TURNING TO STONE

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1935, Page 7

TURNING TO STONE

MEDICAL STUDENT.

FATHER'S SACRIFICE

REVEALED.

BROKE LAW TO HELP SON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, January 8. The carefully guarded secret of a University of California pre-medical student who is turning t<- stone was revealed in San Francisco Federal Courts, strangely and dramatically. The boy's UO-year-old father, a night watchman, was granted probation because of devotion to his son —a devotion which led him to operate illegally a still to obtain funds for the boy's education and medical care.

The father is Albert B. Hagedorn, of Hayward, near San Francisco. He appeared on a liquor charge before Federal Judge Frank H. Kerrigan, who announced his merciful decision after he had heard the grey-haired man tell his story and had listened, too, to the pleas of a probation officer and of the arresting agent, L. G. Jester.

"My boy Albert is suffering from a strange disease," Hagedorn said. "He is 19. His body is slowly turning to stone, and doctors say tliey can do nothing for him. He is a brilliant boy, studying medicine at the University of California. I couldn't make enough money to keep him at his studies, so I made whisky. Albert wants to become a doctor, find a cure for his malady, and help others who may some day become its victims." Slow Ossification. The boy had known nothing of his father's sacrifice, and was grieved that his condition was revealed to the world. "I'm sorry dad thought lie had to do that for me," lie said. "I'm sorry, too, that my secret is known. I've'kept it for GJ years. Only the immediate members of my family and the doctors at the University of California Hospital and of the Cowell Memorial Hospital, who have

studied my case, liave known of it." He said the disease was known as ealcitosis, or myositis ossificans. He was one of the 28 victims of the disease known to science, and he was studying medicine with the hope of discovering a cure. Young Hagedorn :is a normal, bright boy who was honour valedictorian of liis class in liayward High School. He won an American Legion cup as a " typical boy." He won a similar cup from a Californian newspaper.

At the University of California he kept his secret from professors and students, wanting 110 sympathy. " I wanted," he §aid, " not to think of it. I wanted to keep it out of my inind while I pursued my studies. Of course, I know what will come unless a miracle of science occurs. I'm trying to aid in that miracle." He smiled as he said. "I am turning into calcium carbonate, the same material as rocks and stones* Almost every food contains calcium, so it is practically impossible to aid with diet. First the disease attacked my arms, then my legs. I can still use my arms and legs well enough."

He turned to his father. " I didn't know, dad, how much it meant to you," he said. The father, clenched his workworn hands. To the interviewer, he said: " I want him to be a doctor —a good doctor. He has it in him."

The youth admitted that the affliction had " ossified " his knee joints, heel 1 and elbows, and a portion of a tliunr He is believed to be incurable, but 1 has faith, and the general public, as so' as they heard of the plight of the fami' overwhelmed them with offers of lie' causing the father to say: "The puM lias a. big, big heart."