wouldn’t know
the difference whether they
existed in the Waldorf As
toria Hotel or Willowbrook.
Others, however, believe
that subjectively at least the
environment in which such
About people
Truman on liquid diet
By United Press International
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPD-
Former President Harry S
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Harry
Truman . x t jT
at Research Hospital. But
doctors say his condition has
not changed from “satisfacto
ry” since he was admitted
Sunday with an intestinal
ailment.
Truman, 88, has been visited
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children live makes all the
difference in the world.
I recently visited John, the
boy with the oversized head,
at the St. Louis Center for
Exceptional Children, a pri
vately owned and operated—
but state approved—facility
that cares for profoundly re
tarded children.
John smiled at me, or at
least something in his eyes,
his face or his surroundings
made me think he smiled at
me. He was lying in a new,
mesh-sided playpen, the type
you may have for your own
child at home. John was sur
rounded by simple toys in a
brightly lighted room in
which colorful mobiles and
cartoon cutouts adorned the
walls.
Thousands of John’s coun
terparts in some of the large
state institutions are
drugged, asleep and alone
except for the dozens of chil
dren packed in the room
around them. They exist day
and night in the same condi
tion. For some their beds are
moved only when a nurse or
staff member has to get to a
child in another bed and for
feeding.
With a capacity of about
300, John’s home, the St.
Louis Center for Exceptional
Children — refurbished from
a gutted, eight-story ware
house in downtown St. Louis
—is only about half full,
partially due to lack of
funds.
Children are placed in the
center, explains Dr. Harold
Robb, acting director of Mis
souri’s division of mental
health, because they are pro
foundly retarded.
"Basically they need much
more loving care and atten
tion than it is possible to
give in a state institution,
even in the best circum
stances.”
In fact, at the St. Louis
by his wife Bess, 87, daily since
he was admitted five days ago.
Doctors have been taking blood
tests and X-rays, trying to
diagnose the ailment.
PARIS (UPl)—Actress Jane
Fonda is on her way to North
Vietnam. She left Thursday
carrying several hundred let
ters for American prisoners of
I •— w -
Jane
Fonda
war from their families.
Miss Fonda said she expects
to stop in Moscow before going
to Hanoi. She plans to spend 10
days in North Vietnam to
observe the affects of U.S.
bombing raids.
NEW YORK (UPI)-J. Paul
Getty debuts Saturday as a
television actor. The world’s
richest man has a one-sentence
part in a television commercial.
The commercial is for the
Wall Street brokerage firm of
E. F. Hutton Co., with which
State School and Hospital it
costs the state about S4BO
per month per child. At the
privately owned St. Louis
Center, however, the cost is
reduced to $425. As a further
economic advantage patients
often become eligible for
government assistance out
side of the state institutional
structure.
The St. Louis Center is
clearly a “custodial care”
facility and state officials be
lieve it is “one of the best.”
But the reason it is good is
not necessarily the owner’s
love for retared children. It
is, at least partially, because
there is a lot of money to be
made—“not wasted by the
state,” as one observer put
it.
The State of Missouri rec
ognizes the economic as well
as the clinical usefulness of
private facilities. But Dr.
Bryan McCann of the Na
tional Association of Re
tarded Children (NARC)
in Arlington, Tex., says that
AT ST. LOUIS CENTER for Exceptional Children the profoundly retarded receive
“environmental” care.
Getty says he has done
Paui IT i
Getty t
business for 40 years. Getty’s
fee for appearing—sl.
LONDON (UPl)—Sir Francis
Chichester has been given a
blood transfusion and is still
weak, his son Giles said
Thursday. “It now seems
possible he will spend about two
weeks in hospital,” Giles said.
“He is quite cheerful.”
Chichester, 70, dropped out of
the Observer Singlehanded
Transatlantic Yacht Race last
week after becoming ill at sea.
His son and a Royal Navy crew
helped him sail his ketch Gipsy
Moth V back to Plymouth,
where he was admitted to the
Royal Naval Hospital.
African Bird
The secretary bird of Afri
ca was named by early nat
uralists who observed that
an erectile tuft of long black
feathers on the back of the
head looked like a secretary
with quill pens in his hair,
according to Encyclopaedia
Britannica.
he finds it hard to accept the
notion of good custodial care
because “I’ve seen too many
custodial-type programs
which either prevent a per
son from developing or
which, in fact, cause him to
regress.”
It is difficult to elicit an
admission from NARC of
ficials that there is such a
thing as a retarded child
who could benefit from good,
totally custodial care. When
officials are willing to con
ditionally accept this idea
they argue about how one is
to assign a label such as
“not able to improve” to any
child.
Missouri’s Dr. Robb says
that he believes that the
“concept that everyone
should be helped and is po
tentially educable is a good
one. On the other hand, with
in budgetary limitations as
a practical point I think
there are some for whom all
one can offer is the best pos
sible medical care. This is
Os God and man
Top runners Protestants
By LOUIS CASSELS
UPI Religion Writer
It seems reasonably safe to
make one prediction about the
next president of the United
States. He’ll be a Protestant.
It is highly probable he’ll
have a Methodist background.
