Editor Bob Veillette’s stroke rendered him paralyzed. But his will to live inspires friends and colleagues.

From the Los Angeles Times, a feature about Connecticut journalist Bob Veillette. He has locked-in-syndrome, the condition featured in the current film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”

… after a year and a half of Bob’s physical imprisonment, I have learned that the soul is a plucky, persistent beast. In 2005, as the Florida courts were debating removing the feeding tube from comatose Terri Schiavo’s inert body, I remember Bob making an unplugging motion with his arms. “If it were me, zip,” he said.

And then suddenly it was him. And, defiantly, he wanted to live.

When your brain stem has been wounded, surprisingly, there are two things you can still do. You can cry. And you can laugh. In the early days of his illness, when he realized the paralysis was irreversible, Bob cried a lot — long, wounded howls of anguish that would dissolve a stoic. Today, I tell him stories about the newsroom, and he laughs. Oh, his laughs are messy and contorted, but they are gorgeous.

Earlier story in the New York Times: Losing movement, but not wisdom or love.

[His] journey through the health care system is a typically American nightmare. In an institution, his medical care would be covered through Medicaid. At home, very little is, so his co-workers have mounted two 5K runs and a benefit concert in his honor, friends and family help out at home, and the Web site www.bobveillette.com is being created to honor his life and provide information for those who want to help.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 12:37 pm and is filed under movies, personal stories, success stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post