Advances in Medicine

Narrator: Jerry Lineberger is off and rolling, a wheelchair controlled by head movements and an eye-controlled computer help Jerry and his wife Donna keep life as normal as possible.

Wife: Actually, we've been able to do some traveling and some things that we wanted to do.

Narrator: Less than two years ago Jerry was diagnosed with ALS. His motor nerve cells were dying. Doctors said that he would lose the ability to move, talk and eventually breathe.

Wife: [It's] mind boggling to think that you get a diagnosis like that, and they pretty much just say there's nothing we can do.

Narrator: Then they found neurologist Jeffrey Rosenfeld. He had a different outlook.

Rosenfeld: In the history of ALS, there's never been a time where as many advances, as many people are involved, as many hypotheses are being tested as there are right now.

Narrator: One theory is BDNF, a synthetic protein, may help slow down the disease.

Rosenfeld: What're we're attempting to do is to keep nerve cells alive that would otherwise be vulnerable to death in ALS.

Narrator: A pump the size of a hockey puck is implanted in the abdomen. A catheter is inserted between two vertebrae. Tiny holes continuously release the drug into the spinal fluid.

Rosenfeld: Whenever I see a person who is progressing perhaps slower than I would have expected, I always optimistically hope that it's the treatment that we're offering them. And I have seen scenarios like that with this drug.

Narrator: The Linebergers are optimistic too.

Wife: I believe that the drug has already prolonged his life.

Narrator: That means more time with Donna and their daughters, Jill and Melissa, and more time to laugh.

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