Awakenings Response

Based on a true story called Awakenings, the movie showed the attempt of Dr. Sayer to cure this illness called Encephalitis lethargica (EL) in those who have remained unmindful to what happens around them. And so, I was moved and excited to know the outcome for the patients and Dr. Sayer in taking the risk and given his patients who suffer from encephalitis a drug used for Parkinson's Disease called L-Dopa. The fact that he tried everything he could do to help his patients live a normal life again that I admired his dedication in the process of his works with the patients.

When he administered the drug to one particular patient, Leonard Lowe, he almost miraculously wakes up and becomes a normal human being, as if nothing had happened. Because of this, the entire ward of afflicted patients was also awakened with the drug, L-Dopa. The patients were able to make up for lost time, doing what they had never been able to do. This part was so emotional for me that I even tried to hold my tears, because imagine that given your life back again would be so overwhelming that you would be reminded to appreciate the pleasures of being alive, including the pleasures that require us to take risks. And so, being away for such a long and given life back, you would never take your life for granted again. And that I would live life to the fullest even if it were good or bad, meaning that I would look at things on the bright side and be positive. However, I was heartbroken for some patients that their return to life was a traumatic one. That is, others found their children have left, some could not cope with the fact they have lost almost fifty years of their lives, and lastly for some found their spouses dead.

Unfortunately, the drug had serious side-effects that produced mood changes. Leonard changed into the furious instigator among the mental patients of the hospital after he was denied unaccompanied access to the outside world. I can imagine how depressed this was for him not being given the life that he wanted besides being supervised inside. I, too would have wanted the freedom and the reality of life by not being supervised. However, I can understand that in his case it was acceptable for him to stay inside until further notice that he is fully recovered. But the "miracle" proved short-term as, one by one, the patients returned to their solitary, trance-like worlds.