Tag: Frank Clifford

Frank Clifford’s Good News

I ran into Frank last month at a friend’s birthday party. It was then he told me about his bladder cancer and the inability of Yale’s Smilow Cancer Center to get the chemo drug he needs.

I wrote about Frank Clifford last year. He works in the basement under the Sterling Library at Yale. Frank’s job is making sure the remembrances of Holocaust survivors are properly digitized.

I ran into Frank last month at a friend’s birthday party. It was then he told me about his bladder cancer and the inability of Yale’s Smilow Cancer Center to get the chemo drug he needs.

Isn’t that a kick in the pants? No one is making the drug, probably because there isn’t enough profit. There’s your death panel!

I asked Frank if there was anything I could do? He told me he was asking all his friends with connections to get the word out. I went to Bill Weir, a few rows down in the Courant newsroom.

This story was the result. Frank was pleased. Me too.

Frank’s story was also publicized in other papers and on TV.

Today he posted this on Facebook.

The “squeaky wheel” will get treatment!

I want to thank everyone for writing in to their Congressmen and Senators. I received a phone call tonight from Senator Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) this evening, telling me that he has successfully resolved the issue in getting the pharmaceutical companies to resume manufacturing mitomycin (the chemo drug that’s been unavailable for me and others). He has agreed to work together with the Smilow Cancer Center in New Haven to resolve the problems with shortages with other vital chemo drugs.

I can’t thank Senator Blumenthal and his staff enough. His aide, Grady Keefe spent a great deal of time trying to resolve this problem. We spoke quite a bit on the phone discussing the particulars of my case.

I also want to thank Jocelyn Maminta from channel 8, and Bill Weir from the Hartford Courant, who both featured stories about my plight. A special round of applause goes to Geoff Fox, who has been incredibly supportive to me.

I was getting a bit leery of Facebook lately, but I must say, that my friends online came to the plate and made a difference. I am forever grateful to a great many people.

The problem is not over, but there are tools we can use to change things. I will try to keep on top of this situation for the many people out there who are in a similar situation.

WE can change things!

Thank you everyone,
Frank

Frank’s a good guy. This is a break he deserves. I couldn’t be happier.

In A Basement At Yale

If there’s sainted work in the world that’s what Frank’s doing.

I headed to Yale earlier this afternoon. My friend Frank Clifford works there. You’ll never find his office by accident. It’s down hidden stairs then through narrow hallways in the basement of Sterling Library.

It’s worth the trip. If there’s sainted work in the world that’s what Frank’s doing. He is digitizing videos from the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies.

The survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust are diminishing in number. Each year their recollections become more important, but each year moves them farther away from the original experience. This gives special urgency to the effort to collect as many testimonies as possible – now.

At one point Frank put a video clip on his computer’s screen. A Belgian woman began to speak. She was attractive, probably in her fifties when the interview had taken place 30 or so years ago. As the camera locked in she told a chilling tale of her childhood.

The Gestapo had come to her town. As a Jew she and her family were their target.

I told Frank to stop the clip as she described the last time she’d seen her father. It was too sad, too emotionally taxing. It was impossible not to be touched deeply.

Frank is transferring analog video cassettes to a variety of digital formats simultaneously. The interviews are being carefully preserved as you’d expect in the research oriented atmosphere that is Yale. It’s all cataloged and documented in excruciating detail. The videos are worthless if their stories can’t later found later.

I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy my trips on campus. This was no different. Sterling Library is exactly what you’d expect an Ivy League library to be.

I could explain, but this is one of those things better left to pictures.