Medical Stories 100s

Health Series
Producer: Inventi Media Group
Rights: Unlimited, 2/1/20 to 1/31/22 (Live Linear Streaming available)
5×30
High Definition

101: FINDING LIGHT IN DARKNESS
Explores the little known disease called Hidradentis Suppurativa, or HS, which causes an estimated 1% of Americans to suffer from large and extremely painful boils that break out on their bodies and are so excruciating – both physically and mentally – that people with HS are twice as likely to commit suicide. Sandra, a mother of two who inherited the disease explains what it’s like to live with this incurable condition and how support groups like “Hope for HS” provide a much needed sense of vindication, optimism and hope. Additionally, we will visit Nita Gall, a craftswoman living her best possible retirement life in Florida while also suffering from Age-Related Macular Degeneration, or AMD, the leading cause of significant visual loss in people over 50 that impacts 10 million Americans and is now being treated with such effectiveness that doctors can preserve and sometimes even improve vision in many patients – and how early diagnosis can be the difference between seeing and blindness.

102: UNFINISHED PORTRAITS
A compelling story of a young graphic artist named Dylan Duncan who is dealing with a rare and fatal genetic disease called Hereditary Amyloidosis, a disease that he watched kill his mother and aunt when he was a teenager. We will see how his life has dramatically changed from a certain death sentence with devastating symptoms and diminishing quality, to one of renewed hope and greater longevity under the care of Dr. John Berk, a pioneering expert at Boston University School of Medicine. Additionally, we will take a trip to the Florida Keys and a unique place called Island Dolphin Carefor a look at an extraordinary therapy program where kids with special needs and challenges swim, play and interact with dolphins as a key component of their treatment. We will also meet the founders who started the center after swimming with dolphins in the wild with their son who suffered from a stroke at the age of 3, and then experiencing the dramatic transformation in his health and wellbeing firsthand.

103: FINDING NORMAL IN AN ELECTRICAL STORM
70% of kids with Epilepsy respond favorably to their first medication. Joshua and Maya are among those kids who didn’t and instead have lived their whole lives with multiple seizures almost every single day since infancy, as well as the powerful side effects of their many medications. Fortunately, there are doctors like Ian Miller at Jack Nicklaus Children’s Hospital who spend their entire careers unlocking the complex mysteries of diseases like Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome and Dravet Syndrome in order to help kids like Joshua and Maya, as well as their loved ones, live as normal a life as possible while simultaneously providing hope for a better future.

104: ALL I WANT TO DO IS BREATHE
Bob Rawlins and Lynn Bishop are both nonsmokers who lived active, normal lives without any type of breathing issues or illnesses – that is until each one came down with a devastating pulmonary condition seemingly out of the blue under a category called Interstitial Lung Disease. Bob suddenly and without any recognizable cause is having to live with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, a fatal condition that severely limits his oxygen intake, while Lynn is now living with the daily trials and tribulations of Systemic Scleroderma, another ILD without any cure that scars her lungs and other internal organs. Both however, have found solace, better health and renewed hope under the care of Dr. Kristin Highland, a leading expert in the study and treatment of pulmonary disease at Cleveland Clinic.

105: LIVING A FULL LIFE WITH A ROYAL DISEASE
Ben Shuldiner learned very early in life that Hemophilia B, a hereditary bleeding disorder, he inherited, where blood cannot properly clot to control bleeding, could either define him or that he could rise to another level and define himself. He chose the latter and forty-plus years later, the Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard and youngest school principal in New York history is living an amazing life while experiencing firsthand the enormous progress in the treatment of this extremely serious disease – from his early childhood when HIV/AIDS tainted blood products meant he would only receive treatment for his hemophilia if he was injured, leading to lifelong injuries he deals with daily, to today’s medication options that have dramatically changed his life for the better and are literally light years ahead of what was available to those born a hundred years ago who had a life expectancy of only 11 years old. Additionally, Dr. Mark T. Reding, a leading hematologist and oncologist in Minneapolis who is Ben’s doctor, will guide viewers through the history, complexities and progress of hemophilia, that allow patients like Ben, to live a life full of achievement and possibilities, and one considerably longer than in the past.