Annette Funicello_life with M.S.-Mid Oct 2012 / Passed April 8th 2013

welcome to w5 she was known around the world simply as a net her full name Annette Funicello she burst onto TV screens as a child star a musketeer in Disney's Mickey Mouse Club then a pop star and teen movie queen the girl for whom Paul Anka wrote puppy love an actor whose wholesome image won her millions of fans but about 20 years ago Annette revealed an agonizing secret she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and and that was among the 10 percent of those with the worst kind of MS a steady downhill descent with no cure she vanished from public view now after two decades aw5 exclusive Annette's story her struggle with a debilitating disease and as Avis favreau reports a message from her husband who has spent a quarter century seeking help for a net she was dubbed America's Sweetheart one of the first child superstars created by The Walt Disney Empire featured in the 1950 show the Mickey Mouse Club there was just something about a net Funicello that made her incredibly appealing according to her longtime friend and co-star Shelley Fabares I think and that's an inherent sweetness and goodness and kindness just got through the screen came through her and came through her eyes a net stardom flourished as she grew into a stunning young woman featured in a series of hugely popular beach movies with co-star Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello was a 1960s Hollywood princess what are your fans think about it than that I hope they are her first wedding at age 23 was followed by fans around the world I think for a lot of people today certainly of a younger age just have no idea what kind of an impact she was you know like the Beatles like Madonna but it was on that that level she became a mother then divorced then in 1986 a happy remarriage to a dashing horse breeder Glenn Holt we knew each other for 10 you know longer 15 years it was like when we married one of my best friends you know an ad was now 45 and planning a return to movies but on one of her first film sets there were hints something was wrong is that when she started saying she had said yeah when we when she was filming this is when she first made the comment to me that she's having trouble walking in the sand she told me she almost felt you came back down right here she almost lost her balance they're coming down said I I don't know what's wrong you know there's something at first people accused her of being drunk a net went public with her diagnosis multiple sclerosis one of the first celebrities to put a face to ms explaining the fatigue and disability it can cause America's Sweetheart was now using a scooter nice story dozen her voice shaking on this one of her last TV appearances in 1995 thank you for telling us this story and as the disease progressed she slipped from public view [Music] for the last 15 years Annette Funicello has been out of the public limelight now her husband wants to lift that curtain to let the world see the cruel and devastating effects of multiple sclerosis hey good mornin baby good this is a nap today at her home in California I'll help her do your hair okay she's now 70 years old she lost the ability to walk eight years ago stopped speaking nearly three years ago just go slow maybe she has 24-hour nursing care there we go baby let me put your glasses on but Annette's primary caregiver is her husband Glen he's now 81 she's my wife I love her I'll take care of her I don't regret it by one iota when we got married we promised we would take care of each other come hell or high water you know and when when she was diagnosed and started all this stuff about EMS I told her officer well I'll take care of you honey and I'll do everything I can do I love you love you baby I just tell her hey you're my baby you want to go to the ranch today baby and go for a ride huh we'll go out and take a look around okay a big nice look at me with those big brown bright eyes it's telling me thank you you know I'll be back and check you in a minute all right okay it may be a shock for a generation that treasures the beauty of Annette Funicello to see what 25 years of progressive a mass has done Glen's message to tell the world she is loved and cared for you talked to her do you think she talks about her and she understands me she answers me some you know in her own type of way you know I'll take her shopping I'll take her out and she loves to go and virtually every day they take a drive almond trees there and cotton over here on this side hey baby it's okay yeah okay baby there are some people who will think she must be preserved in people's minds exactly as she was but exactly who she was is not who she is now and in order to get people to understand the ravages of this disease and what happens there is no better way is this what Annette would have wanted her friend Shelley says yes I believe in my heart if she felt on any level that it would help one person let alone quite a few that she would say Here I am it's been a heartbreaking case for her longtime doctor jeffrey Solberg I have many patients with MS we're doing fine and are in remission and have responded beautifully to standardized treatments and that is in that subset of patients that did not have that luck over the last two decades Annette and Glenn have been on a long journey to find something to help stop her MS and they've tried just about everything from approved drugs to more powerful experimental