VIDEO DOCUMENTARY
ON CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME
*castellano
what is SFC?
video documentary
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There exists an illness which disables 0.5% of the population, and for which there is no cure. Most people who have it are not diagnosed but feel very ill and are on a pilgrimage from doctor to doctor trying to find out what is wrong with them. Unfortunatly, because of the lack of medical training about this illness, most people who have it are told that it is “all in their heads”. This makes them suffer even more as they do not understand what is happening to them and they cannot give an explanation to their family or at their work places. This results in economic, social and emotional strife.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a multi-sytemic illness which affects the
immune, the neurologic, the cardiovascular and the endocrinological systems.
Although people who suffer from it look well, they live with many symptoms,
among them, a severe flu-like feeling which does not go away, fatigue,
memory loss, constant infections, muscle pain, visual disturbances, dizziness,
fainting. Most are house-bound and many spend years in bed. In the words
of CFS specialist Dr.David Bell, “It is truly remarkable that a
patient can feel so bad yet look relatively well.”
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VIDEO DOCUMENTARY (50min. PAL)
This
50-minute documentary in Spanish, captures the voices and the stories
of those who live with CFS, their doctors and their lawyers. The people
interviewed who have CFS speak of their daily suffering, of how this illness
has interrupted their lives permanently, of the lack of understanding
from their loved ones and society, of their isolation and of how they
are denied goverment pensions after having worked for years. At the peak
of their lives, usually between the ages of 30 and 40, everything comes
to a halt. They go through years of abandonment by the health care system
as most doctors are not familiar with CFS, as well as economic hardship
because they are unable to move, let alone, work. Their reality, their
desperation, the injustice they live and their amazing coping skills come
through in this video.
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INTERVIEWS (work in progress)
“If this illness cannot be cured, then the day I got sick was the day I died.” Alfonso, 40 year-old father of two, ex-construction worker.
Anna
G., 42 year-old ex-nurse’s aide
“This
illness cannot be faked. I know. I have been working with people who
have it for years and I can tell.”
