Lorenzo's Oil
- PG-13
- Year:
- 1992
- 129 min
- 2,629 Views
- One orange.
- One orange.
- Chungwa moja.
- Chungwa moja.
- Two oranges.
- Two oranges.
- Machungwa mawili.
- Machungwa mawili.
- One pineapple.
- One pineapple.
Omouri! Omouri!
Here he is,
the cleverest boy in the world.
- Hi, Mom.
- What's this?
- It's a picture.
- Oh, my goodness.
- And there's the Comoros.
- Of course it is.
- Mrs Odone, may I have a word?
- Very skilful, sweetheart.
- And Jupiter.
- Jupiter next to the Comoros?
- I'll be right there, Lorenzo.
- OK, Mommy.
- Is Lorenzo having problems at home?
- Not that I know of. Why?
Today he started throwing paints around.
He went wild, destroying other paintings.
- He must have been provoked.
- No, it came out of the blue.
He's normally such a terrific kid.
- Darling, were they teasing you?
- No.
- Were they touching your paints?
- No.
- How were they annoying you?
- They just were.
- Doing what?
- Things.
- What kind of things?
- Things that make me feel annoyed.
- Mrs Odone...
- Another incident?
Yes, and today it was much worse.
Mrs Odone, is there
some trouble at home?
Why do you assume
the trouble's at home?
Because there's nothing here that
explains his behaviour. It's... disturbed.
He does present as a hyperactive.
- But don't they repeat tasks endlessly?
- They perseverate, yes.
Lorenzo's activities all have a structure:
beginning, middle and end.
My gosh, he's learned three languages.
How could he be hyperactive?
I know it's hard to accept that
a gifted child may also be disturbed.
Lorenzo needs to be
referred to an IDP committee.
- What's that?
- For what?
Individual Disability Placement.
Lorenzo needs to be
in a special ed class.
Any special ed our son needs
will be provided at home.
Anyhow, it was snowing and he began
to rub my hands to warm them.
Uh-oh.
No, he then produced photos
of his wife and children.
- That old routine!
- Oh, Deirdre!
Had I known this was the man
- ...I'd have let you pick up the cheque.
- I did.
Excuse me! You did not!
Lorenzo's fallen off his bike
and he is really bleeding.
Sh. That's a boy.
Oh, such a brave boy.
Doing just fine, here.
You're going to be OK.
It's Christmas Day, you know.
All across the country
little boys are trying out their new bikes.
Hey, champ. I think you'd better
tell your folks to lighten up.
What are they gonna do when
you're playing for the Redskins?
The EEG is normal, the skull x-ray
is normal and the CT scan is normal.
I don't know what to tell you.
This boy is neurologically intact.
Doctor, we spent
three years in East Africa.
- In the Comoros.
- We were wondering...
Well, if he might have
picked up some rare parasite.
It's possible.
Lorenzo, what are you doing?
Lorenzo!
Sweetie? Can you hear Mommy?
This may be an auditory
processing difficulty.
The ears hear all right,
but the brain has trouble listening.
So, this means something
is affecting his brain.
But what? A tumour? Multiple sclerosis?
It could be any one of a dozen things.
Listen, my friend. I'd like you to come
and stay in the hospital for three days.
Your mom and dad can come too.
We're gonna run some tests
and get to the bottom of this.
Can you hear the sound?
Keep your eyes right on that spot
for me. That helps me out.
All right. Now close your eyes.
Keep your eyes closed, buddy.
Stay nice and still.
Of course, Easter festivals
existed long before baby Jesus.
In pagan times, they marked
the beginning of Spring.
The egg tells us that the earth is going to
be reborn, just like a little baby chick.
- I get it.
- Mrs Odone. Mr Odone.
Hey, Lorenzo, would you like
to go feed the goldfish?
It's all right, sweetheart. Go ahead.
We'll be right back
in just a few minutes. Go ahead.
This way, please.
Please, have a seat.
Well, we certainly don't need
that noise, do we?
So...
Please, Doctor, without equivocation.
There is a family of diseases.
It's quite rare.
The leukodystrophies.
Lorenzo has one of them.
It's called ALD.
ALD is an inborn error of metabolism
that causes a degeneration of the brain.
It only affects males, usually
between the ages of five and ten.
Its progress is relentless.
The end is inevitable.
All boys with ALD die, usually
within two years of diagnosis.
And there are no exceptions?
I am so sorry.
- Are you absolutely sure?
- Yes.
Lorenzo shows the definitive sign:
...an abnormally high level of fat in his
blood, certain long-chain saturated fats.
Oh.
Uh...
These fats... destroy his brain?
But how?
There is an enzyme
that should metabolise these fats...
...but in ALD boys it's defective.
So they collect in the nerve cells, a
little bit like a cluster on the arteries.
And... in some way...
...this liquefies
the white matter of the brain.
"Some way liquefies"?
Could you be more specific?
Well, to be honest, we're not
quite certain just how it works.
- You know what myelin is?
- No.
Myelin is the fatty... sheath
that insulates the nerves.
It's a little bit like plastic
around electrical wires.
Without it, the nerves
cannot conduct an impulse.
What ALD does is strip away the myelin.
It corrodes it, if you like.
This causes degeneration of the brain
and the body loses its functions.
But surely someone, somewhere,
must be working on this, no?
- We would go anywhere.
- Yes.
Ten years ago the disease
hadn't even been identified.
understand just what it is.
I would like to
offer you some hope, but...
Then there's absolutely no treatment?
Normally at this point
we try to be constructive.
We try to focus on what can be done.
But in this case...
When we get home, can we read a story?
Of course, my darling.
Lorenzino, let's go home.
Mr Odone? I have
a Dr Judalon on line three.
- Good. Put him through.
- They're waiting for you in the meeting.
All right, thank you.
- Hello?
- Augusto?
I just got off the phone
to Gus Nikolais...
...a professor of neurology at
the Institute of Childhood Diseases.
If there is a so-called "world expert"
on the leukodystrophies, Nikolais is it.
- Ah, good.
- I don't want to raise false hopes...
...but he's working on
an experimental protocol based on a diet.
Wonderful.
Peanut butter, red meat, cheese...
Unpeeled fruit, spinach, olive oil...
Yes, but they contain
very long-chain saturated fats.
I...
I still do not understand why
they are so harmful to Lorenzo.
- Why are they so destructive?
- How can spinach make the difference?
The human body needs these fats
...and the excess is burned off.
That's normally, of course.
But in the case of an ALD boy,
these saturates can't be broken down...
...and they build up in the brain.
And somehow this build-up
strips the myelin covering.
Yes, exactly. And, for the moment,
we don't know why this is.
But we feel that, by withdrawing
the saturated fats from the diet...
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