medications all to no avail one in fact nearly killed her one time the guy wrote a prescription for something I don't know what they called it and I think she had taken it for about five days and she wind up in ICU Glenn said they even let doctors install a pacemaker in her chest with wires into her brain to control her shaking hands it didn't work for long a gnat's celebrity didn't win her any reprieve from this disease if anything her fame made her prey to what Glenn calls a parade of charlatans who wanted to use her to sell worthless therapies they've been doctors to get a hold of me that want to treat her with gimmicks so they can say that I'm treating Annette and she's getting better and they would flock to them may it make millions of dollars but I don't allow that I've seen Glenn be at times very upset and discouraged by some of the things that were hopeful as anyone would be when they're pursuing something that's important to him and his wife it's something like this and of course it's you get your hopes up and then when there's a lack of response or an adverse reaction your hopes get dashed and it's a roller coaster but these are basically optimistic people she said if if we could find something that could helped me maybe we could help many many other people but Glenn says that even after 25 years of failed treatments they've never stopped searching today now he thinks he's found something new that he believes is helping his beloved Annette next it might be something worth trying but unproven treatment I know that it's not the whole answer what help can it offer a ruined body it needs to be researched further when w5 continues [Music] Annette Funicello was one of the world's most beloved teenagers I've only been here a few days her name immortalized in television and film but her husband Glen Holt now wants the world to see the effects of 25 years of chronic progressive MS of cruel disease that's left her unable to walk or to speak I'm sorry that she's this way I would love to have her back dancing and singing and doing everything she always loved to do but she can't do it but I'm not a runner I'll be right there by her side and though she's been out of public view for many years Annette still gets fan mail every day that's how Glen learned about something called chronic cerebral spinal venous insufficiency CCSVI first reported on w5 in 2009 Italian vascular surgeon Paolo Zamboni had found many patients with MS have blocked veins that stop blood from draining out of their brains it contradicts conventional medical belief that MS is caused by immune system failure and it proposes a treatment opening the narrowed veins to let blood flow normally for Glenn it was another shot of hope Glenn's question did Annette have this condition and could she be treated it was yet another experimental idea he ran by Annette's dr. Jeffrey Solberg when Gwen came to you with this new theory about blocked blood flow what did you say I didn't want to be supportive of anything that I thought would be of greater risk to her theoretical benefit and after exploring more information from the people who are actually doing the procedure I started having a little bit more confidence in the idea that it might be something worth trying at Roy City Medical Center in California interventional radiologist Don ponic had also heard about CCSVI in fact he'd started treating MS patients with this novel approach but you're intrigued oh very much so I mean we think there's something going on we don't know exactly what but there's something going on in a recent study he and colleagues tested over 250 MS patients most had blocked blood veins and when doctors restored blood flow by opening small balloons inside the veins about half of the patients reported some of their symptoms were lessened or gone six months after treatment and there were few side effects Glenn asked dr. [ __ ] to test a net so that's her head this is her chin and she's facing this way toward the left scans showed Annette had the same unusual problems being found in others with MS and we can see a very tight narrowing there he said she just had 30% of normal blood flow out of the right jugular vein and the left jugular vein was completely blocked this is the skull base and normally we would see blood flow coming down where the catheter is so how much blood was flowing down none there was no flow going down it was all going back up through the brain and down to the other side so in other words instead of coming down the blood was backing up and going exactly reverse through her brain burst when you see a jugular vein with no flow complete retrograde flow and then the other side moderately too markedly narrowed that's pretty significant so she was on the upper end of severity I'd say her case fits the new theory but it's not clear if it's playing a role in her disease so is it possible that the improper blood flow out of her brain was actually damaging her brain well that that of course is the connection that we're trying to establish how that relates to the cause or progression of MS or the symptoms of MS that's where we need to do research because we just don't know that and we can see some doctors report this therapy may be most effective in those with early stage MS not those with advanced disease still Glen asked doctors to treat Annette first on the right and then after we do the angioplasty we can see now that part of the vein is wide open then on the left after we dilated that there was