WJHL.com – Local family lives with ALS, local professor researches new tech

ELIZABETHTON, TN (WJHL) -
As East Side Elementary’s Principal Dr. Josh Wandell rolls down the same hallway he walked down last year, he makes his way to a celebration down the hall. Wednesday Wandell turned 36.

Though the Wandells have tried to go about life normally this past year, it’s been a year unlike any other after Wandell was diagnosed with ALS last summer.

“There’s no hope medically.” Dr. Wandell’s wife Tabitha Wandell said. “Josh is a fighter and the doctor said, you will not beat this.”

The disease has no cure.

“The doctor two to five years is the average, but some people live ten and I just kept thinking, ten years is a long time, how can we savor these ten years?” Mrs. Wandell said.

Throughout the course of the disease Mrs. Wandell will see her husband become more and more paralyzed.

“It’s moved more in to his hands, and his speech is a lot more slurred he’s not able to button his clothes, I have to assist him getting dressed in the morning. He’s still able to do most of it.” Mrs. Wandell said. “I’ll probably have to learn how to tie a tie soon.”

For most people with ALS there comes a point where they completely lose the ability to move.

“If you were able to communicate I think it would take some of the fear away,” Mrs. Wandell said.

One ETSU researcher has dedicated his career to making communication in the later stages of ALS a possibility. In recent years it’s become a reality with a machine that uses brain waves to spell words on a computer.

“The person spelling will just focus on the screen no muscles, and focus on a particular like letter for example like the o, every time the o flashes his brain says ah ha that’s the o, that’s what I want to select,” Dr. Eric Sellers, Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at ETSU said. “The brainwaves act as virtual fingers to press the keys.”

It’s a way to spell out words by just thinking them.

The technology Sellers has developed has gotten faster in the last couple of years, and according to Sellers, now is as fast as some devices that require muscle control.

“We provided a man with the system, he used it for three years to continue working in his professional life.”

Sellers said that man was able to email, write manuscripts, even turn on and off the lights just by his brain waves.

He said they’re always looking for new people to work with.

The Wandells said they’d be willing to try.

“We’re open to any way that could help us communicate as the disease progresses because you always want to be able to communicate,” Mrs. Wandell said.

It could be a way for Dr. Wandell to communicate with his wife and their three kids.

Mrs. Wandell said with very little medical options, one way her family is getting through this is choosing faith over fear.

“we’re just choosing to have faith and not fear because god commands us not to fear. And in this situation fear could really overtake our lives because we don’t know what’s going to happen from day to day, we don’t about our finances, we don’t know if he’ll be able to walk next summer, we don’t know if he’ll see our kids graduate, and we just have to put our faith in god that he will take care of us no matter what the circumstances.’

Throughout the past few weeks the “ice bucket challenge” to raise money and awareness has gained popularity across social media. It’s where people pour ice buckets on themselves then challenge others to do the same.

As of Wednesday, the ALS Association has raised 31.5 million dollars in the past three weeks.

Now that the ALS foundation has raised millions more than they normally do through the ice bucket challenge Dr. Sellers said he’s going to start working on a grant application from the ALS Foundation.

Mrs. Wandell said while the challenge is raising money, it’s also raising awareness, something she said is also much needed.

“A lot of times we’ll go places and someone will say ‘what’s wrong with you?’ and Josh will say well I have ALS. And people will say ‘well I hope you feel better soon. And I know they mean well by it but a lot of people do not know what ALS is and how it affects families,” Mrs. Wandell said.

If you want to raise money for Dr. Wandell you can sign up,show up, or just donate to the Race for Wandell on Saturday, September 20th at East Side Elementary School. http://www.teamwandell.com

Copyright 2014 WJHL. All Rights Reserved.

Share and Enjoy

Jailed Aussie converts to Islam

New faith … Australian national Jake Drage has converted to Islam in prison Picture:AP/Budiyanto
Source: AP

A WEST Australian man accused of reckless driving which killed a local woman has revealed he’s converted to Islam while in prison.

