A topic that was given much attention in both a newspaper and an online news source is the story of a mother, Theresa and father Roger Liao searching for a cure for their two sons, Jake and Nate. Although it is a graphic story, it seemed to me an important one. A news column by Anita Manning from USA Today called “An experiment to save a son” uses up a majority of the cover page of the Life section, as well as the entire second page. The article basically shares with the reader a mother’s struggle to find to a cure for her son’s disorder, epidermolysis bullosa. It also speaks about the trial and error treatment used on Nate Liao and that until now had only been tested on mice (Manning, 2007). I also found an article on the internet from an online paper, the Examiner called “Family waits for cure for son’s rare disorder.”
The Liao’s son has a rare disorder, epidermolysis bullosa, or EB. According to Wikipedia.com epidermolysis bullosa is a “rare genetic disease characterized by the presence of extremely fragile skin and recurrent blisters formation, resulting from minor mechanical friction or trauma.” The USA Today describes that the rare disorder is due to the lack of protein that is needed to keep skin attached to the body (Manning, 2007). Although I’m sure a majority of us have not heard of epidermolysis bullosa, an estimated one out of 50,000 births of males and females of all races and ethnic groups are affected with some type of EB, the worst form being Hallopeau-Siemens disease, which is lifelong (Kohlhepp, 2005). In the case of the Liao’s two of their sons carry epidermolysis bullosa, one of them in fact carries the worst from of EB, Hallopeau-Siemens disease.
After comparing the USA Today’s article, “An experiment to save a son” to the online article, “Family waits for cure for son’s rare disorder” I did notice one major difference between the two sources, the USA Today wrote more about the disease itself and the transplant experiment while the article online wrote more about the family and carrying for two children who live with EB. The online article also seemed to show how much the disease affects the children who carry it. The Examiner explains that because of Jake’s illness, his body does not adapt well to temperature changes, he spends little time outdoors and won’t be able to attend public school due to fear of him getting severally hurt and causing infection. And although the news print source goes into some detail, the online article explains in detail a major concern for parent’s whose children carry EB is the fact that their hands and feet can critically be damaged due to the fact they are used the most. The mother is quoted saying “He could live without toes, but it would be difficult for him to live his life without the use of his hands” (Kohlhepp, 2005).
I also noticed that the two articles focused on different children, the story in USA Today spoke more about the youngest boy Nate, while the article online spoke more about Jake, both sources choice to focus on one child over the other. Each source however used several pictures to illustrate how the boys are affected by the disorder physically showing the boy’s covered in bandages, their newest blisters, along with their several other healing sores.
Although I don’t necessarily keep up with current events, I prefer and believe news papers and online news papers sources are more informative when compared to looking to a blog for information about current events. Regarding the article “An experiment to save a son” and the article “Family waits for cure for son’s rare disorder” I believe both articles to be informative in different aspects. In the USA Today I learned more about the future cure for ED and in the online article I learned more about living with the disorder itself. I found that they each balanced each other out and what I did not get from one source I got from the other so in that case I find both online sources and the traditional print source important and valuable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidermolysis_Bullosa
Manning, A. (2007, November 1). An experiment to save a son. USA Today, pp. D1, D2.
Kohlhepp, J. (2005, April 5). Family waits for cure for son’s rare disorder. Examiner. Retrieved November 2, 2007,
from http://examiner.gmnews.com/news/2005/0420/Front_page/001.html
2 comments:
It's interesting to compare two different focuses on the same event from newspapers and the internet articles.
I also agree that newspapers and online print sources from recognized newspapers are more reliable than a blog. Good blog!
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