WHAT DID YOU THINK OF ELI STONE?
Did the sun come up today? Phew!
So, what did you think of Eli Stone? Tell us in the comments section.
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I am grateful this show was still aired and another view of auitsm SPECTRUM was shown...how eerily smart some of these kids are (there is such an impressive range of degree of functioning)and yet how truly affected and limitted they are on a daily basis.
The general public seems to be under the influence of the pitty me campaign,the public has noticed and responded. The dollars are rolling in and more media coverage is happening.(Thank God.)
The general public is also stereotyping autism now,(thank you adds) I have seen it in many professions as well.
It seems they do not feel there IS HELP, that something CAN be done. There is SO MUCH that is out there just out of our children's reach,that could help them. That is the message we need to send. Research is wonderful and neccessary but will likely not help todays kids in thier lifetime. Families need support NOW so thier kids will hopfefully be more independant in the future.
What CAN a child/family with autism ACHIEVE DO TO EFFECTIVE CONTINOUS SUPPORT.That is a message that would blow the public away...not just te problem but a real solution.While we do necessary research to help future generations.
sherri
Posted by: sherri | February 13, 2008 at 10:01 AM
The show was great! It summed up the problems with mercury in vaccines, the hoops of vaccine "court," and the damage vaccines can cause so beautifully. My husband looked up in surprise and said "Did they really just do that? Did they just get it right?" I also loved that the mom was sharp and knew what she was talking about--she wasn't haggard and crying all the time. The disclaimer at the end in no way diminished the message of the show for me. That was a simple black-and-white poster, with an announcer reading through quickly, but the other side of the story got the whole show AND George Michael singing "Faith."
Posted by: Jill Rege | February 04, 2008 at 07:50 PM
Eli Stone was a remarkable program. I hope it gave parents a lot to think about and maybe pediatricians also. There is so much info out there. My grandson was vaccine damaged and has autism. Thankfully, with the help of his DAN doctor and biomedical intervention, he is now on the road to being a typical 5 year old. He has a long way to go but he is going forward.
Posted by: Anita Fullone | February 04, 2008 at 02:35 PM
Thank you, Mrs. Cedillo, for the the link. I do not have television in my home and haven't for over four years now. I got to watch the program, thanks to you, a brave and intelligent woman in your own right. The show was very well done, and funny, and poignant and I haven't been able to stop crying...course, this could be due to the 19 teeth I had extracted a few days ago and the resultant lack of nourishment...but I don't think so. I have my own mercury issues, obviously passed down to my son, the shots I held him down for being the possible straw that broke the camel's back. And my son's father's recent death (I have his ashes too) also hit home. My emotions are high, but this show was good, and I thank you again for providing the link to watch it, and for being brave to fight for your daughter, which in a sense, is fighting for all of us. God bless you.
Jesse's Mom
Posted by: MacGoddess | February 03, 2008 at 05:25 PM
At the end of the show in my area (Memphis), a message came up (very dramatic black background, white letters) that said for information about autism, we should contact the CDC. Now THAT'S ironic. Maybe I'll give them a call tomorrow.
Posted by: Jeanne | February 03, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Eli Stone episode was great. I wish it was also possible to show Elizabeth Horn's documentary about autism on National TV with real people, real events.That would be the kicker. I watched it in a small theater in Ridgefield CT, and everyone in the audience without exception was crying during the entire documentary.
Posted by: Arsham Antreasyan | February 02, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Give your thanks to the companies and organizations which didn't chicken out and kept their air time during the (great) show:
Sears/H&R Block (To avoid punitive audits)
Nivea body cream
ALL mighty laundry (Buy some for Minshew to wash her mouth out with)
Ad for 27 Dresses movie
KY Brand (For the indicted pharma exec on your list)
Verizon Wireless
Chilis (Lettuce wraps!)
Loestrin
----
Monster (Job site, which we mean for CDC employees to use in '09)
Crystal Light
Kohl’s
Aveeno
Payless Shoes
Optimum Triple Play
Toyota
NY’s Mega Millions Lottery (Thank them by winning!)
----
Verizon Wireless (again)
Jared- the Galleria of Jewelry
Ad for Vantage Point movie (Ad would be great device for CDC promo)
Yoplait
Barack Obama Ad
Honda
Nasonex
----
Red Bull (For us midnight posters)
Sprint
Citibank
Febreze (Not just a cover-up, it eliminates contaminants that cause odors. Send some to Pichichero et al)
Progresso Soups
Wish Bone Salad Spritzers
Payless (again)
Oreo- Nabisco
Posted by: Gatogorra | February 02, 2008 at 12:32 AM
I thought it was simply fantastic! My gut feeling... we all have felt for so long that mainstream wasn't paying attention to autism, vaccines, and the surrounding issues. I think they are, and I think they have been to some extent. Well regardless of whether or not this was a fictional TV show, it will certainly serve to further what we all have been working towards how we are each able, and that is to continue the process of opening eyes and hearts to autism and its' causes.
