Learning on ScreenNYSTAGMUS: 2. The Conquest of a Disease
Series
- Series Name
- Mining Review 7th Year
Issue
Story
- Story No. within this Issue
- 2 / 4
- Section Title
- NYSTAGMUS
- Summary
- BFI synopsis: The treatment of nystagmus.
NCB Commentary - In last month’s issue, we saw some of the ways nystagmus can affect a man. We saw through the eyes of this miner what the disease can be like.
He’s not an eye specialist. All he’ll see in the mirror will be perhaps a trembling of his eyes which he can’t control. But the pain behind his eyes and the splitting ache in his head are things you don’t see; you feel them, and you’ve got to do something about them.
Like a sensible fellow, he goes to get advice. At the colliery medical centre he sees the area medical offiver, who recognises the symptoms right away. Yes, it’s nystagmus all right, he says, but we’ll soon get that under control. He makes sure that the man’s own doctor is kept in the picture, for after all the GP knows more about his patients than anybody else, and he gives the miner a letter to an eye specialist.
Today there are clinics set up to treat and advise on just this particular disease, and our man takes along his letter. Right, says the specialist, we’ll make a thorough examination so that I can see just where the trouble lies. You needn’t worry any more about the way you’ve been feeling; the first step in getting back to good health is to realise that you’re in good hands, and to get back your confidence. To suffer from nystagmus is a nerve-racking experience. The disease can sap a man’s resistance and self-reliance: today much of the treatment depends on rebuilding the patient’s nerves.
The next step is for the miner to see the social worker at the clinic. She puts back a lot more of his missing self-confidence. She gets details of his home background, and makes sure that there’s nothing worrying him there. She tells him of the treatment he’ll be given, and our man knows that her friendship and interest will help him though the course.
The more friends our miner makes at this stage of his treatment the better. He needs to feel that people are interested in him as a man. Part of the job of social workers and doctors is to help him feel that way.
Of course, our miner’s going to be at home for some time. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t keep up his hobbies -- in fact, it’s a good thing that he should. Soon he’ll get dark glasses for wearing out of doors, and he’ll find them a comfort in cutting down the glare of the sunlight.
His spectacles will soon be along too; the ones the specialist prescribed for him. His friend the social worker will have arranged for him to do restful work at the clinic, to keep his hands and mind occupied in the company of fellow-patients. He’ll find relaxation in this sort of work, and that’s important.
And relaxation by himself and with his family plays an equally large part in his recovery. Our man is lucky to have the open country near at hand; up on the moors he can rest, and let nature take a hand in healing him. And all the time, the specialist in whose hands his treatment rests takes a close and personal interest in the patient. It’s the specialist who will say when he can go back to work, and what kind of work he’s going to be fit to do. Next month we’ll find out just how soon that can be. - Researcher Comments
- Commentary recorded 9 November 1953.
- Keywords
- Health and medicine; Science and technology; Mining
- Written sources
- British Film Institute Databases Used for synopsis
Film User Vol.8 No.89 March 1954, p138.
The National Archives COAL 32 /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956
- Credits:
-
- Production Co.
- Documentary Technicians Alliance
- Sponsor
- National Coal Board
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