Television interview helps families find Mowat-Wilson Syndrome
With the approach of Rare Disease Day on February 28th, Al Triunfo, a member of the MWS Foundation Board of Directors, began contacting local news organizations in the Atlanta area in early January. He wanted to see if any of them were planning to run a story related to Rare Disease Day. After numerous emails and phone calls which seemed to go nowhere, Al was finally able to generate interest from the health team at Fox5 Atlanta to run a story about his 7 year old grandson, Logan, who was diagnosed with MWS at 10 months of age. The hope was that Logan’s story would help increase awareness about rare disease in general and specifically about MWS. The Fox5 team filmed footage of Logan and his parents, Jackie and Olin Arnold, at their home in Marietta, Georgia. They also interviewed Dr. Jose Garza, Logan’s pediatric gastroenterologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The end result was a news story that highlighted the emotions and challenges that families face when they know something is wrong but don’t have any answers. It was also a message of hope. Hope because answers can be found and with a diagnosis, there is a huge MWS community ready to share their love and support.
Fox5 Atlanta aired the story on February 27, March 1 and March 4, and it was quickly picked up by several other Fox stations around the country. The story also spread on Facebook and websites like LittleThings, VonVon, Simple Reminders, and Adalia Rose. Additionally, a handful of celebrities, including Real Housewives of the OC, Tamra Judge, shared it on their personal Facebook pages. The video has over 50K views in its full and shortened versions. The awareness is already impacting our MWS community tremendously. There have been 5 situations of families seeing the story and contacting us with hopes of a potential diagnosis that was previously unrecognized by themselves or physicians.
The Foundation wants to thank the Medical Team at Fox5 Atlanta, Dr. Garza and of course, the Arnold family. We are so proud of Jackie and Olin for their willingness to share their personal story so that others might find answers and support.