The letter that Dr. Jenkins wrote to ABC on behalf the AAP and its 60,000 "members" in an attempt to coerce and intimidate ABC, effectively purchased a noose for the AAP, the CDC, FDA, and on down the line. In fact I think it may have purchased the gallows as well. Hmpf! I don't think it's going to be to awful long until the name of the game is spelled out and they've hanged themselves!
I loved the show, and not just because of the real life issue of autism and vaccines. I loved it for the comedic insight and poignant moments brought to "life" regarding real life issues. There were so many profound moments, and then one was whisked away on the tide of deep and rich life humor, which I know we all struggle to find at times. I loved Eli Stone! and although I don't watch much TV, Eli will be my choice on Thursday night if I'm still up at 10 pm.
Thank you again ABC for not caving to the AAP :-)
Ang
Posted by: Angela Warner | February 02, 2008 at 12:26 AM
I don't think the AAP was all too concerned about the sheeple watching that show. I actually think they were more concerned about you and I seeing that show. They didn’t want us to visualize our destiny.
Posted by: Mr. Anonymous | February 02, 2008 at 12:22 AM
My son is ten years old and has recovered from ASD symptoms, and yet still has inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune problems such as allergies. We are grateful to the DAN protocol for his recovery. We are also grateful to ABC that he and I could sit together on the couch and watch the only justice that we will ever see. Mainstream doctors want to call it fiction, but we know the truth. My son was poisoned by the medical establishment we trusted.
Thank you ABC! It was bittersweet.
Posted by: Avril | February 01, 2008 at 09:34 PM
Didn't see it myself, but have heard nothing but good things from all those autism mama friends of mine who stayed up and watched...
Posted by: Autismville | February 01, 2008 at 09:31 PM
I think Eli Stone is going to have a lot of devoted fans from families who live with autism, despite the best efforts of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Think about this: Last week the New York Times ran two stories about Mercury.
One was on the front page and it was about the fact that some of the best restaurants in New York are selling sushi dangerously tainted with Mercury. We can only presume but some of it must be getting into the mouths of adventurous children and women of child bearing age.
The other was in the back of the paper and it was about Eli Stone.
The American Academy of Pediatrics pulled out all its stops to complain about a television show. But said nothing about the tainted food so many Americans eat.
It's all about money. These mainstream,tunnel-vision docs have a lot more to lose over vaccinations than bluefin tuna.
Posted by: Barbara Fischkin | February 01, 2008 at 07:55 PM
I thought it was great! It was well thought out and I think the issue of vaccine injury/thimerosal has likely touched someone the writers know. They seemed to know the story very well and touched on things that only those in the community are familiar with. I was happy to see the mom in the story portrayed as a strong and intelligent woman - I'm sure many of us could associate with her walking into the room with all her research already done!
If you missed the show you can watch it at
http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing
Thank you ABC and Eli Stone.
Michelle's Mom
Posted by: Theresa Cedillo | February 01, 2008 at 07:50 PM
I thought the show was great. The vaccine and the preservative being the culprits to the boy's regression was on the money. That seemed straight forward with the dialouge easily understandable with the science mixed in. The characters were pretty believeable and the show stayed exciting throughout the hour. Personally, the coolest after the vaccine stuff was the 80s music!
My husband was just as pleased with the storyline. He didn't read as much as I did about the meat of the story but he knew the controversy and censorship hyped up the show even before it aired. He said he was shocked the network actually aired something we have lived and breathed for so long with our son and was impressed with the writing. Overall, we both gave Eli Stone two emphatic thumbs up!
Cathy
Posted by: Cathy Jameson | February 01, 2008 at 04:12 PM
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by Eli Stone. The show vacillated from funny and light scenes to deeply profound moments. It was so refreshing to see an autism mom portrayed as calm, cool, collected and smart. She was no damsel in distress. I think it was a great night of television for the vaccine induced autism cause. The CDC message at the end was just lame and really insulting. Who, watching Eli Stone at 11:00 pm, is going to be confused as to whether Eli Stone was a fictionalized drama vs. 20/20 or Prime Time? Are these people for real? Oh, you mean George Michael doesn't show up in everyone's living room singing Faith?
