![]() After attending a lecture on the subject of the L-DOPA drug and its success with patients suffering from Parkinsons, Sayer administers a dosage to Leonard – and he awakens from his catatonic state. ![]() He introduces games, music and human touch. “She borrows the will of the ball,” the doctor enthuses to the skepticism of the rest of the staff. One catches a ball when it is thrown at her. He starts to observe that certain patients start responding to stimuli. “It gets easier, you don’t think it will, but it does,” Nurse Costello, who takes a liking for the caring physician, tells him. The patients he has to look after are catatonic – and at first, he’s overwhelmed by the task. His background is medical research and he had no clinical experience. Sayer applying for a position at the chronic hospital in the Summer of 1969. The film opens with Leonard as a young boy experiencing the symptoms of the rare strain of encephalitis – and it forwards to Dr. Sayer (a stand-in for Sachs) and focuses on one of the patients – Leonard – as he experiences the explosive reintroduction to a dramatically changed world. Sachs gave them the new drug L-DOPA – which triggered an awakening effect. These patients were frozen for decades in their suspended state – forgotten – until Dr. They would be conscious and aware but not fully awake. Known as the “sleeping sickness,” the disease attacked the brain and left victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless. ![]() Oliver Sachs – “Awakenings” is a fictionalized account of patients at the Beth Abraham Hospital in late 60s New York City who had contracted encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s. Like the characters in this movie, I have felt during this period – to my own amazement – the gust of realization that I’m alive.īased on the 1973 non-fiction book by Dr. I hope most of you have been experiencing a state of reawakening - cherishing those “simplest things” that he speaks about. It’s interesting to point out that certain films shine brighter under our current dormant stage that started back in March. Malcolm Sayer in the beautiful, tender and edifying “Awakenings” (1990) directed by Penny Marshall. This is what we’d forgotten, the simplest things.” Those words are spoken by Dr. “The human spirit is more powerful than any drug, and that is what needs to be nourished: with work, play, friendship, family.
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