Brooke Landau to share remarkable medical survival story at 'Go Red' luncheonBy MELODY PARKER, Courier Arts / Special Sections Editor
CEDAR FALLS --- There's probably not a day in Brooke Landau's busy life that she doesn't some chronic pain.
No big deal.
At least she's alive.
Having survived congenital heart disease and open heart surgery as an infant, Landau grew up happy, healthy and driven. At 33, she's a producer for E! TV's "Hollywood True Story" and an on-air personality at ESPN, interviewing sports figures like Troy Aikman and Eli Manning. She's worked as a broadcast journalist, fashion model and corporate manager.
Landau also spent 7 1/2 years fighting for her life in a battle with Lyme disease. It robbed her of vision, hearing and short-term memory. Severe arthritis and muscle burning was excruciating, and she lost the ability to walk. She underwent seven spinal taps and an experimental cure that saved her life but cost her doctor his medical license.
She will share her story of remarkable medical survival and thoughts on managing health and wellness at Friday's "Go Red for Women" luncheon and silent auction at Pipac Centre on the Lake in Cedar Falls. The event, presented nationally by Macy's and Pfizer and locally by Allen Hospital and Pfizer, is meant to draw attention to heart disease prevention in women.
The American Heart Association invested more than $348 million in fiscal year 2002-03 for research, professional and public education, and advocacy.
"Heart disease and stroke claim more women's lives each year than the next seven causes of death combined, and nearly twice as many as all forms of cancer," says Nancy Weber, vice president of patient care service for Covenant Medical Center and chair of the event. "The luncheon will provide a guide to help women take action against heart disease and make heart disease prevention a part of their life, because your heart is your life."
Landau agrees. "I've had congenital heart disease all my life and I tell people to take whatever preventative measures they can for heart health. Our symptoms of heart attack and stroke are different from men. We don't realize the daily stress we have can adds to our risk factors."
In spite of her history with heart disease, she never worried about her health. Then she work up one morning in 1995 unable to move. Doctors gave her 48 hours to live if she didn't undergo a spinal tap. She was diagnosed with Lyme disease and spinal meningitis.
"I had been bitten by a deer tick and unknowingly carried this disease for some time before I woke up with spinal meningitis. I didn't walk again for 1 1/2 years," she recalls. She writhed in pain, swallowed 27 pills a day and at 6-feet-tall, weighed 120 pounds. After conventional treatment failed, Landau decided to undergo a risky and potentially deadly procedure.
A tube was inserted into her heart, connected to a pump fastened around her waist. Antibiotics were pumped into her heart for 2 1/2 months before she climbed into a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for 30 days.
"The theory was by oxygenating my tissues, medication would more effectively permeate my body. At the end of 30 days, my hearing and vision returned, my memory returned and the pain in my joints was gone. It cured me," Landau maintains.
Some chronic pain remains, but she has her life back and tests free of Lyme Disease.
Her doctor lost his license because the procedure isn't approved by the FDA. "It's very sad because thousands of people are sick with Lyme Disease who could be helped. I've become an advocate for reform because this disease is growing so fast," she says.
Landau also founded the Children's Alliance Network in 1998. She organizes models and makeup artists to do makeovers on sick children to raise their self-esteem.
Landau is proud that she's a fighter. "People ask me all the time, how could you handle being sick for more than seven years and in constant pain and still have a life? I'm always shocked by the question. I figured it's the only choice. You have to persevere."
Melody Parker can be reached at 291-1429 or [email protected]
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