Posted by: Becky Estepp | February 01, 2008 at 03:53 PM
While I loved the show, and applaud the writers for their creativity and guts, and I applaud abc for not pulling the episode after pressure from the AAP... I have to say that on our local channel, there was a disclaimer statement put at the end of the episode, with a link to the CDC's website information about autism, and then our local channel 4 KOMO news featured a story in which they (erroneously) claimed that thimerosal was removed from all children's vaccines in 2002, and how there are no studies that link the cause of autism to thimerosal.
So, while I really enjoyed the show, what followed, was a huge disappointment and I can only suspect that abc (or the local affiliate) decided to put in the disclaimer, and that abc (or the local KOMO) decided to run the news story which only confuses parents because thimerosal ISN'T out of all of the childhood vaccines, thanks to the multi-dose flu vaccinations, and there ARE studies that link thimerosal to the cause of autism.
But what I appreciate the most was just knowing that the storyline isn't just something that appeals to "those crazy parents", but rather, it is a topic that has hit the mainstream, and people don't look at you with crazy eyes if you talk about it. I went to dinner with 3 of my friends a few months ago, and I was stunned when THEY began talking about their concerns about vaccines and ADHD, Autism, sensory dysfunction, etc. I stayed quiet and let the conversation flow and I was just so quietly pleased to see that it wasn't "just me" any longer...that other parents are paying attention, and asking the same questions, and having the same concerns.
And THAT, is something that no disclaimer, or any AAP letter, can squelch.
Posted by: Mary | February 01, 2008 at 02:11 PM
The show was surprisingly well done and very entertaining. It touched on the nuances of our lives really well without its customary gore which would have been a downer. In short it was nice to see something light, funny ("yeah I was pregnant for 8 years"), and with a strong message without having to yell it out. Liked the message about faith too. I was wondering if the producers have a personal story. It was way too intimate, something an outsider would certainly not have been able to do. It was real. Can't wait to see the next one!
Posted by: Gayatri | February 01, 2008 at 11:12 AM
I wish I could say I actually saw the show. Despite my best intentions.. well, let's just say that taking care of two kids that are currently in pretty intense heavy metal detox has a way of messing up the best laid plans...and I was just too plain exhausted to stay awake during the entire show.
But I liked the little snippets I caught.. and I was very, very pleased to see that ABC did NOT cave in to the AAP's pressure to put the requested 'vaccines do not contain thimerosal' and 'there's no link between vaccines and autism' disclaimers at the end of the program (but maybe they placed these at the beginning of the show... which I obviously missed).
Will I watch the next episode? I don't know.. it'll depend on how tired I am around that time next week.
In all honestly, I got a much bigger kick out of the entire media/press/internet circus leading up to last nite's show.. is it just me, or are other people getting a sense too that a lot of the furor from the 'autism is genetic, it just happens, there's nothing you can do, just accept and celebrate the autistic behaviors' camp is starting to reek of PANIC??????
With ever increasing hope that one day the whole world will come to see autism for what it is.. a multifactorial autoimmune disease induced by severe environmental toxicity.
Petra
Posted by: Petra | February 01, 2008 at 10:40 AM
I was really impressed at some of the wonderful comments and real life views that were slipped into the dialogue. During the final comments to the jury Eli mentions that there is abundant science supporting a link between mercury and autism, and several times it was reinforced that the mom was more concerned about stopping the madness than getting money for herself - and ending with turning 2/3 of the settlement over to a trust for autistic children was priceless.
An ironicly funny moment was when Eli was diagnosed with an brain anurism (sp) and his fiance freaks and he said "this would be a bad time..." All too often in our community relationships understandably strain under the suddeness of an autism diagnosis.
To me, the writers obviously did a great amount of research on OUR side of the issue - at points I thought that Anne Dachel was an advisor to the show!
Very funny and original theme - hope to be able to stay up late and see it again next week!
Tim
Posted by: Tim Kasemodel | February 01, 2008 at 09:56 AM
I thought it was a terrific show. I liked the quirkiness of it. The story line was terrific. Why do the bad guys always have slicked back hair?
I've emailed my thanks to ABC not succumbing to the pressure tactics of the AAP.
Kim
Posted by: Stagmom | February 01, 2008 at 09:28 AM
'Cause I gotta have faith...
Mmm, I gotta have faith
'Cause I gotta have faith, faith,
Mm 'cause I gotta have faith-a-faith-a-faith
Eli Stone we love you; it was like a next-generation Ally McBeal. Thank you ABC for showing something to parents of autistic children that we could laugh and cry to that’s fictional but mostly true. We don’t even care about the word you were substituting for thimerosal. The educated will figure it out; no problem. The plot just kept getting better and better.
