Dietrich Theater Tunkhannock, PA
Linda Thomas-Hemak
CEO, The Wright Center for Community Health; President, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education
andStephanie Delma
2nd-year medical student, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
andAmiel Bethel
Director, Neuroscience Institute, Geisinger Community Medical Center
Awakenings— Oliver Sacks' influence on medicine
Program Description
After the film, local physicians and medical students share their thoughts in person and via recordings on Oliver Sacks and how his work has influenced medicine. The event also features a short sneak preview of the new PBS American Masters documentary Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, coming to WVIA TV on April 9.
Presented At
Dietrich Theater Tunkhannock, PA
Film Synopsis
The victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of reviving them.
Based on a true story as told by neurologist Oliver Sacks, Awakenings follows Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), who works at a Bronx psychiatric hospital in 1969. There he's put in charge of several seemingly catatonic patients who, under Sayer's careful guidance, begin responding to certain stimuli. Sayer is then given permission to test a new drug called L-DOPA, effective in treating those suffering from degenerative diseases. One of his patients, Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), has not communicated with anyone since lapsing into catatonia as a child. Gradually, Lowe comes out of his shell, encouraging Sayers to administer L-DOPA to the other patients under his care, who must learn to cope with a new life in a new time.