Jake Drage, 23, appeared in court for the first time since the June 30 crash and says he has converted to Islam while in custody.

The former personal trainer was speeding when his motorbike collided with another in Indonesia, killing a local mother, a court heard.

He has been charged with “reckless” driving causing the death of a West Java woman who was riding pillion on a motorcycle with her teenage daughter.

CHARGED: Australian Jake Drage charged over fatal motorbike crash in Indonesia

A smiling Drage arrived at court on Tuesday, clean shaven and wearing black pants and a white shirt.

He told reporters he felt fine, and thanked them for paying attention to his case.

Matter of faith … Jake Drage in a waiting cell at the Cibadak District Court in Sukabumi, Indonesia. Picture: AAP Image/Sopyandi
Source: AAP

Asked to state his religion by the judge, Drage answered in Indonesian: “Learning Islam.”

Drage’s lawyer, Michael Hartono, told reporters his client had converted to Islam during his long detention in the police cell and attended weekly Koran recitals.

“His family, in this case his mother, hasn’t made a big deal of Jake becoming a Muslim,” he said.

“What matters most is that he’s healthy, he’s fine and he’s on the right path.

“Regarding the case, Jake tells me that he just wants this to be over soon.”

Prosecutor Eka Aryanta is pressing charges that could see the Australian spend up to six years in jail if he’s found guilty. He told the court Drage was heading for a surf when his speeding bike collided with the other motorcycle.

“Because of the high speed, the accident was unavoidable,” the prosecutor said.

Not concerned … Jake Drage’s mother is not concerned about her son’s new faith. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied

“The victim was thrown and hit the asphalt, and there was blood everywhere.

“Jake screamed, ‘Oh my God!’ while the victim was helped by bystanders.” Drage’s family has said he will plead not guilty.

His mother, Tiena Drage, who rushed to her son’s side soon after the crash, was in court on Tuesday.

His conversion to Islam is not the first time a jailed Australian in Indonesia has taken up the faith.

Michelle Leslie, who was arrested in Bali in 2005 after two ecstasy pills were discovered by police in her handbag, also converted.

During her imprisonment, Leslie began wearing Islamic dress and said she had converted to the Islamic faith about 18 months before her arrest.

Some argued that her conversion was much more recent and an attempt to win favour in court.

In an interview after her release, she stated that she did not “really know what makes you or not makes you a Muslim”, and that she was “not a practising Muslim”.

Criticism … Former model Michelle Leslie, pictured in 2005, sparked criticism after revealing she had converted to Islam with some saying she was only doing it to reduce her sentence. Picture: Renee Nowytarger
Source: News Limited

Years later, her religious beliefs continued to spark debate with accusations that she was an “on-again, off-again Muslim model” and that she had “introduced the world to disposable Islam”.

The change in dress that coincided with her announcement led to further debate, with Leslie choosing to don a burqa on one occasion when she appeared in court, and opting to wear Islamic dress, such as traditional Muslim hijab, until she was released.

Strong criticism emerged upon her release when she was seen wearing tight-fitting clothes without the hijab on her departure from the prison.

Once she had returned to Australia, the President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, recommended that she refrain from returning to her former career as “a model for lingerie and underwear”, as such behaviour was “not allowed in Islam”.

New life … Michelle Leslie is now an interior designer. Picture: News Corp Australia
Source: News Limited

In explaining her reasons for adopting the dress, Leslie stated in an interview for 60 Minutes that the reason she started wearing the hijab while incarcerated was because she was afraid of being sexually assaulted, and to protect herself when she faced the “media scrum”.

Her decision to wear traditional Islamic dress for protection has since been raised as a defence of sharia law, as it has been suggested that she demonstrated how the “requirement for Muslim women to cover themselves was meant to protect them”.

Share and Enjoy