Thursday January 11, 2001

A New Treatment for Alzheimer's

Keith Hernandez may have led the New York Mets to victory in the 1986 World Series, but he was helpless to save his mother from Alzheimer's disease. He says, "She was a very bright woman and all of a sudden there's just no communication."

Jacqueline Hernandez died from Alzheimer's at only fifty-nine years old. Keith says, "In the end she was in diapers and Dad pretty much had to be a nurse."

Today, Keith is on the national board of the Alzheimer's Association and raises money for a day care center in Brooklyn named in memory of his mother. If only they had had neotrophin in 1989.

Dr Ralph Richter says, "It's a real true breakthrough in therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease."

The future and family of Alzheimer's sufferer Jennie Brians depend on neotrophin. This sixty-seven year old grandmother from Tulsa, Oklahoma wants to legally adopt her granddaughter, but knows that she can't if her mind doesn't work.

Jennie says, "I just have to have the faculties with me to be able to cope with this child and to give her what she needs."

Jennie's daughter, Lisa, remembers how her mother's memory started slipping about three years ago. Lisa says, "She would repeat herself a lot and ask the same questions over and over and over again."

Then six months ago Jennie's doctor, Ralph Richter, put her on the experimental wonder drug, neotrophin. It actually helps grow new nerves in the brain. Dr Richter says, "It's the first time that nerve growth factor has been able to be stimulated."

And after only six weeks, Jennie started getting better. He says, "Jennie has not deteriorated. She's shown improvement."

Jennie says, "Oh my memory's definitely better."

Dr. Richter explains, "She did gain better ability to recognize words, to repeat words that she had been given."

Today with neotrophin, Jennie Brians feels confident enough to go ahead with adopting her granddaughter. She may have done what Keith Hernandez's mother could not - potentially save her life from the clutches of Alzheimer's.