From the editor

SECOND OPINION
BY SIDNEY HARRIS

Sally Provence’s autism work deserves mention

The article on autism in the Summer 2004 issue brought back interesting memories. In 1953 I was on the pediatric house staff, and my first experience with autism was in the family: a nephew who did not walk or talk at age 2, did not seem to relate to others, had odd and limited food preferences and could spend much of his day sitting in the corner spinning toy tops.

We asked Sally Provence of the Child Study Center to see him. She made the diagnosis of autism. Since his parents were busy with three other children and their work, etc., Sally suggested he live with his grandparents for a year. They were retired and could give him their full attention. Within the year the boy was relating to others and talking. Today he lives alone and holds a responsible technical job that requires some contact with others.

Naturally the family gives full credit to Dr. Provence for this success. She deserves recognition for her insight into the psychological problems of children.

Ira Gabrielson, M.D., HS ’53
Drexel University College of Medicine
Philadelphia, Pa.

Rolling tells a story that needs to be heard

Thank you so much for including an article about Gretchen Berland’s documentary Rolling [“Life on Wheels,” Summer 2004]. I had heard a great deal about this film and became convinced even more that this was a “must-see.” I, too, use a wheelchair; many of the experiences portrayed seemed to have mirrored my own quite closely.

I was especially intrigued that Dr. Berland chose subjects who were not “down and out,” but rather were people who had had and continue to have enriching lives. I hope that I have been successful in convincing the chair of my department that Dr. Berland’s work is something that should be seen by the rest of the faculty. I am sure that by seeing Rolling, awareness of and sensitivity to the multitude of experiences of others in wheelchairs will be greatly enhanced.

Cindy R. Miller, M.D.
Section Chief, Pediatric Radiology
Yale-New Haven Hospital

First among surgeons, last in the spotlight

I noted the letter in the Summer 2004 issue of Yale Medicine about Max Taffel. I was a resident in surgery at Yale from 1960 through 1966, and during that period had an occasion to visit Max Taffel at his home one evening along with several of my resident colleagues. Although he rarely discussed his past, we did hear a bit of his World War II experiences while at One Tree Hill in New Zealand performing surgery for injured soldiers from the South Pacific campaigns. Most of the evening’s discussion was about various surgical subjects.

At one point I walked past a small room that contained a desk, books, lots of papers strewn here and there and a few framed things on its walls. One of the framed objects was a certificate from the American Board of Surgery. Looking closer, I saw that it was certificate No. 1! I asked Dr. Taffel about this and he told us that four young surgeons journeyed to Philadelphia in 1937 to take the very first American Board of Surgery examination.

Dr. Taffel was awarded the first certificate. After completing the two-year chief residency in 1966, I was certified by the American Board of Surgery in 1967 and was awarded certificate No. 14899 (a less auspicious number than Dr. Taffel’s, but I was pleased!). I feel certain that none of us would have heard about this from Dr. Taffel had I not stumbled on the certificate. I knew him to be a humble man, a dedicated teacher and a meticulous surgeon, and it seems fitting that he was the first to pass the American Board of Surgery examination.

A. Griswold Bevin, M.D. ’60, HS ’66
Chapel Hill, N.C.

Suspicions about hair dye are confirmed

I read with great personal interest the article about Dr. Zheng, “Increased Risk of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Linked to Hair Dye” [Summer 2004].

My late sister did use dark hair dye for years, and I found this article about Dr. Zheng’s research interesting, in that work is still being done on this possible relationship. I think that this research is important, taking into account the large number of women who do use hair dyes.

William J. Waskowitz, M.D. ’57
New Britain, Conn.

From the Editor:

Waiting it out in Haiti

At this writing at the end of September, Haiti has just endured another storm and 10 days of devastation following Hurricane Jeanne. Fifteen hundred people have died in the flooding and mudslides that swept the coastal region near Gonaïves, the country’s second-largest city. Today’s Miami Herald tells the deeply unsettling story of a mother who was forced to choose between rescuing her 6-year-old son and holding on to her 4-year-old daughter as she struggled to escape the rising flood waters. Now she is worrying about the child who survived. Will enough food arrive to keep the girl nourished? Will cholera and other diseases spare her?

Public health in Haiti and the impoverished country’s long history of suffering are at the heart of this issue’s cover story (“A Film to Finish,”) by alumna Amelia Shaw, M.P.H. ’03. Shaw had to leave Haiti during an earlier moment of tumult this year—the riots preceding the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February—but she returned in July to continue work on the documentary film she is making about the impact of AIDS in Haiti. Two months later, she was waiting out a different kind of storm and glad to be back, despite the element of danger. As her Haitian colleague Liony Accelus says, “Our film is really going to change the way Haitians think about treating AIDS.” As you will read, they risked their lives to make it.

Managing Editor John Curtis happened upon Shaw’s story last winter during a conversation with faculty member Kaveh Khoshnood, M.P.H. ’89, Ph.D. ’95, and has been in contact with her ever since. With the article written and laid out, we listened to the hurricane reports from Port-au-Prince in September and noted one voice with special interest. Shaw, who had worked as a summer intern at National Public Radio, was now covering the hurricane’s aftermath for NPR. In an e-mail in late September, she reported that the people in her story—Accelus, Moliere Jean and Uncle Big—all survived the storms.

Shaw’s article shows one way in which Yale has an impact on the world of health and medicine. We’re impressed by her reporting and writing and proud to have her byline in Yale Medicine. The best epilogue to her story would be a healthier Haiti.

September’s news also brought a happy footnote to another celluloid story. Gretchen K. Berland, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine who is also a documentary filmmaker, was awarded a $500,000 “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The five-year, no-strings-attached fellowship will support her work on projects similar to Rolling, in which she provided cameras to three people who use wheelchairs and created a compelling portrait of their everyday lives. Rolling was the subject of a feature article (“Life on Wheels”) in the Summer 2004 issue of Yale Medicine.

Michael Fitzsousa
michael.fitzsousa@yale.edu