Lorenzo - An Amazing True-Life Story

People can be amazingly powerful and capable of exceptional accomplishments deep down inside.

Most people rarely, if ever, tap into their innate power and abilities simply because they have never been exposed to situations that demand they rise to a higher level, or because they never had the knowledge, training and inspiration that allows them to tap into their power.

One remarkable example is the true story of a married couple, Augusto and Michaela Odone.

They had a son, Lorenzo, born in 1978. Augusto was an economist working for the World Bank, and Michaela stayed home to raise their son. Lorenzo was a normal, spirited, happy boy until the age of eight, when he developed neurological symptoms such as loss of hearing and tantrums.

Lorenzo was brought to a doctor and was diagnosed with ALD, a rare neurological disease that is fatal within two years from onset. Just as bad, over the two-year period prior to death, ALD destroys the neurological system of the body, causing blindness and total paralysis; it’s an agonizing and horrible disease.

A person with ALD becomes nearly a complete vegetable, unable to eat, move, see, speak, although the mind stays intact. Augusto and Michaela couldn’t accept the doctor’s fatal prognosis, and especially could not accept the terrible fate of their son as the disease progressed.

So they take Lorenzo to several different specialists; all of them telling the parents there is no cure and no hope. These specialists attempt to get the parents to simply accept that Lorenzo will die within two years, and a terrible death at that. All of the doctors this couple see had no hope or ideas to offer; some of them even became irritated with Augusto and Michaela for not giving up. But Augusto and Michaela were determined to save their son.

They find out that ALD is so rare that it isn’t “worth” the attention of doctors, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies to expend all the time and resources to discover a cure. There weren’t enough cases of ALD worldwide to attract the attention to attempt a cause and cure; to put it bluntly, there wasn’t enough profit and glory in pursuing a disease as rare as ALD.

This is the situation Augusto and Michaela face: their beloved son has a terrible, paralyzing, agonizing disease that leads to death within two years, and there has been very little research and data about ALD. But Augusto and Michaela do not give up; they don’t allow the existing situation to overcome them.

Augusto spends hours each day studying the research that had been done on ALD. In order to fully understand this research and take it even further, Augusto taught himself all about human anatomy, organic chemistry, physiology, and neurology. He became as knowledgeable as many doctors. He was also racing against time as his son was degenerating rapidly.

Augusto and Michaela travel to visit different researchers and specialists, getting more and more knowledge and information about this disease. Their immediate goal was to find the cause; then they could search for a cure. They were relentless. They irritated doctors and researchers with their questions, their refusal to accept what these doctors and researchers would tell them, and their single-minded intention to save their son.

Augusto and Michaela attend a support group for people whose children had died from ALD. Even these people became hostile toward Augusto and Michaela because they continued looking for answers. These parents had either given up or already lost their children to ALD. They didn’t want to hear about any attempts to find the cause and cure, they had already accepted the doctors’ pronouncements that it was hopeless.

In their travels and meetings with doctors and researchers, Augusto and Michaela were surprised to learn that there had never been any meeting of doctors and researchers from around the world regarding ALD. So they organized a symposium of international doctors and researchers. They got these people in the same room for the first time ever and got them to brainstorm and share data that had never been shared before. In this way, Augusto and Michaela increased their knowledge and understanding of ALD.

They met a researcher who had some ideas of his own about ALD. This researcher compared notes with Augusto and Michaela, and they progressed a little further.

All this time, Augusta continues to study and teach himself all about the human body and medicine. He becomes as knowledgeable as most doctors along the way.

Finally, they developed a therapy of sorts involving two types of oil extracts. They were getting closer to an ultimate cure, but they still needed to refine their treatment a little better. Augusto and Michaela continued their research and discovered the cause of ALD - something no doctor or researcher had been able to do.

Now that they knew the cause and had seen some improvement with the oil extracts, they understood what treatment was needed. But the treatment required a special distillation and refinement process, and for this, they contacted over a hundred firms around the world. None of these firms would help these people, but they persisted in their search. They finally met a British chemist who was able to distill the exact formula needed.

The formula worked. The disease was halted within Lorenzo. But unfortunately, the disease had progressed too far, and Lorenzo was permanently damaged. But he had some improvement and actually lived to the age of thirty before passing.

Augusto and Michaela Odone found a cure for ALD, and future people will be spared the agony of this horrible disease.

An economist and a housewife accomplished something that doctors and researchers - trained in anatomy, physiology, medicine, research and disease - failed to do.

And they accomplished this feat in around a year, training themselves practically as physicians along the way.

An economist and a housewife endured the misery of watching their beloved son suffer and head toward death. They had numerous doctors, researchers, their families, their friends, and even their support group members try to dissuade them continuing their quest.

These people faced enormous obstacles, impossible obstacles for anyone outside the medical field. Yet they achieved their goal.

And they did all this 45 years ago, when technology and research wasn’t what it is today.

This story has been portrayed in a movie made in 1992, Lorenzo’s Oil. The short description of the story presented here doesn’t begin to capture the agony, the overwhelming obstacles, the heartbreak, the impossible odds, and the incredible accomplishment that Augusto and Michaela faced and achieved. This story is an amazing demonstration of the power and capability of

people. It’s also an amazing demonstration of the power of purpose and intention. Watching this movie will change your mind and point of view in a profound way.

Most people have enormous inner strength, power, and potential capabilities that even they are not aware of. All that’s needed is the right mix of environment, knowledge, training, and leadership.