Blog > Thoughts > Sean's Thoughts > Australian Documentary on BIID
Australian Documentary on BIID
Written by Sean on Wednesday, April 29, 2009
There’s a new documentary on BIID that came out of Australian TV. Despite a couple small ommissions and innacuracies, I thought the documentary to be well balanced. Definitely worth a watch.
The documentary is available (as of end of April 2009) at http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunday- night/video/-/watch/13173825/. It lasts approximately 13 minutes.
The documentary is primarily based around David Openshaw’s experience, using him as the principal character to go and meet specialists, doctors and discuss BIID. Dave stuck his foot in dry ice for several hours and as a result, surgeons had no choice but to amputate his leg.
They interviewed Dr. Chris Ryan, a psychiatrist who suggests it is ethical in some situations to provide surgery for BIID. In December 2008, I was lucky enough to meet with Dr. Ryan and discuss the case of non-amputee BIID.
They also interviewed Dr. Paul McGeoch, who has been conducting fascinating research with Dr. V.S.Ramachandran out of the University of San Diego. One scene really hit home hard for me, it was very emotional. Dr. McGeoch was showing Dave an MRI image of his brain and explaining the differences between Dave’s brain and a "normal" brain. Dave said something to the effect of "so, there *is* something wrong with me", and Dr. McGeoch said yes. I’ve known about the neurological aspect of BIID like many of us since before the research was actually published. I’ve written about it here and in many places. But to hear a neurologist at the cutting edge of research affirm, speaking aloud, that there is a difference in our brain, it is a huge relief.
It’s not that I mind the idea of being mentally ill, to have a psychological condition. But if it is neurological, than it appears to be more "real", more "acceptable", to people around me, to society. If it’s a mental illness, the implication many people in society see is that it’s all our fault, but if it’s something in the brain, it’s not our fault. That thinking is wrong, of course, but still, it exists.
I was annoyed that once more the media conveniently forgets to discuss the fact that BIID expresses itself by other required disabilities than just amputations. They didn’t say a thing about the need to be paraplegic, or blind, or deaf, etc. Not surprised, though annoyed. Dave assures me that they told the producers about it. Oh humm.
They finished with an interesting question, about tax payer’s money paying for surgeries. I’ve discussed that on the site before. Basically, I say "why not?". If society pays for treating depression, bipolar disorder, and other such conditions, why not pay to help with BIID as well? It’s not like we *want* to have BIID.
In any case, we need more neutral/positive coverage.
Tags: Amputee, BIID, Documentary, Paraplegic, Surgery
This entry appears in Sean's Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
13 Comments
2 On 29 April, 2009, Sophie said:
I’m still wondering what the website is that they say this Dave guy runs, and why haven’t I heard of Dave before watching this video?
3 On 29 April, 2009, Sean said:
The website in question is the Yahoo! group Fighting-It. The producers misinterpreted what they said, Dave and Jo don’t actually run the “site”.
I don’t know why you’ve not heard of Dave before. Maybe you had your head in the sand? :) Both Dave and his wife Jo have been quite active on Fighting-It for a bit over a year now
‘I’m a bit of an outcast on this site’
You could never be an outcast, Tom! :)
5 On 29 April, 2009, Sean said:
@Tom, as Cath says, not an outcast. I work hard so that *everyone* is welcome here. It pisses me off when people ignore me because I don’t need an amputation. I certainly am not going to turn around and do that to others :)
Even though the picture is incomplete, I think this amounts to a big breakthrough. My fear though is that it will push people to unsafe means to amputation.
Maybe we can get a logo for T-shirts, campaign buttons, etc., “Parity for para-need-to-be’s”.
7 On 30 April, 2009, Claire said:
I vividly remember the day Joanne logged on and said that Dave had stuck his leg in dry ice and was currently at the hospital, and the waiting game they (and we) played to find out if they were really going to amputate or not.
The documentary completely glossed over or omitted the fact that the surgical team at first refused to amputate a DEAD leg precisely because that was exactly what Dave wanted, and how they let it go so long that they came very close to having to amputate above the knee instead of below. Paul McGeoch and Ramachandran got involved with that debate to help the surgical team understand what they were dealing with.
@Brice (well actually @whoever wants to read it, but it is in response to Brice’s comment) since we’re apparently not using the term ‘wannabe’ anymore, i think we should come up with a new term that we like that isn’t a major mouthful like ‘biid sufferer’ and ‘transabled person’ are…
9 On 30 April, 2009, Sean said:
@Tora While I understand what you’re saying, I disagree with you. The thing is, a lot of the “disability language” is a mouthfull. Not “disabled”, but “person with a disability”, etc. So “I’m transabled”, or “he’s transabled”, or “a transabled person”. Works for me. I admit, having worked hard for the last MANY years to see the word ‘transabled’ start to be accepted, and finally seeing results of it, I’m not too keen on having to start from scratch with another word.
As for “BIID sufferer”, I know many people don’t like that. But I use it regularly. Because it is true. I have BIID and I suffer because of it. And whether we like it or not, “BIID sufferer” is a language that Joe Q Public can understand and relate to.
Just my 2 cents
And when the “BIID sufferer” becomes a “BIID patient” we’ll have come a long way indeed. The word “patient” actually comes from the Latin word for “to suffer” but in our language has come to mean a one whose suffering has come to be accepted as real by the medical profession.
Been away for a while – and as an Aussie, can i just say that i was completely surprised that our media actually managed to formulate a half balanced story – can’t believe i missed it.
Don’t care at all about minor issues and oversights – just happy that the story that was told was that this is real and this is something worthy of more public and medical attention.
Kudos to Dave for having the guts to front the cameras!
Last Thursday night there was yet another program on BIID on Aussie TV http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2576978.htm
Post your comments
© transabled.org - 1994-2012 - All Rights Reserved.
1 On 29 April, 2009, Tom said:
Wow, just watched the documentary… this is awesome. This just is awesome.
Yes, I know, it is about amputation, and as an amputation wannabe myself, I’m a bit of an outcast on this site, and a bit of an “incast” in the media (for what they tell about us). But I’m confident they will finally realize there’s more out there… they’ve just been skimming the surface so far. The good thing is that this documentary is very much validating and not trying to make a sensational story to get more audience.
You know, I’m also striving to see the media and the public opinion to take a good look at incest, and it is a constant pain to see how slow and backwards they all are to accept and acknowledge facts and realities. The struggle is hard on all of us, but things are on the move. It would be a great relief for me if tomorrow’s kids had a better chance than I had to survive incest, even if I won’t get any personal benefit from it… you just make the parallel with amputees wannabes/paraplegic wannabes…
Life is a fight.