Wellington’s Jackie Alvarez A Tireless Advocate For The
ALS Association By Deborah Welky
Think “Lou Gehrig” and two things come to mind: his amazing career with the New York Yankees and the disease that ended his life at age 37. The baseball great so catapulted the illness into the public’s consciousness that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is still more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease to this day. ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that progressively paralyzes its victims by attacking nerve cells and pathways in the brain or spinal cord. Patients slowly lose the ability to walk, to eat, to speak and, eventually, to breathe. Every 90 minutes, another victim is diagnosed. Every 90 minutes, another victim dies. In Florida alone, 1,600 people are currently suffering with ALS. For Wellington resident Jackie Alvarez, it was her 35-yearold son, Stefan. “My father had a construction company and Stefan was working with him when one of his fingers started going 78
may 2015 | wellington the magazine
numb. He didn’t think much of it — you know, young people. Even we thought it was probably a pinched nerve. A few months later, he was having trouble breathing. The doctors thought it was pneumonia, or maybe a virus. They put him on antibiotics.” Antibiotics didn’t help, and this type of misdiagnosis is common. ALS is often the furthest thing from anyone’s mind, yet it can strike anyone at any age. There is no known cause and no known cure. “He ended up moving back with me,” said Alvarez, who is a registered nurse. “He had a serious girlfriend, but when she heard the diagnosis, she moved away. It made everything extra sad for him. I guess she just couldn’t face it.” Stefan’s hands went first. “His fine motor skills were gone,” Alvarez recalled. “He began having trouble feeding himself. Then his legs got weak, his speech became garbled and he had difficulty swallowing. He would choke.” That was a particularly cruel blow, as Stefan had always