Prudence and Madness

Remember those jokes about people who died because they “forgot to breathe”?  It seemed funny because who need to be reminded about breathing?  Isn’t it automatic?  If only perhaps to force ourselves to breathe in slowly or deeply, yes, it could be controlled but not to forget to initiating it.  But “forgetting to breathe” does happen.  That is, if you have Ondine’s curse.  It is a very rare disease and affects about 300 children worldwide (though it can happen in adults too, especially those who are victims of automobile accidents).

Today I came across a blog which tells of a baby who could be the first case of Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) or, also known as Ondine’s curse, in the Philippines*.

Janis wrote about baby Hannah, daughter of her friend and former colleague.  When Hannah was born via cesarean section, she was diagnosed to have pneumonia and doctors also thought she may have a congenital heart disease.  However, Hannah still had difficulty breathing even after the pneumonia was treated.  She has to be kept on mechanical ventilator all the time.  Tests were done, congenital heart disease ruled out, and she was diagnosed to have CCHS.  The baby needs some help right now, as treating CCHS is quite expensive, being that Hannah needs to be on ventilator all the time.  If you are willing to help, just go to Janis’ blog for the contact info and other details.

What is CCHS?   

Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome is a failure of the autonomic control of breathing.

The syndrome is attributed to dysregulation of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which controls, among other things, breathing, temperature regulation, sweating, blood pressure regulation, and even motility of esophagus.  These are bodily functions of which we do not have voluntary control of, which means patients with CCHS do not actually “forget” to breathe.  Rather, patients do not have the rebreathing ventilatory response to changes in the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the body.  Patients  fail to have the appropriate response in states of hypercapnia (excess of carbon dioxide in the blood) and hypoxia (deficiency of oxygen in the body tissues), which is to breathe.  Patients who can maintain spontaneous breathing when awake probably rely on residual peripheral chemoreceptor function.

Most patients breathe normally when awake but hypoventilate during sleep.  If the disease is severe, the infant has difficulty breathing in both wakeful and sleep states.

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Author’s Note: I got this as an email because I’m subscribed to The Ayn Rand Institute media releases. And I’m posting this to encourage those who are within the vicinity or have the capacity to travel there to see the exhibit. As an Ayn Rand fan, it would have been my pleasure to see the stuff they have there. But circumstances does not allow me to
It was said that Ayn Rand’s book, Atlas Shrugged, is one of the most influential books ever written and only second to the Bible in scope of influence. However, personally, I think this is only because the Bible is taught in schools, sometimes forcibly, while not even many of the college students are familiar with the book, which is unfortunate. And in my personal life, her books placed more influence than that of the Bible. Her books are testaments to her advocacy for upholding reason above all. Those books changed me. I highly recommend it to anyone with an open and free mind. Ayn Rand books can be acquired easily from Fully Booked and Powerbooks stores.

IRVINE, Calif.–Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged” is the subject of a new exhibit to open on October 8, 2007, at the Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Library. Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the novel’s publication, the exhibit is jointly sponsored by the Los Angeles Public Library and the Ayn Rand Institute, and is curated by Jeff Britting, archivist of the Ayn Rand Archives, a special collection of the Ayn Rand Institute. The exhibit will include a reception open to the public on the date of the novel’s fiftieth anniversary, October 10, 7 pm, as well as four public talks devoted to the ideas of “Atlas Shrugged” and their contemporary importance.

The exhibit–a sequel to the library’s 2006-07 exhibit on Ayn Rand’s time in Hollywood–titled “The Ideas of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged,’” once again displays items from the Ayn Rand Archives, including rare and never-before-displayed reproductions of manuscript pages and notes from early drafts of the novel. Also on display will be original promotional materials produced by Random House, including a dollar-sign cigarette; an excerpt from Rand’s manuscript for a television miniseries written shortly before her death; and the cover artwork of historic and foreign editions.
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• Rating: PG-13
  
• Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes
• Production Budget: $25 million
• World-wide Box Office: $82, 687, 926 since opening day (source: Box Office Mojo)

Warning: Some spoilers are contained in this post.

Last Saturday, I wasn’t able to attend the Blogger’s Kapihan in Philippine Science high school because of my clinic duty. So to pass away time and while waiting for the post-blogger’s kapihan event, I decided to watch 1408 at TriNoma. I think it was my first time to watch a horror movie on my own since the movie, the Ring*. I didn’t think 1408 is as frightening as the Ring, but since it’s a Stephen King story and I do remember how, up to now, I’m still frightened thinking of Salem’s Lot, I pretty much thought I could handle well the fear and went to watch it.

1408 is a movie based on Stephen King’s short story with the same title, which is included in the collection of 14 dark tales, “Everything’s Eventual“. It’s a story of a writer, Mike Enslin (played by John Cusack), who despite not being able to experience supernatural phenomenon, still wrote books about haunted places. His search for more haunted places to visit led him to finding a hotel room in New York City with a reputation for having 56 deaths, both natural and questionable. The hotel’s manager, Gerald Olin (played by Samuel L. Jackson), tried all means to convince him not to rent the said room, saying that nobody lasts more than 1 hour in it. He even gave him access to documents regarding the deaths in 1408 and an exquisite and expensive bottle of cognac but still, Enslin insisted on staying. The room was unremarkable initially, but as the clock ticked and time passed, the room gradually revealed its true evil, playing with his own fears.

Did Mike Enslin last more than an hour in that room? How did he get out? How was he able to conquer the evil inside that room? What did he do that 56 other people did not realize that they must do in order to get out of that room alive?

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