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Dick Clark a hero to some
TV appearance a year after his stroke. With obvious impairment, stroke 'isn't a
pretty thing to look at,' one admirer says

JOCELYN NOVECK
AP


Monday, January 09, 2006


He sat stiffly behind a desk, one hand in front of him, one down at his side.
His words had the familiar slurred sound of a stroke victim. But his cadence was
brisk, he made himself clear, and most of all, he was there - on national TV.

Stroke survivors and their advocates said last week they were cheered and
inspired by Dick Clark's New Year's Eve appearance, ringing in 2006 a year after
his debilitating stroke.

"I think it's awesome," said Leanne Hendrix, who was 26 when she had a stroke
three years ago. "It was a tremendously courageous thing to do."

Hendrix, a former Miss Arizona who lives in Phoenix, echoed a hope common among
stroke survivors interviewed: that the public might begin to treat them with the
respect and admiration given those who have overcome cancer or heart attacks.

"Survivors of those othr diseases seem to wear a badge of honour," said Hendrix.
But a stroke, with its obvious impairment, "maybe isn't a pretty thing to look
at. It's definitely not a sexy disease."

"So for him to get up on national TV and say: 'This is what I am now' - I have
nothing but respect for him," she said.

Diane Mulligan-Fairfield of the National Stroke Association, a U.S. public
education organization, called Clark a "hero" for showing the world his
condition.

"Hero is not normally a word we associate with stroke survivors," she said. "We
are trying to change that."

Clark's appearance on New Year's Rockin' Eve came a full year after the December
2004 stroke that forced him to miss last year's show. There had been intense
speculation beforehand whether he'd be up to the task. The 76-year-old
entertainer has given no interviews since his stroke.

On New Year's Eve, seated inside a studio at Times Square, Clark began by
immediately acknowledging his condition, saying it had been a "long, hard fight"
learning to walk and talk again. But, he said, "I wouldn't have missed this for
the world."

His words were muffled, but he kept a quick pace and was, for the most part,
easy to understand during his brief appearances sprinkled through the telecast.
At midnight, he counted down the seconds as the ball dropped, then kissed his
wife, Kari, sitting next to him at his desk.

While some found the appearance moving, others seemed to find it inappropriate
or depressing to see the ever-boyish, handsome Clark display his impaired
condition in a TV universe where appearance is everything.

"Viewers ... may well have been hoping the famous giant ball was the only thing
that would drop before the night was over," wrote Washington Post TV critic Tom
Shales. He said Clark looked "seriously debilitated," and called his appearance
"a gesture likely to strike some observers as courageous and others as morbid."

In the New York Times, reviewer Virginia Heffernan called Clark's description of
his speech ("not perfect") an "understatement," and wrote that sometimes, "his
impaired speech seemed comical," although mostly it was touching.

The negative comments deeply angered Karl Guerra of Annapolis, Md., who has been
recovering from a stroke for the last five years. For the first three years, he
spent 10 hours a day working on his speech. He called Clark's recovery so far
"remarkable."

"Let's face it, there are certain aspects of a stroke that make people feel
uncomfortable, and one of those is speech," Guerra said in a telephone
interview.

A doctor who treats stroke survivors said Clark's determination to go ahead with
his appearance is just the kind of goal that often helps patients with their
recovery.

"In many diseases the emotional component - the determination to fight and
pursue recovery - is part of the recovery itself," said Dr. Pierre Fayad,
medical director of neurology at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre.

C The Gazette (Montreal) 2006








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