Bedrok community is a group of families who have recovered our children from autism. We come from many different upbringings, countries, and religions; but the most important bond that keeps us together is the responsibility that we have to recover our children, family, and anyone who is interested.
We at bedrok community feel like we are at war right now! What we believe and have been voicing has been purposely ignored because it is not favorable to many special interest groups; which has a responsibility to their stockholders and it’s bottom-line.
We are sad that our doctors, lawmakers, government agencies like the CDC is not apologizing for making mistakes and holding onto outrageous vaccine polices, to save their reputations and interests of others. We are at war with the enemy’s conscience. We can’t call them criminal because our government and consumer demands have given them free reign to poison our children. Even Oprah, who many adore; has really let us down, in the past. Our hero, Jennie McCarthy, recently crossed the line and spoke out against big pharma after being asked not to go there.
There is so much tension in the air recently about the vaccine issue. There are so many things that are becoming socially unacceptable to talk about; we have politics, religion, and now we have the vaccine issue. My husband and I call it the “V word”.
We want to forgive the CDC, the FDA, the APA, the USA, our pediatricians, big pharma
Mistakes have been made before; it happened with the cozy relationship between the government and the tobacco industry; doctor’s recommended certain brands of tobacco; now we know it’s not good for us. Today doctor’s are recommending and defending vaccines because they follow the lead of a few people. I have fondly called them “the Stepford Doctors” for many years. I’m afraid a big part of our doctor’s continuing education is big pharma.
We demand that within the next six months that you put together a board of doctors and researchers which have no ties to pharmaceutical companies and review our vaccines policies. We forgive you for overloading our children with toxic metals, giving them autism, ADD/ADHD, food allergies, asthma, learning problems and often SIDS. We are dealing with these problems and we will recover our children from your harm but please stop hurting future generations.
We apologize that the autism community has taken up so much of your time arguing the mercury issue. We don’t think thimerosal is the one thing that caused our child’s autism. Even though many are finding mercury in their children’s bodies’ many years after the vaccine was administered; this is a known Neuro-toxin; so none the less it needs to be out. We want to focus on something else. The immune system and what repeated vaccines can do to some who have a predisposition to auto-immune diseases. We plead that you look into the affect on our immune systems with and over abundance of vaccines.
You label us upper-middle class, college educated. This would sound as we are informed and intelligent, treat us like this and quit brushing us off. You don’t realize this but mainstream is catching on; if you don’t stop no one is going to trust their doctors about anything. Mother’s (as I am) will be afraid to go to the doctor in fear that you will over-medicate our child and cause more problems.
We only have ourselves to blame; we got sucked into your deception and we take full responsibility for damaging our children and making them autistic. We have got to get the message out to others, do your own research; don’t idolize your doctor and the television commercials and believe every word you hear. We have so many examples of how the pharmaceutical companies have given us drugs that were not properly tested and proved to be dangerous. They have stretched the truth to sell drugs. They play on our emotions; losing a child has got to be or biggest fear of all. We tried to buy into what would keep our child away from “dreadful diseases”.
Doctor’s make mistakes, all the time! You have to be your child’s best advocate. Don’t go with the flow of mainstream medicine. Chinese medicine focuses on the relationship of our organs; our medicine focus’s on one area; with no regard on how everything works together. We fix one thing and then have to fix another. Chinese medicine says what is causing this; let’s look at the big picture; not the l
little one; like a “specialist does”.
We are scared also about vaccines but many of us have decided to hold off and not vaccinate our family any more. We have no trust.
We feel like are families have a genetic predisposition not to do well with the vaccines. WE are “red flagging ourselves” even if the doctors won’t. We are given a “god-given intuition”; let’s use it. We have seen over and over again that often grand parents are suffering from Alzheimer’s, we have eczema or fibromaylgia, and our children end up with autism.
It seems like with our vaccines that we are probably saving a few and harming millions.
WE aren’t urging families to stop vaccinating; we are saying become informed. There are many good websites; like SafeMinds that has well documented information.
We are asking is that you don’t make our vaccine policies a one-size fits all concept. We don’t do this with penicillin. We want them to be safer and we want them to consider that we might be doing too much too soon. A hep-B at birth seems almost criminal to us.
We know autism is caused by a combination of many things; the same comparison is that our autistic children have an array of many different problems; never one the same. The causes are genetic, pollution in the air and water, vaccines, poor food choices, over medication of Tylenol and cold medicines, steroids, yeast, virus, parasites, EMF. Quit looking for one cause.
If this doesn’t make it all look ridiculous, read through the recent sparing going on within the community at http://www.ageofautism.com.
Until later…Diane Farr, founder
bedrok community
Posted by: Diane Farrr | February 01, 2008 at 08:11 AM