This forecast is based on a
process of elimination rather
than divination.
No Jews, Moslems, Buddhists
or atheists are among the
candidates for either party’s
presidential nomination. One
Catholic, Sen. Edmund Muskie
of Maine, says he’s still in the
running for the Democratic
nomination. But his chances at
present don’t look bright. Many
Democratic leaders talk wist
fully about drafting Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy, a Catho
lic, but Kennedy has said
firmly and repeatedly he is
NOT available this year.
All Are Protestant
That leaves Sen. George S.
McGovern, Sen. Hubert H.
Humphrey, Gov. George C.
Wallace, Rep. Wilbur D. Mills,
and, if you want to include the
very long shots, Rep. Shirley
Chisholm. All of them are
Protestants. Four of them—all
except Humphrey—are mem
bers of the United Methodist
Church. And Humphrey, al
though a member of the United
Church of Christ, has wor
shipped at Methodist churches
in Washington for many years.
On the Republican side,
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H I ■ 1 ’ I t '*■ W H
THE LONG GRAY LINE of criblike beds is a familiar sight to those with courage to visit institutions for the
severely retarded child. These hold mentally retarded youngsters, many drugged into complacency, in New
York’s Letchworth Village institution for mentally retarded.
the type of child we are put
ting in the St. Louis Center.”
Medical director of the
center is Dr. Robert L. Korn,
an assistant professor of
clinical pediatrics at St.
Louis University School of
Medicine.
“The ideal place for the
severely retarded child is in
the home. When the parents
face guilt, frustration and
President Nixon is officially a
Quaker. But in all his years in
Washington, he has never
shown up for a Sunday service
at the Quaker meeting house
that was so regularly attended
by the only previous Quaker
president, Herbert Hoover.
During his years as vice
president, Nixon and his family
were affiliated with Metropoli
tan Memorial Methodist Church
near their home in the Spring
Valley section of Washington.
During his first term as
President, Nixon has managed
to straddle the question of
denominational identification by
confining his public worship
almost entirely to services held
in the White House. These
services are described by the
White House press office as
“interdenominational”, but
their format is just about what
you’d find in a typical
Methodist church.
Presidential Protection
Secret Service agents were
first assigned to protect
President Theodore Roose
velt following President Mc-
Kinley’s assassination i n
1901, a protection which was
extended in 1913 to the pres
ident-elect, in 1917 to mem
bers of the president’s im
mediate family, and to the
vice-president in 1951, ac
cording to Encyclopaedia
Britannica.
inability to handle the situa
tion the next best thing is a
small, centered operation,”
Dr. Korn says.
“What I’m talking about,”
he adds, “is a factory for re
tarded kids—a factory for
the best and most humane
care. This is the St. Louis
Center.”
The pediatrician explains
that his earliest experiences
with institutionalized pro
foundly retarded children
was “terribly, terribly de
pressing.”
Now, however, he has a
pinch, poke, a tickle or a
grin for each of the children
in the home—even the ones
who supposedly wouldn’t
miss the attention if they
never got it.
“Now I’m smiling and
laughing and the kids who
can respond in any way do,”
he says.
Indeed, Dr. Korn says he
prefers the center concept
even to foster homes. “I’d
rather have a place where
parents can come. People
who want to have foster
homes should come to work
at places like this and give
their love that way.”
Overcrowding is being
eased by taking the chil
dren who need custodial care
out of state institutions. Mis
souri state officials say that
staff members are able to
devote more time to the re
tarded youngsters who can
show substantial growth to
ward an ability to moving
Speculation Inspired
The likelihood that both
tickets will be headed by
Protestants inspires speculation
that some looking-around may
be under way for possible vice
presidential nominees who are
Catholics. After all, there are
45 million Catholics in America
—by far the largest bloc of
people with a self-conscious
group identity.
Other factors, such as geo
graphy, also enter into “ticket
balancing” calculations. If the
Democrats nominate Mc-
Govern, as now seems likely,
his need for a Southern running
mate may take precedence
over the desirability of a
Catholic running mate. There
are to be sure people who are
both Southerners and Catholics,
but none of them has achieved
much political prominence.
Os course, national prom
inence is not always deemed a
necessity in vice presidential
candidates. Remember Spiro
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into society as productive
members.
Many individuals, called
heartless or Hitleresque by
some, wonder why the pro
foundly retarded children
should not simply be cared
for “just enough,” and al
lowed to die. More radical
individuals say, “kill them.”
“You are talking to a man
who favors abortions,” Dr.
Korn says, “but once a child
has achieved life on this
planet he deserves to live
the best life that can be at
tained.”
Accordingly, Dr. Korn has
upgraded the medical care
of the retarded youngsters
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in his charge. No longer do
they lie in a drug-induced
stupor. Dosages of medica
tion are reduced and stand
ardized in the case where a
child has been receiving sev
eral overlapping drugs.
“Good medical manage
ment will ameliorate many
of the parental guilt prob
lems,” Dr. Korn says. “If
we upgrade management of
the kids and the medical
psychiatric management of
the families we could up
grade the situation so the
kids could be in a home with
out the stigmata of having a
retarded child.”
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)