significant improvement in flow it's not going backwards anymore Annette had this treatment a year ago at a private clinic in California and Glen is convinced he saw small improvements immediately I saw her and in front of my eyes Sang's changed the glow of her face came in in in the procedure another change before the treatment Glen said he had to get up several times a night to suction saliva from Annette's mouth at night I hear her swallow she knew she didn't swallow at all he just had to constantly suction around she's had the procedure do you notice any changes well Glenn perceived a today that there's been some changes I mean I cannot see them be honestly but remember she's had the disease for a long long time and the disease has done terrible damage to her nervous system and that damages the thing you can't undo maybe you were seeing these changes in her because you want to see them what I have seen is positive I'm not a easy one to be fooled I call her an ace and ace you know do you believe you've seen something here I see something that's very positive and it needs to be it needs to be researched further so why does a not have this strange blood flow and wood treatment sooner have helped Glen is now a man with a mission to use a foundation and at set up years ago to raise money to study this new theory and its possible effects on the brain but how do you know she wants you to back this and get money for research for she told me to handle it you know all along do everything you can do to get this to go what if it's wrong I can't see how how it can all be wrong when I've seen changes and my wife already just came from the printer the Annette Funicello Foundation for neurological diseases now has a Board of Advisors who meet with Glen what the goals are like Carol Schumacher she has primary progressive MS just like Annette doctors found she had blocked veins and Carol now says her health has improved since she was treated I know that it's not the whole answer I know that there's much more to this disease than just the blockages in the veins and I don't think we've sorted that all out but I know that it's an important element because I had progressive MS like any and I never got better before I only got worse this could have been your future this was my future but there are many who strongly oppose this theory some studies say block veins aren't linked to MS other studies are finding it in other neurological diseases even in healthy people and some doctors question if the treatment really helps I think that there's a lot of work that needs to be done to determine that and I don't think that it's fair to to hold out you know hope for patience until that's known and until the risks and benefits are clarified but some research stopped after the US Food and Drug Administration issued an alert early 2012 saying the link was inconclusive an enforcing strict rule saying all clinical studies now required FDA approval this is the original Mouseketeer said and he started with Wow and that's case doesn't prove anything and Glenn knows it he's hoping her name her worldwide fan base will help him get money and the momentum to help doctors find answers quickly she wore that dress it's the type of research that someone has to be devoted enough to to put money behind it and really try to understand it and there there are people in the United States and around the world who are willing to do it they want to do it now I think we need people like Glenn or others to to help get it going and so after years of being out of the spotlight Annette Funicello is being placed back in the public eye by her husband who wants to tell her fans about the only treatment he thinks has made even a bit of difference in 25 long years finish your hair in there okay I want to touch them I want to touch their hearts so they will get out there and help us to raise some money and I'm gonna continue trying to fulfill her wish and that's to help find a cure find the cause and the cure she's my wife and I love her and I I wanted to help her you know that's that's why I was very important to me you know and and if with her popularity and stuff if we could she always wants to help somebody and she said if we could find something that could help me maybe we could help many many other people because she said her words as far as I have seen myself I haven't seen anything has helped me at all everything we have tried either did nothing at all or made me worse that's what she said and I say the same thing stimulate the he's supposed to stimulate the pineal gland in the brain they prayed that for all poly a month because it wasn't a vase it wasn't taken poison it was a little hat with lights on it the flashing and he was supposed to stimulate the pineal gland no it didn't work and and he left it with me and said you he couldn't be there for a week or so and you do this twice or three times a day for 20 minutes but don't take this thing apart you know I took it apart it had a 9-volt battery and there was wires with little twinkling lights like kids wear around their neck for Halloween no button patent nothing I just the guys wanted to use her name and if he could get her to have a little a little bit of a placebo effect and get her to say oh I'm a little I feel a little better but she would not lie and she said no it's not helping me at all and I decided I wanted to try it with Annie and I've talked to her and she wanted to try it and we did it it made changes with her No