ALS Patient Story: Wallis Dewitt

Wallis DeWitt was a CDC man for 41 years before his retirement, but no amount of work in the research field prepared him for ALS. "It is scary, and I know it's deadly," DeWitt says. But he feels supported by a strong Christian faith, his wife Jeanette, and his three grown sons—all firemen in Atlanta.

Read the accompanying magazine article, "On Borrowed Time," published in Emory Health magazine, Fall 2009:
http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/health-sciences/emory-health/fall09/o...

About This 6-Part Video Series

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrigs Disease, affects the motor neurons, the cells that initiate and control movement of muscles. Listen to these Emory patients talk about their diagnosis with ALS and how they and their families are coping with the devastating disease.

About ALS

Commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease for the popular New York Yankees baseball player who died of it in 1941, ALS is a devastating disease that kills the motor neuron cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing the brain to lose ability to control muscles in the body. It inevitably leads to paralysis and problems with swallowing, eating, and breathing. The persons mental capacity remains intact, making the disease a cruel sentence for patients who are often otherwise healthy and active before being diagnosed.

Related Links

On borrowed time
http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/health-sciences/emory-health/fall09/o...

Emory ALS Center
http://www.neurology.emory.edu/ALS/

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• als
• lou gehrig's disease
• amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• emory als center
• emory university
• emory healthcare
• als patients
• als patient stories
• patient stories
• neurology
• terminal illness
• degenerative disease
• treatment of als
• neurodegenerative disease
• ALS Association of Georgia
• motor neuron degeneration
• symptoms of als