Hi! You have reached Charlie and Remy Smith's web page, please take a moment to read about us.
My Name is Tony Fields, and I am the proud father of Remy Smith. I set up this page for my kids so that hopefully people might happen on to it and hear about these two kids from another persons point of view.
To start with Charlie and Remy have two beautiful children, Kyra, and Charlie Jr. These babies are something else, a handful to say the least. They are great kids, but the really sad thing about it is their father has ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and is dying.
Despite stories written by Bryan Woolley, from The Dallas Morning New, May,2 2005, Charlie is not getting better. In my opinion, he's just learning to better cope with his disease. The story "Stronger Every Day", made many people think that Charlie and Remy's problems were solved, that everything was going to be okay. Well, Its not. The fact of the matter is, that everything is not okay, and that the disease, though sometimes masked by slight improvements in motor skills, is still killing him. The story seemed to make out Dr. Harvey as this great guy, talking about his career in the Air Force, being a flight surgeon, and so on. In fact the article told more about the doctors past then it seemed to mention my daughters fight to keep the family together. If the truth be known, the wonderful doctor had all but refused to talk to Charlie, and Remy anymore until he found out that The Dallas Morning News was wanting to interview him, then of course he was quite easy to get a hold of for questions. I thought it very pompus of him to take advantage of the kids for his own professional advancement.
The doctors theory is said to be outside the mainstream of standard diagnosis, and treatement, stating that Charlie's disease, along with many others are just the victims of a bacteriological infection that can be cured or at the least alleviated with massive doses of certain antibiotics. He failed to mention that the massive doses of certain antibiotics end up costing these kids thousands of dollars a month at times, and that the only way to afford them are to go to Mexico and try and find them cheaper on the black market. When that did not work, the doctor simply stated that they just needed to keep trying all these different antibiotics until they found the one that works.
Now, I am far from a stupid man, but it seems to me that this doctor Harvey is just stringing these kids along. He has even on occasion stated, when the kids said that they could not afford the drugs that he requested,(the most expensive ones)that if they expected Charlie to get better, that they would just have to figure out where to get the money from. When is it considered proper professional ethics to place the iminant death of a husband, father, and patient directly on their own shoulders? Can he not just be honest and say that he has no idea what to do next? That the twenty thousand dollars that they spent on drugs last year, that they could have spent on food, was just to satisfy his own folly, to keep their hopes alive?
Yes, the first article that Bryan Woolley wrote about Charlie did net the kids around sixteen thousand, and that was great. There were so many wonderful, gracious people that donated to my kids plight, and I would like to bless each and everyone of them personally if I could. After all they could not have afforded half the medicine that they got, if it were not for those wonderful people. But for Mr. Woolley to suggest that they are doing better, when in reality they are doing worse, is a slap in the face. It is the opinion of a lot of people around here that Mr. Woolley wanted to portray a happy ending for his readers. But what does that do for my kids? My daughter has been crying since the moment that article came out. If he really wanted to help them why did he not write that they could still use some help, and post their address (po box 33, Mullin Tx. 76864. [email protected] ) so that those that wanted to help would actually be able to get a hold of them?
My kids do need help. Remy has to take care of two babies, and a husband by herself, and do it on six hundred dollars a month. Luckily they have figured out a way to get help on some of the drugs, but they still go in the hole by two thousand dollars every month. Right now their phone has been cut back on, because the phone company could not leagally shut off the phone to a household that had a termanally ill patient in it. The power company had to do the same thing.
I feel that my kids have taken just about all that they can take. No one else in the family can help them. Everyone does good to take care of themselves, and it just kills us all. Remy is such a wonderful person. She has the heart of ten women, and the spirit of a warrior. But there comes a time when even a warrior can meet their match. She's lost so much weight that its becoming dangerously unhealthy. But she says to me, "Daddy, I cant stop, they need me." Her family needs her, and she's running herself into the grave, following closely behind her husband. Then some high paid writer has the nerve to tell the whole world that they're doing okay. Did your kids get nothing but chips for supper last night? I didn't think so...You have no idea Mr. Woolly. |
