I suspect a House-like tv series on this man pretty soon, à la Lie to Me with Ekman.

As a disease detective at the NIH, William A. Gahl unravels the cause of illnesses that have stumped other doctors

William A. Gahl:

Rare diseases as individual diseases are really uncommon, but as a group they are not. I would venture to say that practically everybody in the country either has someone in the extended family or a friend who has a rare disease.

I believe a society is measured and judged by how it treats its least fortunate. Patients with rare diseases are abandoned people. They’re abandoned by the medical profession, and they’re often isolated by their relatives and friends because they can’t put a name to their disease. Many of them will go into their doctors’ offices and even their doctors will not want to see them, because without a diagnosis the physician feels very uncomfortable and inadequate.

Good man.

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