earth-shattering changes but like her arm is up here now it was then and after they did the did the and her legs was like knees was in a sitting position and after I'd say that second night and the third night after she had that maybe some even the first night when she was in bed her arm straightened out you know and more and more and got straight beside her leg and her legs straightened out and there was other things you know she had like she was kind of pale faced you know she had a little rash around her neck and while we were right there in the room Lydia died Lydia and I were watching her with a suction machine right there in case she strangled we watched that redness disappear and and color in her face come she just all of a sudden looked brighter I thought they sounds small but you get to thinking about it that's pretty big she's not walking and singing dancing but I see changes and you know to me when you can see some changes like they always say where you see smoke there's fire and there's a lot of smoke you know that there's too many things that I can see little things I see something that's very positive and it needs to be it needs to be researched further I want to raise money and support this and all and I want to check all kinds of neurological just diseases not just a mess you know there's people with Parkinson they the ALS I lost a good friend to ALS I want him to see her condition today because they've been so many people saying that she's in a coma and she's calm a toast and all this stuff and you know and and I want them to I want him to I want to touch them I want to touch their hearts so they will get out there and help us to raise some money to help maybe a million people has got this over the world I don't know I hear different note different stats on it all the time but we want to we want to help she does and I'm going to continue trying to fulfill her wish and that's to help find a cure find the cause and the cure I think Annette was called America's Sweetheart for one reason she was I mean she just was now it came about because everybody myself included saw her on The Mickey Mouse Club and I think most of us who grew up in that generation we loved just watching The Mickey Mouse Club and we loved all that Mouseketeers but there was something about Annette and everybody just fell in love with her I think the first signs of MS that I saw within it were a little bit of stumbling and in walking you know bumping into something or really nothing nothing that I thought anything about and in fact what happened was that some of the kids that went to school with her kids said would say things like oh my mom and dad's you know kids kids are kids my mom and dad saw your mom out to dinner and they said she was drunk and the kids would come home and say mom they're saying that you're drunk and your duck goes up it up because she would she'd stumble and she you know sometimes not actually fall that somebody would catch her so that's why Annette finally came out and told everybody she would just approach it with this sense of this is what I have to do now this is what has to be done and she would just go ahead and do it and I think that's how she's gone through the whole illness I've never heard her complain once not once not about one thing I mean it's absolutely astonishing and as I said never has this been the feeling that she was in denial about anything never but just no complaints just it was what it was in the beginning stages to the middle stages where she could start to do something and then maybe she would need help to finish it whatever it would be Gwen was always there to do it or one of us was around but always always Glenn was there he's been heroic just heroic and he treats her exactly the same as he did when they first met and got married he just adores her and treats her like his princess his love his sweet love he just there's just no break in how he's treated her all of these years to watch Annette going through this illness has been devastating heartbreaking infuriating it just has been so cruel to her without ever letting up it just kind of kept coming at her and it breaks it breaks your heart my hope for what comes out of this film that's being put together and this this combined effort that everybody's making is that yes that people will donate funds to her Foundation Medical Research Foundation to allow research to go on to find out what causes this disease what we can do to help it and ultimately of course what can we do to eradicate it and that can't be done any other way then then funding and research and I so my hope is that people will see this and and because of their love for a net for so long I think it's a very it's a harsh lesson for people to have but I think when they're confronted with that they'll understand that that's what MS can do what a net would like her fans her friends all the people who love her so much to get from all of this is that we are all one we're all exactly the same we're much more like one another than we are different from one another and that the things that happen to you happened to me the things that happened to me happen to you or can happen and that we we really all do need to help one another and this is her way at this point in time of saying this is help that's needed

Channel: dmullsr

Views: 3,513,159

Rating: 4.7057271 out of 5

Keywords: Here's report from Can

Id: XGV7fyW82lM

Length: 32min 9sec (1929 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2013