DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

The story of 47-year-old Frank Burgett and his disability begins innocently enough, in 1980, when at age 19 he fell directly onto the point of the football while playing around with friends, badly rupturing his spleen.

“So he had to have emergency surgery,” said Starlene Burgett, Frank's wife, in a telephone interview from their Sacramento, California, home. “In the process, the hospital gave Frank a blood transfusion.”

Now fast forward to 1988: The hospital urgently asked to test Frank's blood, saying the transfusion he received in 1980 may have been contained the virus causing AIDS. And it did.

“This was January 1988, and Frank and I were engaged to marry that April,” said Starlene. “Frank had to tell me he was HIV positive. He was scared I'd call off the wedding. But we married anyway.”

When Frank began having a continual low-grade fever in 1990, a doctor treated him with the first approved HIV drug. The Burgetts kept their situation a secret until the mid-1990s, when they boldly told their entire church at once.

Starlene said, “The church was very supportive, and loving, and wondered why we hadn't said anything earlier. There was no rejection.”

Through 2000, Frank was able to work full-time. Then, while on an AIDS awareness bike ride from northern California to Los Angeles, he suddenly began losing feeling in his hand and couldn't bike in a straight line.

In time, doctors diagnosed him with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), which a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website reports is a fatal brain disease caused by a virus found in some AIDS patients, which triggers dementia and movement problems.

“The effect (of PML) is like a stroke,” said Starlene. “Frank lost the ability to use his right hand and arm, and to spell and work with numbers. He can't drive or work anymore.” Frank had been an architect.

The Burgetts have coped well in part due to help from family, a next-door neighbor, and church friends who drive him to various places while Starlene works full-time.

“With as many handicaps as Frank has, he's still making a difference in people's lives,.” she said, referring to his speaking at schools and volunteering as a church special event photographer. “Though on paper it may seem he isn't able to do much, a lot of people find him very inspiring.”

Contact danieljvance.com [Blue Valley Sod and Palmer Bus Service grants make this column possible.]