Page 6 THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22. 1981
State
Bubble boy turns 10 at home
United Press International
HOUSTON — David, the
world s oldest person with untre
ated severe immune deficiency
disease, celebrated his 10th birth
day Monday inside a plastic isola
tor with sterilized presents and a
germ-free cake.
A Texas Children’s Hospital
Baylor College of Medicine
spokeswoman said the fourth-
grader’s family also planned for
him to participate this week in his
first Communion — a Roman
Catholic Church sacrament sig
nifying a passage into adulthood
and responsibility for one’s ac
tions.
The wafer and liquid David
takes in a special Communion
mass at home will be specially tre
ated because David’s body lacks
the normal natural defenses
against disease-causing germs.
“One of the reasons we wanted
David at home with us was to give
him religious training, to share
our faith with him,” his mother
said. “He is our son and this is
where he belongs.”
Hospital officials said David’s
last name and address have been
withheld since birth.
Dr. William T. Shearer said
David previously alternated four
weeks at home and two weeks at
the hospital, but now was being
left at home more to grow up as
normally as possible among his
family and peers even though he’s
inside a three-chambered bubble.
“It is the goal of every hospital
to return the patient to his normal
environment,” Shearer said. “In
continuing to assess David’s care,
we try to consider what is impor
tant to a growing boy.
“We feel family life is very im
portant to David’s growth and de
velopment. At home, David can
better experience the roles of son,
brother and school boy, not just a
patient here in the hospital.
“He also has the benefit of being
with his classmates more often.”
Officials said David, who will
spend one week twice a year at the
hospital so his bubble can be
scrubbed down, has been edu
cated through a mix of tutors and
visiting teachers who bring stu
dents who are David’s peers to his
house.
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David last year began partici
pating in class through a special
telephone hookup that allows him
to hear lectures, make comments
and ask and answer questions.
Officials said there were plans
to enlarge David’s mobile isolator,
in which he travels, to accommo
date recreational trips, including
visits to a friend’s lake house.
David is described by officials as
a good, interested student who
often plays with his sister, Kather
ine, 13, sometimes having to be
cautioned against the roughhouse
“bumping” they like to do through
the isolator’s plastic wall.
Shearer said many treatments
have been considered for David,
but none of his relatives was a
proper match for a bone marrow
transplant. His family has decided
against risky treatments. The
search for a cure continues.
Triple great grandma
marks 115th birthday
United Press International
HOUSTON — Having
another birthday was a piece of
cake for Rosa Deramus.
Sunday she celebrated her
115th birthday. Five genera
tions of her family went to the
party.
Deramus attributes her long
life to hard work and clean liv
ing. A Baptist, Deramus neith
er smokes or drinks alcohol. She
worked until she was 101, pick
ing cotton.
Wearing a violet dress, deco
rated with a corsage and a dou
ble strand of pearls. Deramus
relaxed Sunday, surrounded by
some of her 15 grandchildren,
50 great-grandchildren, five
great-great-grandchildren and
five great-great-great-
grandchildren .
Her family describes her as a
woman with a “strong constitu
tion” who married late in life
and who “tried to see to it that
all her children and all their
children were taken care of,”
Wilma Deramus said.
She has never had a Social
Security card, but has received
“old age” benefits since 1939.
Deramus has a family Bible
which says she was borc
Prince Earl and freed
Hester Earl in 1866. St
born in the Smith ChapelC
munity near Timpsonand!
there until 1979, whe
moved in with relatives.
If that date can bellii
documented, it will male
the world’s longest living
son with an authenticated:
pan. The 1981 GuinnessBo
World Records says the t
documented lifespan is 1 '
a Japanese man who
1980 on his 115th birth
LBJ never took illegal
envelopes, attorney says
MSC
ARTS COMMITT€€
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BOV€R GONZALES
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S€PT. 21 through OCT. 3
A lawyer who has handled the
legal affairs for the family of former
President Lyndon B. Johnson
Monday described an author’s
allegation that Johnson received
envelopes stuffed with cash while
he was vice president as “a scurri
lous lie.”
Donald Thomas, who has hand
led the family’s affairs since 1944,
said, "I don’t think anybody
approached him (Johnson) about
that or ever said anything like that
to him. I still function as the presi
dent of the LBJ Co., and I think I
know where all the assets are and
where they came from. That sort
of thing is unbelievable.”
The Austin attorney, com
mented on the biography, “The
Years of Lyndon Johnson,” in
which author Robert Caro claims
Johnson received cash-stuffed en
velopes as a vice president and
used the power of the presidency
to amass personal wealth.
Caro’s biography also says that,
although Johnson claimed to have
put his business affairs in a blind
trust, he had private phone lines
installed in the Oval Office to con
fer with Texas lawyers administer
ing the trust. Caro said Johnson
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worked several hours a day on
business deals.
Thomas said, "I thought I was
his attorney and I certainly didn’t
have anything like that (phone
lines).”
Robert Hardesty, Johnson’s
assistant from 1965 to 1969, said,
"To the best of my knowlede, no
thing like that existed. I never
heard anything about a private
phone line to Texas.” Hardesty,
who lives in Austin, recently was
named president of Southwest
Texas State University in San
Marcos. Johnson graduated from
Southwest Texas.
George Christian, Johnson’s
press secretary from 1965 to 1969,
also said he was not aware of any
private lines to Texas. "I know he
talked to people a lot in Texas, but
I never heard of a private phone
line. I didn’t know how he hand
led his financial or legal affairs.”
In Milwaukee, Johnson’s for
mer aide, George Reedy said he
never saw his boss accept money
but recalled how Johnson wanted
to abolish poverty both for himself
and the nation’s poor.
“I couldn’t disprove it,” Reedy
said in an interview. “He probably
could be pretty ruthless when it
came to making money.
“He wanted to abolishp?
I le wanted to abolish it foik
and he worked pretty k
that, and he wanted to aloi
for other people.”
Reedy said Johnson rare!
cussed his business dealioe
him.
“He didn’t talk a lot
money, actually very little.!
to me,’ Reedy said. “Youli
realize he was a very sec
man, about everything,*
about things he was doi
might be a little shady.’
Much of what Caro
Reedy said, appears to be)
prose. ” Now a journalism
sor at Marquette Uni
Reedy was director of the i
Majority Policy Committed
Johnson in the 1950s. Hek
Johnson’s special assistant
Johnson became vice pre®
1961 and was Johnson’s pres
retary from March 1964 mt
gust 1965.
“The money is the only
stuff; I wouldn’t knowahoit
Even if it did happen, tl
raises all sorts of question.'
the circumstances— wasit
tical money, did it go into
one’s campaign fund—its
ful lot more complex thani
on the surface,” Reedy said
Asylum hearini
slow for Haitiai
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — The Im
migration and Naturalization Ser
vice should release 25 jailed Hai
tian refugees during extended in
dividual hearings on whether they
will be granted political asylum,
their attorney claims.
“It has been three months since
they left Haiti,” said attorney
James Gray III. “In three months
they have either been in a small
open boat at sea or locked up. It’s
beginning to get to them.”
The hearings on the Haitians,
who were plucked from their boat
by an oil tanker near the mouth of
the Mississippi River, have been
recessed by Judge Ernest Hupp
until Monday.
Ldst week, the judge ruled that
two of the refugees were not
cash in
witha
ad..
admissible to the United
under normal procedures.
Gray said the twowerei
admission because they k
have proper documents t*
U.S. government, buthept
pursue other legal avenues
The attorney said he A:
know how long the hearings
go on, with each refugee
called before Hupp to male
for staying.
“If the asylum hearing
done right, they will tale
time,’ Gray said. “Wed!
than two this week. Thejudj
be gone a week. Then if we A
the following week, that’s«
in three weeks.”
The Haitians, beingbeldi'
Orleans Parish Correction
ter, were being judged indiu
ly at Gray’s request. They I*
ginally been scheduled tof
fore Hupp in groups
four.
Gray said he was askingfe
to release the Haitians W
tody of local communityo^
tions.
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